ENGL
Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth
Another term has come and gone at jolly UBC and I’m surprised to find that I’m still standing. Time for another unceremonious, ad hoc course evaluation – done, of course, before my exams so that I won’t be biased by how difficult I found the courses.
ENGL 304 (Advanced Composition)
This one felt pretty touch and go for most of the way…the professor really knows her stuff (she should – she wrote the textbook after all) and there were definitely some innovative teaching methods. However, I never really felt like I ever got into the rhythm of things and when I did, it was short-lived. I’d recommend anyone to take this course if they feel that their writing is a bit on the weak side; this course should help you polish up your composition skills. However, the title of the course, “Advanced Composition” is a bit of a misnomer – most of the course is spent on persuasive essays, not expository.
ANAT 390 (Introduction to Microscopic Human Anatomy)
This one’s definitely a rite-of-passage for most and it’s reasonably tough. Because it’s a survey course, you cover a lot of ground very quickly, leaving students who haven’t taken advanced biology scratching their heads. If you are, however, a biology senior with a good number of cell biology courses under your belt, you really ought to be fine; it won’t be anything you can’t handle. It’s taught by a variety of different professors, each of whom is an expert in the material that s/he teaches – this is great because you get instructors who really are experts at what they are teaching but you never know the level of instruction you’ll get. Some are great and some not so much.
BIOL 361 (Introduction to Physiology)
I can’t say I ever really wanted to take this course – I took it because it’s mandatory for my program. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable, largely due to the efforts of my two wonderful instructors. The course material itself is accessible and not too onerous; all evaluations were open-book so it was really a test of getting enough down on paper to show that you knew what you knew. The topics are, at times, dry but I guess I can see why the course is mandatory for all biology majors. Regular study should lead to success in this course quite easily.
BIOL 304 (Fundamentals of Ecology)
Co-taught by two instructors, this course was in its first run this year after being revamped from the previous BIOL 302/303 program. Deceptively breezy in the beginning, many students learned the hard way that this course stressed critical thinking (for long-answer problems) as well as rote memorization (for definitions) on the midterm examination. The labs were fun if labour-intensive; they were generally mark-boosters. I’m sure, with time, that this course will become more refined but all I can say is that the course was still a bit rough around the edges when I took it. It was, however, interesting enough that I’m considering taking BIOL 306.
BIOL 300 (Biometrics)
Absolutely dreading this course, I walked in with the lowest expectations ever. I felt that I had been deceived – I thought that no math was required after first year if I wanted to do the Biology program! Nevertheless, the math involved is quite basic if laborious at times (ANOVA, anyone?) and the examples provided are compelling and interesting. I can see why this course is mandatory for all biology majors and I found, in spite of myself, that I enjoyed this course and saw how it would be relevant to research. The evaluation is straightforward and fair, if comprehensive. Regular study and practice should serve you well.
BIOL 360 (Cell Physiology Laboratory)
This course was a blast from beginning to end! It’s structured far more casually than those formal chemistry labs and you get to pick and choose among the experiments that interest you. There’s not a strong emphasis on the acquisition of laboratory techniques, though, aside from centrifugation and micropipetting, which was very disappointing. The TAs were helpful and the director was always open for questions, though. Marking is rigorous and more difficult than you might imagine.
BIOL 240 (Experimental Design in the Life Sciences)
This review might be moot seeing as how this was the last year that BIOL 240 will be running (for now) but I thought it was wonderful. It’s extremely time-consuming, however, and required much more attention than I had previously imagined but what you put in is what you get out. I learned a lot of valuable laboratory techniques in here, as well as figuring out that scientific research is not as romantic as I might have once imagined (I have so much pity for people who work with Neurospora crassa). Still, this course was just so rewarding and so great! I took so many pictures and they’ll always have a cherished place in my heart.
Next term is almost certainly going to be hugely different; a huge influx of ENGL courses will shake up the balance of things while BIOL 337 will either break me or make me. I’m excited!
Now, not to get ahead of myself, time to commence studying!
it is a wise father that knows his own child
I’ve set the geek-meter far into the red by posting this but…
What kind of inheritance does this pedigree show? What trait do you suppose is being depicted?
And most importantly, what does this have to do with my ENGL 304 term paper?
chō no kage sasu
You know, sometimes I wonder if it might be time to pull the plug on this blog altogether. My updates are intermittent, the good parts are far and in between. Maybe I’m suffering from information overload or burn-out. Probably both. Perhaps I should just opt-out temporarily…which reminds me of this video…
Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village
Really now, that is just too amusing.
Currently working on my term paper for ENGL 304 (you know, that topic deserves a post of its own, come to think of it) while also sorting through the swath that is SUS Finance. Not to mention the job.
*sigh* Finals are about to be upon us. Whither shall I run?
Oh and for those keeping track, I’m thinking of dropping out of Science Co-op. Anyone want to offer their advice?
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
School has been absolutely intense! Thankfully, the bulk of midterms are finally over and I’ve been faced with moderate success. I could have always worked harder, though, and I hope that I will do so before my finals.
I’ve been watching television (using Miro!) and playing video games to assuage myself this term, more than ever. I think that the stress is getting to me. I always thought I was impervious to stress but the growing emphasis on mental health nowadays has been making me aware of the unhealthy and unhealthful ways in which I live my life.
I think this will teach me some good lessons about decision-making (e.g. course planning, job seeking, etc.). I’m not the person I thought I was, nor do I know if I will become him.
I’m excited to write my paper for ENGL 304, though. I’m not entirely sure of my topic but I’m trying to flesh out the details – it will be about scientific public discourse (that is to say, the bilateral discussion between scientists and laypeople) about genes and genetics. I’m interested in examining the ways in which scientists describe genes and genetics, the ways in which scientists elucidate the public and how it is (mis)represented or (mis)used. It goes back to my essay in ENGL 112 on genomic metaphors; I’ll be digging out that old essay to look at.
as when Women, wondrous fond of place
Considering that the Restoration and Eighteenth Century is my favourite period of English Literature, the term paper I penned for ENGL 357 for Dr. Scott MacKenzie was a rather pitiful attempt overall. Dr. MacKenzie ended up giving me a reasonably high grade (though, in my opinion, unjustifiably so) for the paper so I felt a little better. I really wish I could view my final examination essays though – the essays I wrote on the characters of the Rake and the Coquette and their parallel evolutions through Restoration and Eighteenth Century literature was much more interesting than this.
Incidentally, Dr. MacKenzie is currently teaching a section of ENGL 358 focusing exclusively on the characters of the Rake and the Coquette this year.
Schools for Scandal: Trends in Collaborative Authorship during the Augustan Era
Introduction
Particularly in the current post-Romantic scholarly milieu, Inge notes that literary academics continue to “maintain the traditional image of the author as an individualist up against a material world, trying to create something pure and unsullied” (623). Stillinger adopts an even stronger position, noting that contemporary scholars are guilty of reifying the author as a lonesome prodigy, of subscribing to “the romantic myth of the author as a solitary genius” (202). Others, such as Foucault and Barthes, have attempted to instead banish or suggest the death of the author, severing the connection between authors and their works (Stillinger v). Adherence to either image, the solitary author or the dead author, is largely incompatible with attempts to study literature of the Augustan era which, according to Griffin, was characterized by “[a] higher incidence of collaboration…than at any time in the history of English literature” (1). This frequency of collaboration, continues Griffin, “can tell us something important about the literary world that the Augustans inhabited, a world different from our own, and requiring that we approach it with properly adjusted critical preconceptions” (1), that is to say, preconceptions that do not presuppose the myth of the solitary author or the absent author. This paper, then, seeks to investigate the ways in which redefining existing paradigms of authorship may lead to meaningful insight into new ways of studying literature of the Augustans, particularly that of Dryden and Pope. Moreover, this paper will attempt to trace patterns of collaboration by attempting to identify the types of literary collaboration, based upon authorial intention and motivation, prevalent in the early and late Augustan periods.
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