Nothing particularly interesting

Yes indeed. Further pressure on FE Colleges to provide vocational degrees, reported in the Times Higher Ed . Now I have no problems with vocational degrees, and I have no problems with FE Colleges providing higher education. There is even a certain logic to the idea that FE Colleges are more likely to have the specific resources needed for teaching vocational and technical subjects, and less likely to have the kind of library and journal resources better suited to more academic studies. My problem with this is the way in which it generates a further class divide between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. FE Colleges are usually located in more deprived areas, and are driven by more vicious financial constraints than any other sector. FE Colleges suffer huge government cut backs. FE teachers are paid less than school teachers and students at FE Colleges (particularly HE students) are often there because they have no opportunities of going anywhere else (although you onl...

I have just discovered a rather nice wee shortcut for searching Google Scholar.  You can set it up in the Chrome browser by going to the 'Settings' option from the menu button in the top right of the toobar:

  The Divine Reason of Speech: Classical Theories of Language From the very earliest days of classical history, language was recognised as perhaps the most singularly significant factor which defined human beings as distinct from the animal kingdom.  The Greek rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 bc) argued: In most of out abilities we differ not at all from the animals; we are in fact behind many in swiftness and strength and other resources.  But because there is born in us the power to persuade each other and to show ourselves whatever we wish, we not only have escaped from living as brutes, but also by coming together have founded cities and set up laws and invented arts, and speech has helped us attain practically all of the things we have devised.  For it is speech that has made laws about justice and injustice and honor and disgrace, without which provisions we should not be able to live together.  By speech we refute the wicked and praise the good....

Rather shockingly the other week, a former colleague asked expectedly where all my research was?  When faced with an incredulous expression, he explained that since I no longer appeared to be blogging, he simply assumed I was spending all my time researching. So, in order to avoid similar scurrilous accusations I have dug around the Apps folder and dusted off the 'ole 'Blogger' button. One of the schemes that has been keeping me busy has been my plan to develop a magazine that can publish student work, and provide a resource that helps under- and post-graduates remain engaged with their course and with their institution.  This has been something I have wanted to do for some time, but having some experience of journalism I was very tentative to start something that I knew I would not have the time to continue. This is a real issue, I expect, for most of us. It is great when we have ideas and schemes which we really think would benefit the students - but the reali...

It appears that OCR (an Exam Board operated jointly by Oxford, Cambridge and the RCA) have just announced a new English A-level programme , which has been developed in conjunction with the English Media Centre. Let's just take a moment to consider the level of subject expertise represented by these four groups.... Ok - to continue. According to OCR: The range of texts to be studied is the most diverse yet for any English A Level. It ranges from classics such as the poems of Emily Dickinson and William Blake to memoirs like Twelve Years a Slave and contemporary works including poetry from Jacob Sam-La Rose, Jez Butterworth's stage play Jerusalem, fiction by Jhumpa Lahiri and Russell Brand's evidence on drugs policy presented to the House of Commons. Personally, I think this all sounds rather exciting.  The texts are certainly diverse, and allow for an interdisciplinarity (combining the study of culture, literature and language in ways which border some a...

Here is a joke: A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.” The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 51 and 52 degrees latitude and between 0 and 1 degree longitude.” “You must be an academic,” said the balloonist. “I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?” “Well,” answered the balloonist ”everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no ideas what to do with your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all.” The woman below responded, “You must be an administrator.” “I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?” “Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a...

  I have been pondering of late my new venture into teaching Creative Writing - which I will be doing this semester. It comes at the same time that I have been expending considerable thought on how to embed employability more explicitly into the English modules which I teach, and one of the first things I have had to address is the issue of how useful a Creative Writing module will be for students? After all, the idea of Creative Writing on an English Literature and Language degree might at first seem a little incongruous. Even the images associated with 'Creative Writing' tend towards the archaic and the disconnected: Old type-writers, pencils and fountain pens scratching away on parchment-type paper.  Unlike linguistics or the theoretical and historical weight of Language and Literature, the idea of sitting around discussing our own jolly wee stories might seem a little irrelevant - like an short vacation from the critical rigours of academic study.  ...