English Department News

           

April 19, 2000

         

Volume 2, No. 19




April 17-21

 

Summer/Fall term Advising open for Seniors, Graduate Students, and Priority Students (Honors, Disabilities, Co-Op, Athletes)

April 19

 

Prentice Hall English Textbook Display, HC 9096, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

April 19

 

Professorial Faculty meeting, HC 3104, 3:10 p.m.; Graduate Faculty meeting, immediately following

April 19

 

English Center Writing Lab: Semi-Colons and Colons, HC 3183, 8:00 p.m.

April 21-27

 

Summer/Fall term telephone or web Registration open for Seniors, and Graduate Students only (note: open three days before Priority students)

April 24

 

Littleton-Franklin Lectures, Helen Thomas, Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, 4:00 p.m.

April 24-27

 

Summer/Fall term telephone or web Registration open for Seniors, Graduate Students, and Priority Students (Honors, Disabilities, Co-Op, Athletes)

April 24-28

 

Summer/Fall term Advising open for Juniors

April 25

 

Planning and Priorities Committee meeting, HC 9030D, 3:30 p.m.

April 25

 

English Center Workshop: Using Secondary Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism, HC 3183, 5:10 p.m.

April 26

 

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, HC 9030D, 1:00 p.m.

April 26

 

Marianne Moates, "Inspiration for Genius: Truman Capote's Life in Alabama," Special Collections Department, R.B.D. Library, 3:00 p.m.

April 26

 

English Center Writing Lab: Wordy Structures and Active/Passive Voice, HC 3183, 8:00 p.m.

April 28-May 4

 

Summer/Fall term telephone or web Registration open for Juniors

April 28

 

Midterm

May 1

 

English Hour, HC 3104, 4:00 p.m.

May 1-5

 

Summer/Fall term Advising open for Sophomores

May 3

 

Meeting for Graduate Students in English, HC 3104, 4:00 p.m.

May 3

 

English Center Writing Lab: Hyphens, Dashes, and Titles, HC 3183, 8:00 p.m.

May 5

 

Benson Lecture and Undergraduate Awards Ceremony, Susan D. Gubar, 213 Foy Union, 3:00 p.m.

May 5-11

 

Summer/Fall term telephone or web Registration open for Sophomores

May 8-12

 

Summer/Fall term Advising open for Freshmen

May 9

 

English Center Workshop: Coherence in Paragraphs and Beyond, HC 3183, 5:10 p.m.

May 10

 

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, HC 9030D, 1:00 p.m.

May 10

 

English Center Writing Lab: Modifier Placement and Subordination, Dashes, and Titles, HC 3183, 8:00 p.m.

May 15

 

English Hour, HC 3203, 3:00 p.m.

May 12-18

 

Summer/Fall term telephone or web Registration open for Freshmen

May 17

 

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, HC 9030D, 1:00 p.m.

May 17

 

English Center Writing Lab: Punctuation with Quoted Material, Dashes, and Titles, HC 3183, 8:00 p.m.

May 18

 

Littleton-Franklin Lectures, William Phillips, Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, 4:00 p.m.

May 22

 

English Hour, "Teaching Twentieth-century Fiction in Great Books II," HC 3104, 4:00 p.m.

May 23

 

English Center Workshop: Revising and Proofreading, HC 3183, 5:10 p.m.

May 24

 

English Center Writing Lab: Mixed Menu, HC 3183, 8:00 p.m.

May 29

 

Memorial Day Holiday for students, staff, and faculty

May 30

 

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, HC 9030D, 1:00 p.m.

May 31

 

Annual Reception for English Graduate Students, Pebble Hill, 4:00-7:00 p.m.

June 1

 

Classes end

June 2

 

Dead Day

June 3, 5-8

 

Final Exams

June 10

 

Graduation


Inspiration for Genius: Truman Capote's Life in Alabama

Marianne Moates, writer and researcher, will provide a lively glimpse into Monroeville, Alabama, home town of Truman Capote during his boyhood years. The lecture will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26, 2000 in the Special Collections Department on the ground floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.
Through numerous interviews and personal experiences with Capote's relatives, neighbors, and environs, Moates provides an insightful look at the place and time that helped shape Capote's literary genius. She will tell of Capote's relatives, the Faulks and Carters, who raised him when his mother left to pursue a career in New York City.
Capote's closest friends included his cousin, Jennings Faulk Carter, and his next-door neighbor, a tomboyish girl named Nelle Harper Lee. They grew up in the small, rural south Alabama town during the Depression era. These humble, small town beginnings where Capote played and learned are in stark contrast to the international jet-set lifestyle for which he was later known. Yet, it is from his lasting impressions of the town, its people, and his childhood experiences that he created some of his most beloved works.
Moates discusses how Capote's relationships with relatives and friends in Monroeville inspired such works as The Thanksgiving Visitor, A Christmas Memory, and The Grass Harp
The program is presented in cooperation with the speakers' bureau for the Alabama Humanities Foundation. A reception will follow the lecture.

Meeting with Graduate Students Scheduled

Dennis Rygiel and Dave Haney will meet with graduate students on Wednesday, May 3, 2000 at 4:00 p.m. in HC 3104 to discuss GTA funding and other issues pertaining to the semester transition as well as strategic planning for the department.

Technical and Professional Communication in Area Corporations

The English Department will host its seventh annual session on Technical and Professional Communication in Area Corportations on Monday, May 8th, at Pebble Hill, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
This year's speakers are Adam Crutchfield (B.A., English, Spring 1999), who is a technical writer with HelpWrite, Inc, in Atlanta, and Sarah Hamilton (B.A., English, Fall 1999), who is a departmental assistant with CNN Interactive Public Relations, in Atlanta.
They will discuss their first several months on the job as technical and professional communicators. Refreshments will be served.

English Softball Team Takes Break

The English Department's softball team does not have a game on Friday, April 21st; the team will next play a scheduled game on Friday, April 28th.

Question of the Week

For teachers uneasy about teaching on the semester system for the first time (or after a long time on the quarter system), what useful advice can you give to relieve their anxiety? If you've taught recently on the semester system, please contribute by posting your helpful comments on the English Channel Forum. Likewise, if you have questions about teaching on the semester system, post your questions on the Forum. Other teachers may have the same question. Other teachers may also have an answer for you.
If you have a question for "Question of the Week," please send it to
George Crandell.


Mary Stephens Diamond and Wiebke Kuhn recently made presentations at the Instructional Technology Conference of the Faculty Development Consortium. Mary discussed collaboration in putting the English Center web site together and using the web site for tutoring purposes in a presentation entitled "The Auburn University English Center: A Web Site Where Student and Faculty Come Together."
Wiebke presented "Some Work, Some Play: Composing Web Sites in Freshman Composition." She discussed a class project for English Composition I (ENGL 0110) in which her students composed, designed, and published web sites, with all the lessons that can be learned from such an experiment.
Kelly Gerald presented a paper, "Mary Flannery Tells a Joke: The Visual Genesis of O'Connor's Comic Narratives" at The Society for the Study of Southern Literature 2000 Conference on April 8, 2000 in Orlando, Florida. On April 17, 2000, at the invitation of the Department of English, University of South Alabama (Mobile), Kelly gave a lecture to faculty and students on the subject of Flannery O'Connor and visual culture.
Kimberly Pruett was elected Vice President of the Graduate Student Council. She also presented her paper "'That thow be understonde, God I biseche': The Problem of Interpretation in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde" at the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium at the University of the South on April 1, 2000.

If you would like to include an item in the "Personal Notes" section of The English Channel, please submit your note to George Crandell.


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