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A Program with Purpose
by Anne Stone
College is the time when a person
decides what profession to pursue. While there are an infinite
number of professions with a wide variety of professional skills
involved, there is one skill that every employer values:
communication skills. On the Monmouth College campus, there is
a program dedicated to helping every student gain these
communication skills. Communication Across the Curriculum, also
known as CAC, gives students the resources they will need long
after their time at Monmouth College has passed.
Dr. Steve Price, the head of CAC,
is neither a member of the English Department faculty nor the
Communications Department faculty. He teaches a wide
variety of classes within both academic departments, and has an
academic and professional background that speaks volumes for the
tremendous success of the program. Dr. Price was and
undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, and
upon graduation taught at a high
school for three years. He received his graduate degree from
Arizona State University, and his Ph.D. from Louisiana State
University. His first collegiate position was at Mississippi
College, where he was the English Department Chair. He has had
a lot of experience with writing and communication through his
professional encounters as well as his vast academic career, and
he has definitely showed his talent and dedication here at
Monmouth.
CAC is more than just a resource for students after
Monmouth College. The Writing Center, located in Mellinger
Learning Center’s third level, provides students of any age or
major assistance with course writing assignments. Student
tutors are required to take a semester long course, English 299,
in order to qualify for the tutoring position. Similarly,
speech tutors are available in Wallace Hall’s third floor by
appointment. These tutors listen to students’ speech
assignments, and provide useful feedback. A new program,
Writing Partners, delivers tutors to ILA classes. Two tutors
are assigned to an ILA section, and they meet individually with
students for tutoring sessions. This semester has been a very
successful one with positive feedback from both professors and
students on these services. Because of Communication Across the
Curriculum and its programs, students have an easier time
attaining the skills and resources they’ll need to be successful
now and in the future.
For more about the new Writing Partners Program, visit:
 
Helpful Writing Tips
By Megan Carlson
As the semester comes to a
close, homework opens its doors and lets in all the light. It
rushes in blinding us by the sheer amount of rays that constantly
beats on our tired eyes. This could be a somewhat drastic
analogy, but homework has taken over our lives. If there is
not a long reading assignment to be read by the next day, there is a
five page paper glaring at us on our desks. Since it is almost
December, it always seems that I start to slow down just as the
semester is picking up. This week in my English classes I
received a refresher on writing and especially on how to present an
interesting and provocative idea. I thought that I would share
this inspired session with you. Hopefully this will be
productive for you and remind you that it is possible to write good
papers, even when the end is near!
Dr. Watson presented his Modern American Drama class with an email
on how to write a great thesis statement. After discussing
this email with a few classmates, I realized that this email truly
helped us to look at our writing and make it better. This is
the email that was sent:
A good thesis
first involves an attitude: a sense of intrigue, involvement,
risk-taking, a certain bravado, even arrogance (I know something
really important about this play that no one else does, and I’m not
only going to show you that I’m right, I’m going to knock your socks
off doing it). Henry James aspired to be that person upon whom
nothing is lost. Arrogant, certainly, but implied in the
statement is also humble dedication to an ideal of intelligence and
excellence.
A thesis is an arguable assertion that in this case is also a deep
insight, an interpretive diamond. Or imagine the good thesis as a
chariot you’re trying to drive, whose horses are almost beyond your
power to control. What a ride! Slow and safe are not options, nor
are they much fun. Complicate your life, up the ante.
Take a risk, Surprise yourself. Pull it off.
Ok. That’s attitude. Now, pre-writing rules. Mine
the text for ideas; turn over your prospective thesis as if it were
a fifty carrot yellow diamond held to the light; you want to cut,
polish every facet of the stone, every nuanced possibility of
meaning.
AND then you want to find evidence that, in your hands, stunningly
convinces.
You are writing the essay not because you have to, but because,
since you have to, you might as well be brilliant.
To further our exploration into better writing as English majors and
minors, Shane Connaughton suggests how you should get your brilliant ideas. He wrote the
screenplay for
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown, which received an
Oscar nomination. He also won the Hennessy award for Irish
fiction in 1985.
Use your eyes
and ears everywhere you go. Look. Listen. Go to the theatre. Learn
how actors work. Write about something that moves you. Then you
might move the world. Remember the Trojan War was a parochial
affair. A squabble over cattle and maybe a woman. In other words,
everything you need for a good story is right there in your village
or town. Right under your nose… which makes it hard to see
sometimes."
Shane Connaughton
Writing is a struggle, but it is always helpful to receive inspired
words by those who are influential in the literary world. Now,
go out there and write the best thesis statements and papers
Monmouth College has yet to see!
This link can
take you to other famous writers and their tips.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/howtowrite/index.shtml
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Anais Nin
Henry David Thoreau
