How many English honor students does it take...?

To Reflect on Another Year of Learning?

2011-05-18T13:38:00.002-04:00

It's May! -- exams have been taken, final essays have been written, and grades have been turned in by students and faculty. It's time to think about what another year of learning has added to our brains, and about the people we'd like to thank for their contributions to our success.

First off, I'd like to thank my students and their families for choosing The College of New Jersey as their "learning destination" -- not to be confused with a vacation destination. We're proud of the education we offer, and we are pleased that you selected TCNJ.

Next, I would like to thank the residents of New Jersey for continuing to support public education for young (and not-so-young) New Jerseyans. Many many middle class families throughout the US would have never achieved economic stability without our American commitment to public education. I myself would not enjoy a nation in which only those families who could afford private schools were able to obtain degrees for their children.

Before we all get too caught up in summer, let's think about what this academic year has brought us.

To Defend 'The Fountainhead'?

2011-04-06T21:43:00.005-04:00

I first read The Fountainhead the summer before entering The College of New Jersey. At the time, my rejection from Princeton was still a fairly fresh wound. Little did I know, the novel was incredibly relevant to my situation and would set the tone for my college career.

Political implications aside, the chief message of the novel is the idea of responsibility to oneself. To me it's an uplifting message: You have a responsibility to achieve to your highest ability. This should be your guiding virtue. No one has any right to you or your work, except you. As the hero, Howard Roark, says, "I do not recognize anyone's right to a minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine." Do not depend on the greatness of others to define your own work because you have the capacity to create. In order to love and respect others, you need to be able to first respect yourself. This prerequisite of love,  is described in the novel: " 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I'. "

Howard Roark refuses to remain tethered to the work of his predecessors, to cower in the shadows of what is defined as greatness and thereby admit automatic inferiority. He is determined to forge his own path. Now, as a graduating senior, I can't think of a more empowering sentiment, as my peers and I embark on what's next.

The Fountainhead has the potential to resonate with anyone with an individual dream who is willing to fight for it. It is my hope that my classmates and I follow Roark's example in our careers:

“But you see, I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards — and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.”

-Katie Brenzel

Todd Petty contributed to this blog post

To Argue With Their Sponsor About Literature?

2011-04-05T13:20:00.008-04:00

So, here I am, Felicia Steele, earnest Sigma Tau Delta sponsor, proud bearer of my five year anniversary letter from the national organization, embroiled in a dispute about literary merit with my chapter's members. Each year our chapter has a marathon reading at the end of the spring semester, partially to celebrate the season, but mostly to come together around one text and the long-lost art of social reading. The origins of this custom are fuzzy--most people on campus credit a marathon reading of Homer's Odyssey that took place in 2003 or 2004, but I, of course, give myself credit for initiating the custom, since I insisted on reading Beowulf from "Hwaet" to "lofgeornost" (in Modern English, of course) in April of 2002, at the end of my first year at The College of New Jersey. Few remember the event, but I recall it fondly, especially since I believe it might get the prize for the shortest marathon reading ever. In the early days, marathon readings were very faculty-driven: my Beowulf, The Odyssey, Joyce's Ulysses in honor of the retirement of beloved professor Lee Harrod, Song of Myself in honor of the 150th anniversary of its publication (which fortuitously corresponded with our college's Sesquicentennial), Milton's Paradise Lost (coordinated by a senior seminar on the book).

But last year we decided to open the competition up to student preference. As a result, I had to face one of my demons: books I don't like. It started with Catcher in the Rye. I acknowledge Salinger's importance to our culture and recognize that it would have been appropriate to read his most famous and influential book right after his demise. But I really hate Holden Caulfield. I wanted us to read Chris Abani, since I was so impressed with the talk he gave at last year's convention. Nonetheless, I was happy to read the birthday party episode from The Lord of the Rings in my West Country accent. Yet this year...this year. We have reached a bridge too far my friends--what do I do now? The students have selected Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead as one of the three candidates in the penny wars they're conducting to choose the book (and to support the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen). Ayn Rand's ideological rant faces up against Sense and Sensibility and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I've been ranting and raving, scowling and snarling about this choice for over a month now, but I finally decided I needed to lay out my reasons against this book. The penny war is a contest, so I can be overruled, and I refuse to be the principal donor in the war, but I wanted my chapter members know why I object so viscerally to this novel, especially since I pride myself as a champion of academic freedom. And I invite my opponents to provide their reasons for the texts in question. Thus, patient reader, allow me to put Rand's The Fountainhead on trial.

My charges are thus: one count of bad prose, one count of bad economics, and one count of irredeemable misogyny. My evidence follows.

First, I'm working from Google books, so I do not have a page number for this Penguin edition. My apologies:

"Keating looked at the sketch. He had known for a long time that Howard Roark had been chosen to build the Enright House. He had seen a few mentions of Roark's name in the papers; not much, all of it to be summed up only as 'some young architect chosen by Mr. Enright for some reason, probably an interesting young architect.' The caption under the drawing announced that the construction of the project was to begin at once. Well, thought Keating, and dropped the paper, so what? The paper fell beside the black and scarlet book. He looked at both. He felt dimly as if Lois Cook were his defense against Howard Roark."

My evidence from this one paragraph suggests that Rand 1) overuses pronominal constructions making it difficult to follow the logic of her narration, 2) overuses past perfect constructions so that the text exists in a time vacuum, 3) lacks a narrative perspective. I consider all three of these traits to be sins of prose fiction and poison to an extended live reading.

Second charge: bad economics. Take this one quotation, admittedly with little context:

"He's only a common worker, she thought, a hired man doing a convict's labor."

The suggestion of a 20th century author that labor is something appropriate only for convicts is abhorrent to me--I cannot suffer to hear this kind of thing.

Third (and damning) charge: irredeemable misogyny. I somehow doubt that the students who have not yet read The Fountainhead know that it includes, as one of the actions of its nearly divine hero, the architect Roark, one of the most appalling rape fantasy scenes in all literature. I won't quote the rape itself, but from its aftermath--from what it does to the character of Dominique.

"She could accept, thought Dominique, and come to forget in time everything that had happened to her, save one memory: that she had found pleasure in the thing which had happened, that he had known it, and more: that he had known it before he came to her and that he would not have come but for that knowledge. She had not givene him the one answer that would have saved her: an answer of simple revulsion--she had found joy in her revulsion, in her terror and in his strength. That was the degradation she had wanted and she hated him for it."

Now, as many of my students know, I'm no shrinking violet, and have taught some graphic, quite horrifying literature in my classes. I think most fondly of Last Exit to Brooklyn, which one of my students thought was too scandalous for a woman to read while pregnant, as I was when I taught the book. I'm not queasy about violence. But I simply am horrified by the idea that my students will sit around a lounge, many of them in their last year of college, after having participated in presentation and event after presentation that says that "No means no," that "No woman deserves or asks to be raped," and have to listen to this indictment of female sexuality. I confer the matter to the jury, respectfully. May you vote with your spare change and pennies. --Felicia Steele

To Compete In A Scrabble Tournament?

2011-03-21T23:09:00.005-04:00

Last Wednesday, word lovers joined in Bliss Hall Lounge for the first Sigma Tau Delta Scrabble Tournament at TCNJ. Sixteen players competed in the tournament, hoping to win prizes including TCNJ library-approved mugs, Sigma Tau Delta swag, and Amazon gift cards.

The tournament used a single-elimination bracket.

Eric and Frank battle it out in the first round.

Lou contemplates his next move while Becca prepares to put down a word.

Ten players anxiously await the end of the first round, hoping they will advance in the tournament and gain the fame and glory they so crave.

Emily watches as Jenna plays another made-up word.

The tournament was set up so that no matter when a player was eliminated, he/she would receive a prize. This element of the tournament was important to the two Sigma Tau Delta students who organizes the tournament, seniors Enrico Bruno and Todd Petty. They wanted to make sure that each player left the tournament with a prize, even if they were eliminated in the first round.

Eight players made it to the second round, four advanced to the semi-finals, and finally Frank and Alexa played in the final match.

Frank and Zach begin the game that will determine who will make it to the final match.

Alexa organizes her letters while Kristen eyes her tiles suspiciously.

Congratulations to Alexa for winning the tournament and taking home the grand prize of a $30 giftcard to Amazon.com.

And thank you to all sixteen players who competed in the tournament!

To Read Dr. Seuss Books?

2011-03-11T22:37:00.007-05:00

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our Dr. Seuss Day on Wednesday, March 2nd. Below are some pictures from the event. Special thanks to our member Cynthia, who organized the event and brought ample Dr. Seuss books for us to select and read!

The wonderful selection of books we could read.

Some of our audience members.

We can't forget to mention the delicious cake!

Kim reading Daisy Head Maize.

To Celebrate Read Across America Day?

2011-02-28T20:19:00.002-05:00

Remember having fun with these?

If you are reading a book for class, which seems to grow extra pages the longer you read it, you might realize it’s time for a break. But you’re still a book-loving English major (minor, etc) and you don’t quite want to move away from your books.

Let me introduce you to Dr. Seuss Day on March 2nd. Clearly, an event all fans of the printed word would be interested in. Who doesn’t remember those early years when fish were red or blue, one or two? Look fondly back on the days when green eggs and ham didn’t refer to a bad dinner pick from our Eickhoff dining hall.

Come join us from 1-3 in Bliss Lounge. Why? Because we’re fellow adults who still love hearing Dr. Seuss. And eating cake. Did I mention the Dr. Seuss themed cake that will be available for free? Well let me now: there will be a Dr. Seuss themed cake that will be available for free. At 1:30 and 2:30 we will have marathon readings. If you want to read, go stop by and sign up; if you don’t, then sit back and have a story read to you for once in way too long.
At the end, don’t forget to sign the guest list and get your certificate e-mailed to you!

Check out our Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198371190191289

Hope to see you there! Wed March 2nd. Bliss Lounge. 1pm-3pm. Cake and other goodies from 1pm-3pm. Marathon Readings 1:30 and 2:30.

-Cynthia

To Learn Teenage as a Second Language?

2011-02-25T17:15:00.003-05:00

As English majors, we are all required to take at least one linguistics course, but even learning about code-switching and vernacular was unable to prepare me for what I stumbled upon while surfing the Internet...a new book entitled, Teenage as a Second Language: A Parent's Guide to Becoming Bilingual.

It wasn't long ago that I was part of the teenage generation that made words like whatever and fine into dangerous verbal daggers. Whenever I wielded one of these words my parents instinctively knew I meant business and adolescence was rearing its ugly head.

I remember getting my first e-mail address, along with most of my friends, in 1999 when I was in fourth grade. My friends and I quickly integrated computer slang into our own e-mails and instant messages, asking each other wu? and telling each other we'll brb or we've gtg. And who can forget being warned about instant messages from strangers requesting our A/S/L?

But computer language is one thing--verbal speech is another scenario entirely. Would you consider "teenage" to be a separate language? Any thoughts?

-Kristen

To Discuss Pride and Prejudice?

2011-02-24T16:07:00.004-05:00

Our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta recently met for another book club meeting. This time around we discussed the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice.

Sigma Tau Delta advisor Professor Steinberg began the meeting with a reference to an article she had recently read. The article stated that the American education system failed to teach one important lesson to teens: how to pick a suitable marriage partner. Professor Steinberg asked, is this one of the functions of teaching Pride and Prejudice?

Other topics of conversation included the original title of the novel (First Impressions), Austen's prose, and social norms in Austen's England, especially regarding marriage and the expansive age gap common in marriages at the time. The role of women in the novel was discussed at length, primarily the binary of the intelligent, composed female and the frivolous, rash female so common in Jane Austen novels.

One student questioned the recent phenomenon of infusing Austen's novels with monsters; does Pride and Prejudice and Zombies bring Austen's work to a wider audience, or is having the Bennett sisters protect a ball from a zombie attack sacrilegious?

If you weren't able to attend the meeting, sound off in the comment section!

To Host A Scrabble Tournament?

2011-02-09T14:13:00.003-05:00

This year our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta will be hosting its first campus-wide Scrabble tournament.

We got the idea while in St. Louis during last year's convention. After spending the better part of our days attending each others panels and wandering the streets of St. Louis, we would often end our nights with friendly games of Scrabble. This attracted a lot of attention, both from members of Sigma Tau Delta as well as from various passerby in the hotel. It gave us the idea that we could possibly plan an event that would get not only members of Sigma Tau Delta and the English department involved, but professors and students from other disciplines as well.

The tournament will be held on March 16th, from approximately 1:00pm-4:00pm in the main lounge of Bliss Hall - the nexus of all things literary at The College of New Jersey. Participants will be randomly paired in brackets. Games will be timed (1 hour long) to ensure that the pace of the tournament is fair. We are currently in the process of selecting prizes, although there will be a prize for every participant. Although we are still in the planning process, we have already generated a considerable buzz on campus.

Please email us at enghonor@gmail.com if you are interested in joining!

To Teach in a Foreign Country?

2011-02-09T13:03:00.004-05:00

YES. Do it. If you have the opportunity, it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I have been in Rome, Italy since the beginning of January. TCNJ has a unique program that allows Education majors to complete half of their student teaching overseas and I immediately jumped at the opportunity.

A long and arduous application process many months later and… here I am! A true Roman… kind of. There is nothing like spending two months in a foreign country to make you realize how hard communication can be when you don’t speak the same language as most people around you, and need to communicate using hand gestures that you silently pray are not rude or obscene.

My student teaching placement is in a 3^rd grade classroom at an American school here in Rome, and even if you feel as though you have experienced diversity within a classroom, you probably haven’t seen what I have. There are 22 children in my class, only half of which are native to Italy. The remaining half comes from the United States, Egypt, Israel, India, and China. Only the English language is permitted within the classroom because some of the children are still learning it, but the languages native to the various students are Italian, English, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, and Hindi. On my third day in the classroom, it was a child’s birthday and I listened to the “Happy Birthday” song in English, Italian, Arabic, French, Hebrew, Spanish, and Chinese. It was one of those eye-opening experiences that gave me goosebumps and made me realize just how lucky I am to be able to experience all of this.

While the variation of English language skills in the classroom ranges from late kindergarten to 11^th grade, I have not yet found teaching the children in English to be that challenging. There are a handful of students who leave the classroom daily for ELL, and I have to be careful not to talk too quickly, but the children are all wonderful and have a passion for learning that you don’t really get to see that often. Occasionally, they will have one of those moments where they slap their hand to their forehead and go, “Ohh…uhhh… ummm, Miss Gargiulo, what is the word for ‘[insert Italian word here]?” or “Miss Gargiulo, how do you say [insert Italian word here] ?” When this happens, I try to exercise the little bit of Italian I know or ask one of the students around us, who usually seem to know the answer.

To say the least, it has been an adventure and an experience that I know I will never forget. I will be sad to go but will be walking away with a newfound appreciation for those children who are bi- or tri-lingual and have acquired more language skills in their lifetime than I could ever hope to obtain.

-Katie G.

To Nominate?

2011-02-07T23:16:00.006-05:00

In preparation for what is likely to be a very heated penny war, Professor Steinberg is accepting nominations for Sigma Tau Delta's annual 24-hour Marathon Reading. The first ten nominations will enter the competition. Thus far, we have received three nominations:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling

Unhappy with the selection so far? Nominate your choice! Stop by Professor Steinberg's office in Bliss 205 with $5 to propose your pick!

To Raise Money for The American Cancer Society?

2011-02-04T14:48:00.004-05:00

This year, we are proud to announce that Sigma Tau Delta will have its very own Relay For Life team. Each year for the past several years at The College of New Jersey, an organization called Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) has organized this event, raising money for The American Cancer Society. Relay For Life will be held at The College of New Jersey from Friday, April 1st until Saturday, April 2nd.

If you would like to sign up for our team and walk with us (the registration fee is $10), please go to the event's homepage at the following link: TCNJ Relay For Life Registration. Once you get to the website, click on "Join a Team" and select "Sigma Tau Delta" from the drop-down menu. Each member who raises at least $50 will also receive a free t-shirt!

Check out our team page, and please donate to our team.

Our goal as an organization is to raise at least $1000! After only two days, we are already 12% towards our goal. With the event 56 days away, we can possibly double or triple our donation to The American Cancer Society!

To Meet Online?

2011-02-02T13:50:00.006-05:00

Due to today's inclement weather, our first Sigma Tau Delta meeting of the Spring 2011 semester will take place in the "logged chat" section on SOCS. Our president, Todd, sent out the following message to members this afternoon:

Because of cold, wet, icy and generally treacherous weather today, we have decided to not meet on campus. Instead, we will hold our meeting in the "logged chat" room on SOCS at 4:30 today. You can join us in ENGL HONR in SOCS. Then click the "logged chat" tab on the lefthand side toolbar.

If you can make it please join us as this is our first meeting of the semester and we will be talking about lots of fun and interesting things like: an upcoming Applebee's fundraiser, scrabble tournament, the conference in Pittsburgh, etc. However, if you cannot make the meeting, the logged chat will record what has been said so that you can read it at your leisure. Take care and I look forward to meeting with you all in cyberspace!

To Trade Books?

2011-01-25T10:18:00.007-05:00

Photo courtesy of bookmooch.com

Have you ever heard of a swap meet? Have you ever heard of a swap meet for books?

I just learned about a new website, called BookMooch where people can trade books that they don't want anymore for books that they do want, which another user has posted. Apparently the website is free to sign up for, and all a person needs to pay for is shipping.

How does the website work? People can search for books in a variety of ways: by genre, by recently added, by country (yes! the website is International), by language, by title/author, by topic, etc. Then, once a person finds a book they want, they can swap a book of their own with that user.

Skeptical? Intrigued? Would you be willing to swap your books for "new" ones?

~Kristen

To e-read?

2011-01-02T14:52:00.006-05:00

This Christmas I was turned into a hypocrite.

Since the advent of the e-reader, I've been a fierce opponent. Nothing compares to holding a book; it's weight, it's smell, it's texture. I demonstrate my love for literature by demolishing books. I fold pages, highlight, write myself notes, write "witty" remarks that I hope someone someday sees. And the Kindle? The iPad? The Nook? Where is the new book smell? It's replaced by cold, clean, computer screens. Sure, it's "green," but in this case, I shut out the pleas of the sprouting resident Loraxes and acquire books like an addiction. Sorry, trees.

Materialism and book sniffing aside, the e-readers have always frightened me as an aspiring writer. What does this new technology mean for writers? Is it good or bad? What will happen to bookstores? The only bookstore in my town, an Annie's Book Stop, recently went out of business. I'm devastated. Is this just a prelude of what's to come? Will there be a time when bookstores will be completely extinct?

I received a Kindle for Christmas.

Though I am still terrified for the future of bookstores, though I prefer print above all technological advances, I'm afraid I've been won over. Here's how I am choosing to justify myself: I am not replacing my beloved books. The Kindle is merely allowing me to mobilize my addiction. I can be a nerd everywhere and instantly, download the classics for free (it is unbelievable how many books are free), listen to a book while I'm driving, play electronic Scrabble and read the newspaper on a train. I can even write notes and highlight passages.

I will still buy print books. There are certain authors' work of which I need the physical representation. I don't foresee that ever changing. It's my perhaps naive hope that there are enough people who share my "archaic" need for paper. Hopefully they will be enough to save bookstores (and newspapers for that matter). I'm hoping that the e-reader will remain a supplement to print, rather than render it obsolete. Again, I know it's naive. For the time being, however, I'm enjoying the coexistence of the two.

-Katie Brenzel

To Read Literature in New Ways?

2010-12-04T18:47:00.004-05:00

I couldn't resist blogging about this New York Times article about the Victorian Books project that exploited Google's scanned corpus of Victorian literature. The project searched for key words characteristic of Victorian literature and attempts to draw conclusions about the nature of the Victorian mindset as exemplified in that literature.

Although the method doesn't replace good old-fashioned reading, rereading, and close-reading, it does suggest that the digital age does hold the possibility of allowing new insights into literature. I would really like our chapter to think about how the digital revolution has changed the way we read, not just what we read (blogs, websites, social networking sites).

--Felicia Steele

To Convince Others of the Value of Literature?

2010-12-02T12:30:00.004-05:00

As the American economy seems to be in free-fall to an unimaginable bottom, I ask myself if what I am doing has any sort of real world value. If money is tight, I reason, why would anyone pay anything for the chance to read great literary works, or to argue on paper about what literature means to us, or to discuss literary themes with others? Should Americans today focus only on business concerns, and is literature or language a luxury with which no one can afford to concern themselves?

Of course, I both hope that literature is still of value, and fear that these sentiments are shared by few. We inheritors of the Western tradition "own" many of the world's literary gems -- come to think of it, we humans taken collectively own all of the world's literary gems. We need not ever experience war ourselves, but Homer's Iliad or Crane's Red Badge of Courage still have the power to teach us. We may never ourselves be the victim of genocide, but the Diary of Anne Frank moves us. We need never fall in love to enjoy Austen's Pride and Prejudice. So, keep reading, and keep believing in the value of literature.

To Write those End-of-Term Essays?

2010-11-29T10:57:00.004-05:00

Bliss Hall is buzzing, and everywhere I look I see students with books and papers. Faculty offices are filled with students with paper drafts and questions about their sources. A semester's work of thinking, reading, and discussing is all coming to fruition with the final essay of the course. It is both wonderful and a little scary.

To Race to Nowhere?

2010-11-23T09:36:00.001-05:00

I just heard of this new documentary that is coming out called "Race to Nowhere", and I thought it would be appropriate to share on this blog posting, since it's school related. If you go to www.racetonowhere.com you can watch the trailer, but essentially it's a documentary about the pressure on students to become over-achievers. Apparently you can even fill out a request to 'host a screening' of the documentary at your school, which I think is a cool idea, or at least something to consider.

November 18, 2010 5:53 PM

Katie Pucci

To Collect School Supplies?

2010-11-18T15:41:00.004-05:00

Turns out, it takes very few! Over the past several days, bags of pencils, notebooks, crayons, coloring books, pens, index cards and highlighters have been appearing at my office door -- as if by magic!

All of these school supplies are destined for the pediatric wing at the Richmond University Medical Center. What better than a fresh new notebook, thousands of blank coloring book pages, and newly sharpened colored pencils and crayons to put a s

mile on a deserving child's face?

So far, we have two large boxes filled, and we're happy to fill another, so keep those pens and paper coming. Remember how much fun a new box of crayons is to a child -- a picture can be made with little crayon stubs, but it is just not as much fu

These pictures only show the first half of the donations we received. Thank you once again to everyone who donated school supplies and helped decorate the box!

To Discuss Lolita?

2010-10-30T11:50:00.001-04:00

Earlier this month, Sigma Tau Delta members met for the second installment of our book club, where we discussed Vladimir Nabokov's classic Lolita.

On a track from her latest CD, pop star Miley Cyrus sings: "I've been to New York and to L.A. and to Baton Rouge / I met a boy in every city / No one kept me amused. / But don't call me a Lolita / 'Cause I don't let 'em through. / 'Cause I'm saving all my lovin' for someone / And it's you."

Whether or not Ms. Cyrus has read Lolita is not the important point here—it's the cultural impact of Nabokov's chilling novel. The term Lolita is now commonly used in reference to the situations found in the book, most often to describe a sexually precocious young lady. And as Miley shows above, the term is not limited to older generations.

Since its publication in 1955, the novel has been an object of controversy. It struggled to find an American publisher, was recalled because of its contents, and is frequently found on banned books lists. But despite it's controversial subject matter, the novel is still a quite profound object of beauty. Nabokov's brilliant narrator tells a sordid tale in undeniably beautiful language.

Keeping this post as spoiler-free as possible, discussion covered topics such as Humbert Humbert's status as an unreliable narrator, the way the writing contrasts with the subject matter, and one of the novel's most controversial questions: how much HH is to blame for the events of the novel. We also discussed the novel's great closing, and used it to gauge HH's remorse.

If you have not read Lolita, please do so immediately (winter break is coming soon). Not only is the book culturally important, but it is also one of the best novels ever written, showcasing Nabokov's extraordinary skill as a writer.

To Read Our Sigma Tau Delta Newsletter?

2010-10-17T20:21:00.000-04:00

The Sigma Tau Delta National Newsletter is going "green"! Rather than receiving a paper copy of the "Fall 2010" edition of the newsletter, you can now view the newsletter at the following link:

Fall 2010 Newsletter

What do you think of the new online version? I like the .pdf format because of its convenience. Rather than losing or misplacing a paper copy of the newsletter, I can now save an electronic copy to my computer's hard drive.

Be sure to check out pages 5 and 6, which contain information about this year's convention speakers: Dave Eggers, Kay Ryan, Jacqueline Woodson, and Lorene Cary.

Also, if you are planning on attending Grad School or taking the GRE, check out the articles on page 16 and 18.

To Discuss Black Ice?

2010-10-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

Our chapter recently met for our first book club meeting of the year. At the meeting, we discussed the Sigma Tau Delta common reader, Lorene Cary's Black Ice.

The memoir follows Cary as an adolescent, when she moves from Philadelphia to New Hampshire to attend a prestigious private school. As one of the first generations of black students to attend Saint Paul's School, Cary recalls the challenges she faced adjusting to the school while still remaining loyal to her roots. While the memoir details Cary's life after graduation, Saint Paul's is always the focus of the memoir, revealing the profound impact the school had on her life.

Topics of discussion included key passages in the novel, such as Cary's experience at a school science fair, her lesson in failure, and her sexual assault while at St. Paul's. We also discussed the thought-provoking title of the memoir.

Our members are excited to see Lorene Cary next spring, when she reads at the Sigma Tau Delta 2011 Convention in Pittsburgh, PA. Maybe she can shed some light on the tough questions we had concerning the book!

If you read the book, feel free to share any thoughts/opinions in the comments!

To Celebrate our 2010 Inductees?

2010-10-02T12:38:00.001-04:00

This morning the Alpha Epsilon Alpha chapter of Sigma Tau Delta inducted our new members for 2010. We were honored by a welcome by the Dean of TCNJ's School of Culture and Society, Dr. Benjamin Rifkin, and an address by the chairman of the Department of English, Dr. David Blake. Dean Rifkin highlighted the close match between the goals of Sigma Tau Delta and the mission of the School of Culture and Society. Professor Blake explicated the quote we chose to illustrate the importance of "Truth" to members of Sigma Tau Delta: "God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please, -- you can never have both"--Ralph Waldo Emerson.

We were also honored at the end of the ceremony by a visit from our college's president, Dr. Barbara Gitenstein. We want to thank all three of them for taking time out to celebrate our new members and the accomplishments of our chapter.

To Plan the 2010-2011 School Year?

2010-09-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

Here are minutes from our first general body meeting of the semester.

1. Introductions!

2. Google Calendar: Check for Event Dates

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=usgeke5njj38gc997hehfr47ag%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

3. Inductions: October 2, 11 am in the Library Auditorium. (Coffee with the Dean 10 am.)

4. Membership: Only Full, National Members may apply for scholarships, awards, or to attend the national conference. Social members are encouraged to attend all chapter (TCNJ) events.

5. Dues must be turned in by September 15^th in order to be inducted this year.

6. Terhune Fundraiser: Contact Todd (petty4@tcnj.edu) if you would like to sign up! Shifts are 9-6 on any available day (see Todd for dates) and Terhune will donate $90 dollars to the organization per volunteer. (Also, there are delicious donuts and a great employee discount for any day you work!)

7. Book Club: Our first book will discuss Black Ice, the STD Common Reader for this year, and we will meet next Wednesday (9/15) at 4:30 in Bliss 228.

8. Convention (Pittsburgh): March 23-26 2011

a. For those who would like to submit: send Professor Steinberg (dsteinbe@tcnj.edu) what you plan to submit by October 22.

b. All Scholarship and Award applications go through Professor Steinberg.

c. Members may apply for anything for which they fit the award description.

d. If you would like to be added to the Pittsburgh Module inside SOCS and did not sign up at the meeting, please email Professor Steinberg.

9. Blog/Website: If you have something you would like to write, email an E-Board member and it will be posted to the Blog! Also, remember to comment on posts!

10. Also, additional fundraising information not mentioned at the meeting: The Student Finance Board is sponsoring live music and an outdoor grill every Friday before Fall Break and is offering $150 dollars in fundraising money to any organization that volunteers to grill for one of the events. If anyone is interested in looking further into organizing our participation, please let us know!

Other Important Links, also listed in the SOCS homepage:

Our award-winning chapter webpage is http://enghonor.intrasun.tcnj.edu
Our award-winning chapter blog is http://enghonor.blogspot.com/
Our national organization's website is at
http://www.english.org/sigmatd/index.shtml. Please bookmark this site and check it for information about internships, conference opportunities, scholarships, and publishing opportunities.

Take care,

Rebecca

To Stop Burning Books?

2010-09-08T15:52:00.001-04:00

Today's discouraging news is that Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center is planning to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Koran to commemorate the September 11 attacks on the US. American officials, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, and US military commander David Petraeus have all condemned the planned book burning and have pleaded with Pastor Jones, noting that his actions will make our troops -- indeed all Americans -- less safe.

Pastor Jones is within his constitutional rights to burn books that he himself owns -- book burning is protected as an act of free speech. It is, however, at the very least, an unkind gesture to burn anyone's Holy Book. Pastor Jones claims that his actions are directed only to radical Islam, but, of course, the Koran is a sacred text to all Muslims, not merely to the radical fringe. If Pastor Jones wishes to send a message only to radical Islamists, perhaps he should search for written texts advocating radical Islam, and burn those, leaving the Koran, with its messges of charity and peace, intact. Pastor Jones claims to have prayed over his decision; I respectfully urge him to pray again.

Much American anger has been directed against Muslims planning to build an Islamic cultural center in a renovated building in lower Manhattan. This Islamic cultural center will contain a prayer room, and will be within a few blocks of the site of the World Trade Center destroyed on September 11, 2001, but it will not be visible from "ground zero." The same Bill of Rights that allows Terry Jones to burn books also allows Muslims to follow Islam and to build prayer rooms, cultural centers, and even mosques on land which they themselves own. Many Americans are asking Muslims to respond with sensitivity to the feelings of those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001, and to cancel plans to build an Islamic cultural center within a few blocks of "ground zero." Are those same Americans calling on Pastor Jones to be sensitive to the feelings of Muslims worldwide whose Holy Book is being burned?

Calls on Muslims not to build anything close to ground zero fill me with suspicion. Where exactly ought Muslims to build their mosques and cultural centers? Five blocks from "ground zero"? in midtown Manhattan? in New Jersey? no where in the Western hemisphere? Could stopping a cultural center be a wedge that eventually allows anyone anywhere in the US to have her or his feelings hurt by someone who wishes to build a non-Christian worship space, and so to halt construction of that mosque, synagogue, or temple?

It's important that those of us who read books take a stance in favor if keeping them unburned by those who prefer to use them as symbols of hatred.

To Start A Book Club?

2010-08-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

As busy English majors, it can be overwhelming to think of the exhaustive list of literary classics that we feel we must read. And each year, new books are released that capture the attention of the literary world and seem to only make that list even longer. When selecting books to read outside of class, where do we begin? And without the guidance of literary experts (our professors), will we be doing it wrong?

To alleviate these problems, our chapter has decided to start a book club. As a group, students can read a selected book, then discuss it in a book club meeting. After a vote, STD members chose a diverse group of eight books to read together during the 2010-2011 school year, including classics such as Lolita, Wuthering Heights, and Pride and Prejudice, contemporary favorites such as The Kite Runner and The Alchemist, the poetry collection The Stranger Manual, and one young adult novel, Shiver.

The first book club selection is this year's Sigma Tau Delta Common Reader, Lorene Carey's Black Ice.

A tentative schedule of the reading order and due dates:

1. Black Ice by Lorene Cary - Sept. 8th
2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - October 13th
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - November 12th
4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - December 3rd
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - February 9th
6. The Stranger Manual by Catie Rosemurgy - March 16th*
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - April 15th
8. Shiver by - April 29th*
*date has been changed

To Manage 125 Teachers?

2010-08-05T11:56:00.000-04:00

This summer, I have had the ultimate lesson in classroom management--managing 125 teachers at my internship with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Each week, for five weeks, 25 new teachers have joined me and the seminar leaders at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey for a six-day residential program, in which they earn 45 professional development hours. One of the greatest aspects of the internship is meeting all of these Humanities teachers from throughout the state of New Jersey and asking them questions about teaching, texts they use in their classrooms, and methods of teaching. I am a sponge. Since I will be student teaching this semester, I have been using the opportunity to learn as much as I can.

The five seminar topics are as follows:

Race in American History and Culture: New Perspectives
Poverty, Affluence, and the American Dream
America and the Politics of the World's Religions
Narratives of Immigration: Latino/a Lives
Adolescent and Young Adult Literature

Needless to say, as a future English teacher, I am looking forward to the final seminar the most. However, all of the seminars have been eye-opening experiences, which have allowed me to learn how to connec these topics back to the classroom. If anyone is interested in professional development, I would highly recommend these seminars.

The above picture is from a field trip the Week 4 group took to the Seabrook Educational-Cultural Center to learn about New Jersey's role in immigration.

~Kristen C.

To Have Sense or Sensibility?

2010-07-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

photo by Cara Mac Neil :)

Seeing as this blog needed a little updating I thought I would come back to it even as a graduate :) Over the summer Sigma Tau Delta-ers and Non-Sigma Tau Delta-ers alike have joined forces in agreeing to read and discuss Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. My friend Katie and I were the driving force behind this because we both realized that while we loved the ever-popular Pride and Prejudice we hadn't touched some of the other books.

A lot of people who consider themselves Jane Austen fans came out of the woodwork to say "I too haven't really read much besides P&P " or "I've read everything except Sense and Sensibility" and I'm wondering why exactly that seems to be the case. Surely Jane Austen is not a One Hit Wonder among female Victorian writers so it seems strange to me that she is known primarily for one novel. People assume that if they like P&P that they will love the rest of her books because she has developed a reputation for being formulaic: a Happy Endings type of writer.

I wonder if this is true, if this is false or if it is simply her genius.

Being about halfway through the book I cannot wait to have someone to talk about it with and am so excited that the society of English Majors seems to be a bond that lasts even after the college years become officially behind me.

Sometime in August (date TBA) we are all meeting to discuss this book and professors are even getting in on the deal! It really is amazing to feel like part of a literary community and it makes the reading experience sweeter knowing that I will absolutely get to dissect the nature of Mrs Jennings and other strange but loveables in this book.

It seems to me that we English Majors are full of sense..... and a bit of sensibility :)

-- Cara

To Change Our Blog Design?

2010-06-11T20:41:00.001-04:00

Do you notice anything different about our blog? Why! The design has been changed of course! The scarlet red color fits in well with our national Sigma Tau Delta colors.

Be sure to read our blog on Tuesday, June 15th for the 2010 Book Club selections that you voted for!

To Select Books For A Book Club?

2010-05-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

Now is your chance to vote on what books you want to read next year during our brand new Sigma Tau Delta Book Club! Try not to judge the books by their covers...I know I included pictures of all of the books in the survey, but if you're unfamiliar with a book please look up a summary/review online.

http://tcnj.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6EzsBclCYnB1Gni

Please remember:
1. Include your first and last name.
2. Select only your top 5 book choices! Only 5!
3. Type in which book is your #1 choice.

Feel free to rally for the book of your choice on this blog! Post a reply/comment to this blog post, telling us why we should choose a certain book to read.

This following chart shows the top 10 books so far. Keep that in mind as you're voting on books!

To read for 17 hours straight?

2010-04-23T13:12:00.000-04:00

Our last post announced our effort to read The Fellowship of the Ring from cover to cover. As of 12:00 pm this afternoon, we were on chapter four, reading away in the Bliss Hall lounge. Come take a break from the end of semester stresses and enjoy Frodo's and Sam's adventures as the leave the Shire and embark on their journey to the dark lands of Mordor!

To Read The Fellowship of the Ring?

2010-04-16T15:05:00.001-04:00

We are getting geared up for this year's marathon reading, and for the first time, allowed student members to "vote" with their spare change (all proceeds to the Trenton Public Libraries!). The year, we are reading the first novel in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Ring trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring.

This is a novel I first read on the advice of my youngest brother Phil, who devoured it one summer while he attempted to live the rest of his life. He read it while delivering newspapers (American children used to walk around their neighborhoods delivering afternoon papers). He read it while playing Little League ball -- probably the most important reason his coach put him in left field.

To Find a New Hero?

2010-03-18T23:38:00.002-04:00

About a dozen of us attended Chris Abani's talk tonight at the conference. We laughed, wept, and found ourselves questioning the essentializing labels we toss around: refugee, citizen, writer, literature. Earlier in the day, I attended his question and answer session and had much the same reaction to him. His book, Song for Night, is this year's common reader, and I now regret profoundly that we didn't organize an activity around the novella. So I promise $5 for the marathon reading kitty when we get back home. Let's read this profound story of a child soldier as he reconnects with his essential humanity.

I can't even begin to describe all the wonderful things that Abani said, so I would like members to come back in and revise my posting. But the most marvelous thing that he said this morning was "Writers are the curators of our humanity."

--Felicia Steele

To "Meet me in St. Louis"?

2010-03-18T15:23:00.000-04:00

March 18, 2010: The first full day of the annual Sigma Tau Delta Conference here in St. Louis, MO. Everyone arrived safely, and everyone successfully registered for the Conference and checked into the hotel. Our rooms overlook the Mississippi River and the Gateway Arch. TCNJ is the largest delegation here at the Convention,with 21 students, 2 faculty, and 29 scholarly essays to be presented.

The Conference registration site has a bulletin board with 9 "outstanding essays" on the Conference theme of "Storytellers," and I was delighted to discover that one of these outstanding essays was written by our own Nicole Pieri! Congrats, Nicole.

I've attended both the Chapter Sponsors session, and picked up some good ideas -- let's celebrate Banned Book week next September -- and my first paper session -- at which Kristen Casabona read a super Toni Morrison essay on Beloved. In addition to the sessions, students are also planning to take the tram to the top of the Gateway Arch and visit the fabulous St. Louis city zoo and the Budweiser Clydesdales (who live here by the Anheuser Busch brewery).

More later . . . Diane Steinberg

Not to talk about cake!

2010-03-02T12:42:00.000-05:00

In celebration of Tim Burton's take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland saga (I keep thinking that the film must adapt Through the Looking Glass instead), Sigma Tau Delta is hosting a "Happy Unbirthday" Thursday, March 4, at 11:30 am, in Bliss Hall lounge. But here's the catch: we can't hang flyers on campus because we're serving cake!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, because we secured a food waiver, so that we could save a little money and know that the cake would arrive in the right place at the right time (rather than using on-campus catering), we're not allowed to advertise the fact that we're having cake. Thus, we can't advertise the event, because our flyers won't be authorized, because we already volunteered that we're having cake.

So, DON'T TALK ABOUT CAKE! We're having an unbirthday party, where we will be serving "uncake," a newly minted confection made with a core of light and fluffy pastry lovingly drenched in sweet, creamy, unfrosting!

Revel in the absurdity, beware the jabberwock, and enjoy tea and uncake!

--Felicia Jean Steele --Photo courtesy of the British Library

To Sell English Major T-Shirts?

2010-02-25T16:38:00.001-05:00

Dear Fellow Lovers of English,

Do you chuckle to yourself when you recognize an allusion made to one of Shakespeare's plays? Do you recite quotes from literature in casual conversation with friends? Were you one of those children who hid under the covers in bed, with a flashlight, scrambling to read as much as you could before falling asleep?

If you answered yes to any of those questions....Good news! Sigma Tau Delta is sponsoring a t-shirt sale to help us raise money for our trip to St. Louis. You can support your local chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, as well as receive a cool English-Major-inspired t-shirt that you can wear around campus! The available t-shirts are "TCNJ English" or "English Majors Do It By The Book." Images of what the t-shirts will look like are posted below. Each t-shirt costs $15, and you can place your order at the following link:

https://jedi.tcnj.edu/webteam/cgi-bin/formgenie/formgenie.pl?form=38478

To Serve Pancakes?

2010-02-10T16:17:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday, our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta sponsored a Pancake breakfast fundraiser at our local Applebees Restaurant. It was a huge success! Student representatives from Sigma Tau Delta transformed from literary critics, poets and avid book readers to busboys and waitresses for the day. We served faculty, other students and the nearby community delicious pancakes as part of a effort to raise money for the Sigma Tau Delta National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri next month- and raise money we did! As an organization, we sold nearly 100 tickets for the fundraiser and as a result of our fantastic customer service and a job well done by the entire STD 'staff' we were able to raise $650.00 in just a few hours!

We arrived at Applebees at 7:30 in the morning for a preservice training session where we learned the ins and outs of the restaurant business. How to seat guests, how to take an order, how to call out an order to the fantastic chefs in the back and even how to bus the tables was part of our training. After a few practice rounds, our waiters and waitresses were ready for the ensuing crowd, quickly scribbling down orders for pancakes, sausage, coffee, juice , you name it! It was a lot of fun to take on this new role for the day, and place orders for everyone from our own best friends to the many faculty members who came to support.

So much planning and preparation went into this day, so a special thanks to everyone involved- but a special thank you to Danielle Katims and Becky McGowan who were in charge of the event.

Now that we're all such pancake experts, it is probably about time for our honor society to open our very own restaurant chain... perhaps a 'Poetic Pancake House'?

...or maybe we should just stick to our first love, literature!

To Review Tricks?

2010-02-01T10:41:00.001-05:00

I recently finished reading a book by Ellen Hopkins called Tricks. The book is based on true events and follows five teenagers as their lives spiral downward and they eventually become part of the prostitution industry. I am a big fan of books by Hopkins, and the first time I read one of her books, Crank, I was only a sophomore in high school. She writes about mature topics, such as drug use, but does so in verse rather than in prose. The style of the text was what originally drew me to her works. However, I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable stocking texts like these in my classroom when I am a teacher. Has anyone else read any books by Hopkins? How do you feel about the mature content? Is there a certain age at which these books would be deemed acceptable to have in the classroom library?

To Make Valentine's Day Cards and Crafts?

2010-01-31T15:19:00.001-05:00

TCNJ students whiled away their weekend raising money to go to the St. Louis conference. We`re still presuming no news is good news. While we wait, we make stuff to sell in the student center the week before Valentine`s Day. So stop by our lunch time tables and show your love!

To Teach the Movie or the Book

2010-01-22T17:53:00.000-05:00

As an English-teacher-in-training I pretty much question daily what the best method is for teaching books. I've always thought that using a movie of a book as an end-of-unit treat is fine but I've recently been introduced to the idea that people do teach books strictly by their movies.

Now there is a quote that I live by which is: Never judge a book by the movie adaptation.

Still I just sat through an English class full of Seniors who watched Shelley's Frankenstein instead of reading it (and this viewing was supposed to make up their full exposure to Gothic Literature). Now I do not question the teacher because she made an excellent lesson out of what Gothic Literature is and I think that she would have lovingly made the students read the book if time permitted... but the excessive requests of School Boards and State Standards could fill many blogs all on their own.

But I think its interesting to think about whether or not you can really teach a book by its movie?

Personally, I think there are renditions of movies that I think could be useful for visual learners who struggle with reading. There are times when I feel overwhelmed by a text and desperately seek summaries and movie-versions because they give me a structure to follow, a mental picture to return to when I feel stressed out, and the 'lifeline' of a movie can make me feel secure enough to keep reading.

Still, I do not think that showing someone a movie gives them the same experience as a book and I'm not sure I would want to replace a book entirely with a movie and consider it thoroughly taught.

Does anyone else have experience with this or opinions about the scenario?

- Cara Mac Neil

To Start a New Semester?

2010-01-22T14:09:00.001-05:00

I love the start of a new term -- when all sorts of learning is still potential rather than actual. Today, I told a student to "just e-mail me your draft and let me look at it; after all, I don't exactly have a backlog of grading tasks." Ah, the start of a new term, when I do not have a backlog of tasks and still have energy and enthusiasm for work!

This term, I'm prepping and teaching a topic I have not worked with (except for Jane Austen's novels) since my first term in graduate school (Ronald Reagan was still president and the Iron Curtain was still in place). It's refreshingly different to be teaching Romantic Era literary works, instead of Medieval and Early Modern texts. Students are finding the language of the texts more transparent, and students are finding that much of their own original poetry was written in the Romantic tradition, even if they had never yet realized this.

No matter which literary period I teach, I find connections to the world in which we live today, and the Romantics are helping me get in touch with the social reformers: those folks who see an injustice or a tragedy, and try to both bring it to our attention, and to arouse us to tackle the problem. Anyone else taking a class that resonates with their world?

To Decide if Walt Whitman Wore Levi's?

2010-01-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

I'm sure, by now, many of you have seen the relatively new line of Levi's commercial's featuring poetry from America's indefinite and undeclared poet laureate, Walt Whitman. If not, here is a link to one of these commercials which features a reading (allegedly done by Whitman himself) of Whitman's iconic poem, "America".

The question I raise here (and I'd love to hear what people think) is whether this blending of advertising and poetry is ethical. Having been deceased for over a century, there is no way Whitman could have signed off on this project. On the other hand, Levi's is a quintessentially American company; Whitman has certainly become one of the greatest figureheads of America. Also, Levi's were in fact a company making jeans during the time Whitman was living and writing poetry.

There is nothing (that I can see) flagrantly offensive about the content of the commercial, nothing which spits in the face of Whitman's message or work. The commercial certainly has a historical feel to it and an attitude of independence and rugged individualism that is often associated with historic America. Still, the question remains, is this misappropriation of Walt Whitman's poetry? My question extends beyond just this commercial, which I am referencing as a departure point.

Does literature exist as one of the (relatively) unexplored frontiers of commercialism? When is it okay to mix media this way, to juxtapose an individual poem and individual video to create new meaning? How sacred do we hold the author's intentions and work? What responsibility to we owe to our great late authors? The forerunners of modern literature? And perhaps most importantly: Did Walt Whitman wear Levi's?

-Todd Petty

To Keep Ourselves from Getting Overextended?

2010-01-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

The New York Times published an interesting article today about high school honor societies that posed a central question: how much is too much? One thing that caught my attention, of course, was explicit mention of Sigma Tau Delta's daughter organization the National English Honor Society. If high school students have accustomed themselves to graduating with six, eight, or even nine honor society honor cords, they will certainly feel the same pressure to participate in as many societies as possible in college.

The NYT article questioned how many of these societies were as active as they should be and how many were simply "place-holders" or "credentials." I know that we strive to be an active chapter that provides meaningful activities and experiences for students; but these students appear to be increasingly over scheduled, as do many of the faculty involved as well.

My personal resolution for this coming year is to keep myself sane and appropriately scheduled, but that doesn't mean that I want to give up any activities or responsibilities. The obvious answer, then, is to make all of these things work together toward a set of common goals. I'm certain that this is a common resolution among students and faculty at The College of New Jersey.

With that in mind, the Alpha Epsilon Alpha chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and the Office of Academic Affairs will sponsor a leadership workshop for honor society leaders Monday, January 18, 2010. Our goal for this workshop is to help students to develop organizational strategies so that they may find opportunities to work together, to work smarter rather than harder, and to effect lasting change in our institution through partnerships and skillful planning. So STD students, send your friends in other organizations to the registration site so that we can all start working toward the goals we share.

And Happy New Year to all of you!

Dr. Felicia Jean Steele

To Find a Source of Inspiration?

2009-12-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

I was doomed to be an English major (read: book nerd) since before I could read. I remember insisting that my mother read me at least three books before I could sleep. I always loved reading and being read to but writing was always something that I wouldn't be sure about. I loved to dabble in short stories and it seemed to me that writers were born, not made. There was absolutely no way in which I saw the people who made books as writers, they were authors. That idea persisted until I was twelve and my school ran a Scholastic Book Drive. That's when I met the author that would inspire me to be an active writer.

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes published her first book when she was just thirteen. It was called In the Forests of the Night and featured the William Blake poem "The Tiger" as an introduction. It follows a vampire named Risika. Let it be said and repeated: Twilight was not the first vampire book to captivate teenage girls and Atwater-Rhodes can take Stephenie Meyer down any day (in my opinion, at least).

Atwater-Rhodes has published about a book a year since her first book even when she was in college and even now that she has graduated, is teaching, and is getting married (what a woman!)

The best part is, she is only a year older than I am. She proved to me that you can be a writer at any age. You don't just magically become an author when you graduate from some esteemed school with a PhD in Creative Writing. My little short stories and poems suddenly had weight and meaning. They had value. They could be important, they could be published.

My writing wasn't silly, it wasn't some hobby that I had to put off and hide away and pretend I didn't do.

In this season for being thankful, for being appreciative, I must say that I am most thankful for this wonderful author and her books. She made writing a world that I could be part of even as a teenager, and even now as an emerging adult.

Thank you, Amelia.

To everyone out there, I encourage you to find a writer like this who has meaning to you, who can open up the world of writing and make it accessible to you. Above all, I encourage you to write :)

To Take A Study Break?

2009-12-08T11:54:00.000-05:00

I hope that everyone is having fun this week in the library! :-) I hope to be seeing some people at Mama Flora's tonight for some delicious off-campus food and fundraising goodness!

Our Applebees Flapjack fundraiser can now be found on Facebook! Link to the event is here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187824979435&ref=mf

Other fun things:
I am personally a master of procrastination during these reading days. I came across this page while I was hypothetically considering maybe doing work at some point, and thought that I would share it with everyone!

Grammar Challenge

I thought I’d provide a little morsel from a nonfiction workshop I took in college taught by someone who, among other accomplishments, was the most obsessively precise user of English I have ever and will ever encounter. I have, or, well, had, David Foster Wallace to thank for my own peevishness about mistakes in what he called S.W.E., or Standard Written English. So what follows is the complete text of a worksheet from his class.

It is a pretty short quiz, but still challenging! I got 8/10 correct, try and see if you can beat me :D

To Spread Season's Greetings with Suggested Readings?

2009-11-28T15:02:00.002-05:00

With the holiday season quickly approaching, what better gift to ask for as English majors than more books? Students and professors alike will finally have time over the winter recess to delve into the fresh pages of new novels, and I personally could not think of a better way to spend my free time this winter. Whether it is furthering the educational reads we have grown to love this semester (I plan on reading as many Shakespearean plays as I can get my hands on) or picking up all of the 2009 New York Times Bestsellers, you can bet thousands of pages will be read during this ‘most wonderful time of the year.’

As lovers of literature, a few things I would like to see our organization participate more in are book exchanges, suggestions and passes. I am sure many of you avid readers out there have already started a shopping list of novels for this year, I know I certainly have. That being said, why not share our suggestions for this winter’s ‘hot reads?’ There is no better literary resource than a society of English majors for finding the latest and greatest books, or for being reminded of some of the all-time classics. It might even be fun to see which authors our peers and professors have been grappling with! Plus, you never know what sort of inspiring work of art you might come across in hearing other suggestions.

I’ll go out on a limb and start us off with some of the novels I plan to read in the upcoming months. I will also include some of my favorite reads from this past semester. After all, what better way to spread the holiday cheer than to give others the opportunity to escape into a fantastic novel?

This semester I read (and would like to suggest):

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan- A young adult novel that begins on September 11, 2001, and follows the lives of three teens- Claire, Jasper and Peter as they cope with the horrific events of that day. Despite the heavy topic, the novel is primarily about finding hope and love in a world far removed from these emotions.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare- You can never ever go wrong with Shakespeare. I have also recently encountered a number of Shakespearean plays turned graphic novels, which may be very interesting reads as well!

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver- A multivoiced narrative chronicling three interwoven stories of humans and their relationship to the natural world (specifically Zebulon Valley in Southern Appalachia). If you are at all interested in the notions of ecocriticism, this is a must-read for you.

The Misfits by James Howe- This is the ultimate must read for future teachers of young adult literature. It follows the life of four middle school outcasts and they struggle to fit in- something I’m sure we can all remember doing not too long ago... I created a ‘book trailer’ (similar to a movie trailer, but for books!) that will soon be available via youtube, if you’re interested.

Over break I hope to read:

Twelfth Night-William Shakespeare

Boy Meets Boy- David Levithan

Blankets-Craig Thompson (A Graphic Novel)

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell- Tucker Max (I’d like to see for myself what all the controversy on campus is about Tucker Max)

How to Read Literature Like a Professor- Thomas C. Foster (Times Bestseller)

Columbine- Dave Cullen

I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death and New Jersey- Paul Rudnick

There are just a few of my suggestions and intended reads. I am hoping for a large number of contributions from you, fellow members of Sigma Tau Delta. Happy Readings and Season's Greetings!

- Matt Persico

To Attend the 2009 NCTE Convention?

2009-11-25T15:10:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I attended the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 99th Annual Convention in Philadelphia, PA. The conference ran from Thursday, 11/19 through Monday, 11/23. Four other English Secondary Education Majors and I went to Philly bright and early on Saturday morning, unaware of the majestic wonders we would find when we got off the train. I had such an intellectually stimulating time that I decided to go back by myself the following day.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the NCTE convention, the convention is basically like one giant "How-To-Teach" seminar, similar to the ones that Dr. Meixner organizes at TCNJ. There are at least twenty to thirty different presentations going on at once, given by teachers and professors from around the country. There is also a giant convention center, in which different publishers bring free materials to give to teachers, but more on the convention center later.

When the five of us first arrived, we picked up the convention program. The convention program was massive in size (it was like carrying around a 5-subject spiral notebook) and contained about 200 pages of information about the conference and its various events and presentations (see picture of program above). Our first plan of action was to decide which presentations we wanted to attend first. We decided to divide-and-conquer that way we could attend different presentations and compare notes and materials later. Each presentation ran for approximately an hour an fifteen minutes.

The first presentation I attended was about critical thinking. The speakers discussed Bloom's Taxonomy, which relates to the different levels of questioning. For example, higher-level questions on Bloom's Taxonomy involve tasks that ask students to "Evaluate" and "Create," rather than simply recall information.

At the second presentation I attended, all three of the presenters were high school teachers from the same school in Texas. They explained that they have a mandated British curriculum, which their students find difficult to relate to. They provided us with a variety of strategies to connect the students' own lives and values with writing assignments related to the various British texts.

Lastly, the third presentation I attended was about teaching graphic novels in the classroom. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I've never actually read a graphic novel, so this presentation was an excellent way of introducing me to a variety of different texts in the genre, as well as provide me with different methods for teaching these novels. For example, one 7th grade English teacher explained that his students were struggling with Yang's American Born Chinese. He discovered that the reason for this was that his students were unfamiliar with comics and graphic novels, and were therefore unable to follow the different panels and speech bubbles.

Now that I've told you about the professional development aspect of the conference, I can move onto my experiences in the convention center. Upon first walking into the convention center I was overwhelmed--seven long rows with table after table of books, textbooks, and other materials. Where to begin? Like a deer in headlights, I started moving up and down the aisles. I saw other teachers carrying bags full of books, but I had no idea where they found all these free materials.

One of the other TCNJ students and I started approaching the exhibitors from the various publishing companies, and we struck up conversations with them. They gave us advanced copies of books that aren't even set to be published until Spring 2010. I knew that my bookshelves at home were filled with Young Adult (YA) literature that was geared toward girls, but my collection was severely lacking in YA literature for boys. I knew that one of my goals needed to be to expose myself to YA texts that would appeal to boys. By the end of the first day, I had collected 22 free books and had met or seen a variety of authors, including Jerry Spinelli, Laurie Halse Anderson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Carol Lynch Williams, Elizabeth Scott, Kenneth C. David, Jeff Kinney, and David Lubar. I even got a few of these authors to autograph the free copies of their books that I picked up. Many of the publishing companies were even distributing teacher guides to help teach these books, and I gladly picked up these to store away with all my future teaching supplies. One of the free poetry resources that I received from a company called Poetry Out Loud, I used with my students at Trenton Central yesterday. (The above picture is of all the free materials I received that first day.)

On the second day of the conference when I went back to the convention center, I was able to purchase many of the books that weren't given away the previous day at a reduced price of $1-$3 for paperback copies. Again, I received many free advanced copies of books as well, and walked away the second day with another 22 books in my bag (see above picture).

The last even I attended before returning home on Sunday was Kylene Beers's "Presidential Address." For those of you who aren't familiar with Beers, she's the author of When Kids Can't Read, which is basically an English teacher's guide for different teaching methods. On my way into the Grand Ballroom where the address was to be given, I was five feet away from Beers. I desperately wanted to go over and talk to her, but she was involved in a conversation with another teacher.

Beer's presentation was entitled, "Sailing over the Edge: Navigating the Uncharted Waters of a World Gone Flat." She discussed technology and its role in schools, and she clearly challenged NCLB, which everyone applauded. At the end of the event, she passed the NCTE presidential "torch" to President-Elect, Carol Jago. (In the picture, Beers is wearing blue and Jago is wearing red.)

Next year's conference is going to be held in Orlando, Floria, so I recommend saving up now. For students, the registration fee for the convention only costs $90, instead of the $250+ registration fee for teachers. It is a great experience for professional development, and even if you aren't an Education Major you can still pick up free books with which to stock your home library.

~Kristen Casabona

To Come to an Awesome Lecture on Reading Lolita?

2009-11-19T11:01:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post a friendly reminder about the Professor Harriet Hustis' Faculty Research Talk: On Reading Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita! December 3rd, 11:30-12:20, Business Building Basement. Delicious sandwiches from Ray's Sub's will be served, and it is sure to be an amazing talk, so please try to come! :-)

A link to the facebook event is here: FRT: Professor Hustis on LOLITA.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with Lolita, it's all kinds of beautiful, disturbing, horrifying, heart-moving, revolting literary goodness, about a man who is attracted to young girls.. I've posted the opening passage below; however, no familiarity with the novel is necessary for the talk on Thursday!

Hope to see you all there :)

Becky McGowan

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns."

To spend $25,000 responsibly?

2009-11-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

The College Union Board (CUB) at The College of New Jersey has put in a bid to bring Tucker Max to campus to lecture. And they plan to pay him $25,000. Now, I'm not going to enumerate all the reasons why I think it's a bad idea to bring this guy to campus. But I do think that English honor students might want to think about all the other things that CUB could do with $25,000 to make our campus more fun. What could $25,000 buy the campus?

Another speaker: some of the speakers in the $25,000 (or less) range include athletes (Ahmad Rashad, Donovan McNab, Kristi Yamaguchi), scientists (Michio Kaku, Robert Ballard), comedians (Capitol Steps, Dame Edna, Ricky Gervais, Second City Comedy, Theo Von), or someone from another speakers' bureau.
100 Kindles
1000 iTunes gift cards
a Wii and five games for every dormitory lounge
100 new films to screen
fully catered dance open to all students

These are just some of the things that I can think of. Or maybe, hey, here's a radical idea: student activities money can fund student-run events!

Felicia Steele

To Support an Arts Community on Campus?

2009-11-12T07:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I learned the sad news that someone had seen fit to attack (yes, that is the verb I want) the public art in the new quadrangle between the Art and Music buildings. Worse yet, I learned that some students support the destruction and defacement of public property as a form of artistic expression.

Most of us in English are familiar with the history in our discipline of banned and even burned books. Although Adolf Hitler's name is tossed about often by those seeking to label their opponents as Hitleresque, it is not at all a stretch to associate history's worst mass murderer with book banning, book burning, and the destruction and defacement of art. Congratulations, art destroyers! You really have joined the fascists.

For a few moments, let's examine the possible motives behind defacing art works. Perhaps the vandals were merely expressing their free-speech-protected rights to speak out against art they disliked. I support free speech, but painted frat symbols are not a form of speech, and those who did the speaking by spray paint are not willing to speak publicly. Free speech requires a speaker -- dear speaker, please come forward and acknowledge your words/paint.

Perhaps the vandals were unhappy with the appearance of campus. Ours is a rather pretty suburban campus with lots of red brick, walking paths, and green spaces. A student could, however, prefer an urban campus with no public spaces at all, preferably one surrounded by symbols grafittied onto all available surfaces. I would suggest however, that in choosing to attend TCNJ, the student selected for himself a campus in which public drawing had been traditionally confined to chalk on sidewalks. Please honor our traditions, dear spray-painter.

Perhaps the vandals were unhappy with the taxpayer-borne costs of the artwork. I sympathize with the difficulties of paying taxes in New Jersey. I myself pay taxes in New Jersey, but I express my opinions about my taxes at the ballot, and not with spray paint. Dear vandal, may I suggest that a can of spray paint never affected anyone's tax bill, except to increase it as the costs of repair to defaced public structures are considerable?

Perhaps the vandals were dismayed to learn that decisions at TCNJ are sometimes made by figures at the top. A suggestion has been put forward that campus-wide expenditures ought to be put to a campus-wide vote of some sort. I'm sorry, but only student government candidates are put to a campus-wide vote. A college president and a college board of trustees are not democratic institutions. The USA is a democracy, but America's schools, universities, corporations, armed forces, churches, and many more of its social institutions do not ask students, employees, soldiers, or believers to vote on grades, salaries, combat orders, or doctrine. All important decsions at TCNJ are voted on by the Board of Trustees, but not by whichever cohort of future alumnae/alumni happen to be on campus together.

Perhaps the spray painter was dismayed by his tuition bill, and believed that TCNJ could not both afford public art and keep tuition costs down. I sympathize with anyone dismayed by tuition bills, as I myself pay two tuition bills. Tuition costs, however, include a great many expenses that do not benefit every student. Nonetheless, all tuition payers bear the costs because each is receiving some of the benefit. One student may enjoy the college's recreational facilities, another its support of All-College-Theatre, and a third be thankful that the School of Science labs were updated. All TCNJ students do not benefit equally from all of its expenditures. If all of TCNJ's expenditures had either to be enjoyed by a majority of the student body or be eliminated, we would have a campus with one sports team on which all athletes competed, with one club to which all students belonged, and with a library that owned one book.

I am forced to conclude that it is impossible for anyone to have defaced our public spaces for a good reason. Anyone accepting his acceptance to TCNJ has joined a community. I call upon all members of that community to respect one another, and to disagree respectfully. Spray painting artwork with fraternity symbols is not respectful disagreement with the purchasing decision. It was a cowardly, ignorant, and deeply anti-social act, one which its perpetrator should be ashamed to own. Come to think of it, he IS ashamed to own it. His shameful silence is the only sign I can see of his eventual repentance for his egregious sin.

Diane Vanner Steinberg

To Scare Themselves?

2009-10-27T11:04:00.002-04:00

The approach of Halloween has made me think about books, movies, etc that just plain give me the chills. Reading "the Tell-Tale Heart," watching Psycho -- definitely the all time scariest film I've ever seen, or reading In cold Blood makes children dressed as princesses or Star Wars characters not-at-all scary by comparison.

What is the scary film of this generation? The Scary novel? Any nominees?

To Play Trivial Pursuit?

2009-10-26T11:40:00.001-04:00

Had a super time last night playing Trivial Pursuit against some really smart English majors. We played the "book lovers" edition, but I thought it should be retitled the "trashy book lovers" edition because it was heavy on Danielle Steele and light on William Shakespeare. Our next intellectual game night should be "Taboo" -- my favorite word game of all time!

To Volunteer at the Trenton Public Library?

2009-10-09T13:31:00.001-04:00

Faculty, staff, and students (in alphabetic order, rather than order of importance) face unprecedented challenges because of the economic crisis in the United States and around the world. Over the last year, tuitions have risen, salaries have fallen, and institutions have struggled to manage enrollments and endowments.

In late summer, faculty at The College of New Jersey learned that they would have to take seven furlough days in the 2009-2010 year, reducing their pay by 10%. The response was a mixture of anger, resentment, shock, disbelief, and resignation. But a number of faculty members took the opportunity, with Prof. David Blake's leadership, to use that furlough time productively and in a way that demonstrated the commitment of higher education professionals to their larger communities.

Sigma Tau Delta members (and moderators) have continued this volunteer effort, sorting hundreds of books for the Trenton Public Library book sale.

from Prof. Felicia Steele, moderator: When I went to the library the first time, I was struck by all the activity going on there, even though huge parts of the library were closed to the general public. Every computer was being used, teenagers were in the stacks reading books, and patrons of all ages were coming in and out. The library definitely seemed to be a happy hub in this community. It seemed like a perfect match between Sigma Tau Delta and a community service site.