THE HYPNOTIC METER OF THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

Lord Alfred Tennyson, composer of beautifully melodic verse during the Victorian Age, used meter to create for the reader a musical milieu. In his 1854 poem The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson uses dactylic meter (stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables) to slip the reader into a hypnotic state and to convey to the reader the futility of the charge

The Performance of Literate Practices: Rhetoric, Writing, and Stand-up Comedy

An analysis of a comedian’s composition of comedy routines leads to valuable implications about the performative aspects of revision

First-year cadets’ conceptions of general education writing at a senior military college

This study investigates conceptions first-year cadets at a U.S. senior military college bring to general education writing courses, often termed first-year composition (FYC). Using a mixed methods research design, we surveyed over 700 cadets and conducted semi-structured in-person interviews with four first-year cadets. Our data suggest cadets stress orality, credibility, and clarity when writing for FYC. These conceptions are largely influenced by the cadet’s interest and immersion in the Army yet are also strongly influenced by their brief introduction to college-level writing within their required FYC class. We conclude by arguing for two specific avenues of future research into gleaning students’ conceptions of courses, specifically arguing for exploring how conceptions all students bring to the classroom impact important moments of transfer and engaging all students and students’ conceptions in course design.&nbsp

More Hawk, Less Seagull: The Importance of Community-Led SoTL Research

This systematic reflection essay blends research and community engagement with Margaret Kovach’s keynote address at the 2022 conference of the International Society of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and with the coauthors’ autoethnographic accounts reflecting on their challenges across Australia and the US in conducting ethically responsible SoTL scholarship. The essay is a call for engagement with community-led projects drawing on Neil Drew’s (2006) metaphor of a seagull, who flies in, takes what it wants, and leaves a mess behind. Two stories provided by the co-authors invite further discussion into the hopeful challenges of conducting community-led SoTL research. Click here to read the corresponding ISSOTL blog post.

Redesigning a sustainable English capstone course through a virtual student-faculty partnership

This collaborative essay between undergraduate students and a faculty member illustrates the importance of partnerships between students and faculty when redesigning courses. We ground this partnering in Students as Partner (SaP) praxis. SaP reinvigorates the faculty and student relationship as one in which both students and faculty serve as active agents in curriculum development, redesign, and assessment. In this essay, we introduce our partnership, locally ground our partnership, and highlight how we redesigned a sustainable English Department capstone course to include a cumulative, integrative assignment. Our partnership was not designed to lead to a quantifiable direct output (i.e., a publication or even a redesigned class); instead, our goal was to build community, to support each other, to learn, to write for ourselves and each other. We conclude by offering brief qualitative data on the effectiveness of our redesign efforts and how our approach may work as a model for redesigning courses in different contexts/institutions

Effects of Ski Slopes on Appalachian Headwater Streams

Mountain ecosystems are increasingly stressed by human activities. Ski resorts and other winter recreation areas (WRAs) are popular in montane regions including the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Large-scale land clearing and water extraction associated with WRAs may alter stream physicochemical attributes, biota and ultimately function. I examined impacts of four WRAs on physicochemical parameters and invertebrates in eight streams in the mountains of North Carolina. I measured physicochemical parameters monthly, sampled invertebrates seasonally in 2011 and measured seasonal nutrient concentrations. Streams draining WRA-impacted catchments exhibited significantly elevated specific conductance and NO3- relative to control streams. Invertebrate data revealed lower total densities at all but one of the impacted streams (F = 42.6, p = 0.03) and higher total diversity at control streams (F = 5.1, p = 0.03). EPT H’ and total richness were positively correlated with open riparian land use. Water chemistry and habitat parameters exhibited more consistent responses to WRAs than did invertebrates. Increases in some invertebrate metrics suggest that headwater stream responses to land use changes may be buffered by adjoining forested reaches or catchments. The results of my study indicate that altered land use associated with WRAs may alter headwater stream communities and possibly ecosystem function

Ultrasound-Guided Three-In-One Nerve Block for Femur Fractures

Femur fractures typically affect elderly patients with multiple co-morbidities. Pain control can be difficult, requiring intensive nursing and physician care as elderly patients may manifest cardiovascular and respiratory complications from opiate administration. Ultrasound (US)-guided three-in-one (3-in-1) femoral nerve block (FNB) is an option for pain management in patients with femur fractures, as it provides regional anesthesia to the femoral, obturator and lateral cutaneous nerves. Our goal is to provide medical education regarding the use of US-guided 3-in-1FNB as a rapid and easy procedure that may provide optimal patient care in patients with femur fractures