Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? [translated]
When the
people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government
fears the people, there is liberty.
--Thomas Jefferson
Ubi
dubium ibi libertas ... Onde há dúvida há
liberdade
[Where there is doubt there is freedom]
Whenever
you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and
reflect.
--Mark Twain
Chop
your own wood and it will warm you twice.
--Henry Ford
They that can give up essential liberty to
obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
--Benjamin Franklin
(One) who chooses not to read is just as
ignorant as one who can't.
--Mark Twain
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
--Mark Twain
Laughter
is the language of the Gods.
--Buddhist saying
Love is
a kind of warfare.
--Ovid
Well-behaved women seldom make history.
--Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Each of
us (are on Earth) for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes
seeming to divine a purpose. From this standpoint in daily life,
however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake
of men - above all, for those upon whose smile and well-being our own
happiness depends, and so for the countless unknown souls with whose
fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I
realize how much my own inner life is built on the labors of my fellow
men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in
order to give in return as much as I have received.
--Albert Einstein
The
return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.
--Franesco Guicciardini
All sin
tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is
called damnation.
--W.H. Auden
Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has.
--Margaret Mead
In lieu
of creativity, there is an undue emphasis on sexuality.
--Jay Christian Emerte
Being
beautiful can never hurt, but you have to have more. You have to
sparkle, you have to be fun, you have to make your brain work if you
have one.
--Sophia Loren
Do not
let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
--John Wooden
Where do
the words come from? The same mysterious place, I suspect, where notes
of music go. They precede ideas, and are inseparable from them.
--Joseph Epstein
Every gun that is made, every warship that
is launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft
from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not
clothed.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
Great is
the road I climb, but the garland offered by an easier effort is not
worth the gathering.
--Propertius
Whatever
you do, or dream you can [do], begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Over-reliance
on experience leads to making the same mistakes with increasing levels
of confidence.
--Pediatric Emergency Medicine Journal [link]
The
battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the
active, the brave.
--Patrick Henry, speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1776
Trials,
temptations, disappointments - all these are helps instead of
hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a
character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a
new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the
right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
--James Buckham
Failure
is only postponed success as long as courage "coaches" ambition. The
habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
--Herbert Kaufman
Love is
metaphysical gravity.
--R. Buckminster Fuller
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
--William Strunk jr [Elements of Style, 1918, ch 2, sec. 13]
If
you're going to play the game, you better own the ball.
--HL Menken
The greatest cost of the specialization of
technological life - and out of which all other damages are birthed -
is arguably our separation from the practical and enriching sense of
ourselves as embodied beings. When we are alienated from the wisdom of
the body, our lives become theoretical and abstract, and we are
distanced from the direct, felt sense of living.
--Richard Strozzi-Heckler
If there is one thing upon
this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a
brave man - it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and
tell him he is a devil.
--James A. Garfield
It may well be that the
greatest tragedy of this period of social change is not the glaring
noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the silence of the so-called
good people.
--Martin Luther King, jr
A
professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war
means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and
mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your
arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing
out and you can't do anything about it. Then you understand the horror
of war. Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still there
are things worth fighting for.
--H. Norman Schwarzkopf
It is
only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and
groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more
desolation. War is hell.
--William Tecumseh Sherman
Mankind
must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
--John F. Kennedy
A hero
is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than
oneself.
--Joseph Campbell
Any
intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in
the opposite direction.
--E.F. Schumacher
Goebbels
was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If
you're really in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom
of speech for precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in
favor of free speech.
--Noam Chomsky
The
universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to
grow sharper.
--Eden Phillpotts
We are
generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves
than by those given to us by others.
--Blaise Pascal
There
are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work,
learning from failure.
--Colin Powell
The
vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up
the steps - we must step up the stairs.
--Vance Havner
No love,
no friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some
mark on it forever.
--Francois Mauriac
Everyone's
worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: Stop
participating in it.
--Noam Chomsky
We will
not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of
unreason if we dig deep into our history and doctrine and remember that
we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to
write, to speak, to associate and defend causes which were - for the
moment - unpopular.
--Edward R. Murrow
There is in every true
woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad
daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in
the dark hour of adversity.
--Washington Irving
Action may not always bring
happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
--Benjamin Disraeli
People make their own
history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make
it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances
directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past.
--Karl Marx
Opportunity is missed by most
people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
--Thomas Alva Edison
If you should put even a
little on a little, and should do this often, soon this too would
become big.
--Hesiod
One
doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the
shore for a very long time.
--Andre Gide
Let every nation know,
whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any
burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure
the survival and the success of liberty.
--John F. Kennedy
The best way to predict the
future is to invent it.
--Alan Kay
Knowledge is power.
--Francis Bacon
Knowing is not enough; we
must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I hear and I forget. I see
and I remember. I do and I understand.
--Confucius
Great spirits have always
encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
--Albert Einstein
Creative
minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.
--Anna Freud
What we
obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives
everything its value.
--Tom Paine
Fascism:
a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme
right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership
together with belligerent nationalism.
--American Heritage Dictionary (1983 ed.)
The world is too dangerous for anything
but truth and too small for anything but love.
--William Sloane Coffin
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.
--Primo Levi
Life can
only be understood backwards, but life must be lived forwards.
--Soren Kierkegaard
As
Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all
those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are
equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to
see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
--George Washington
The
first step - especially for young people with energy and drive and
talent, but not money - the first step to controlling your world is to
control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you
demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films.
Paint the art.
--Chuck Palahniuk
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its water. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.
--Frederick Douglass |
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WRA135
Writing:
Public Life in America: The Service-Learning Writing Project
John A.
Dowell, Instructor
Service-Learning Writing Project
Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Fax: 517.353.5250
e-mail: jdowell@msu.edu
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Quick Links
- WRA135
is unlike any course you've ever taken before - please pay attention to
this
list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
- Summer/Fall
2006
 Muses: great little article on WRA135!
- Terrific
page
of resources - custom-built just for us - from U.S. Documents Librarian & Liaison to the School of Journalism @ MSU, Hui Hua Chua!
- The
Microsoft Excel
 spreadsheet
used for WRA135.
- Fall 2008: WRA135 Student Class Pages.
- Fall 2008: SLWP
webfolios connected to Dowell's WRA135.
- A short
list for helping
folks evaluate their theses and support.
- Online
dictionaries/encyclopedia:
Class,
MSU, and Student Life-Related
- From the Office of Admissions @ MSU ... Report on the Freshman Class of 2007. In no small part, this would be your audience!
- Here is the CATA website ... and here is
the link to the CATA/MSU
page. "It's what you do!"
- "40
Tips for 4.0 Papers," from our friends at the MSU Library!
- Searching
MSU's libraries: it's nothing but MAGIC.
- MSU's
homepage.
- About
every question concerning your AFS
("Andrew File Server," BTW) finally answered!
- Great
info for
 MSU students! (Check these out! However, note how
frustrating it is there are no descriptions at these links....)
- Great
info for students anywhere! (Check out these as well ...
but again unfortunate they didn't bother to explain what the links went
to!)
- ABSOLUTELY
brilliant, here are several TONS of free
books available online from the University of Pennsylvania!
- Evaluations are the
business of the busy (yes, that would include you)!
- LOOK AT
THIS! Here's a link
to the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning - get into
it! (And make it a link to your WRA135 webpage!)
- MSU
Center for Service-Learning
and Civic Engagement.
- Feeling
safe at MSU? Good. Find out if you should feel safe!
- U of M's
Project
SERVE. Just brilliant!
- A
fantastic resource for learning
about your agency's fiscal matters: GuideStar!
- Sign on
for free news at InfoBeat!
- How do
you get to graduate school? Practice, practice, practice! Here are
great opportunities to "bone up": The GRE Download Library and Learn-A-Test.
- You say
you want heroes? Get in touch with your favorite high
school teacher!
[Back to Page Contents]
Writing
and LRC-Related
- 300
Bessey: Mon-Thur 9A-5P, Fri 9A-2P
- Main
Library: Sun-Thur 3P-10P
- SASS
(A107 Smith Bldg): Mon-Thur 7:30P-9:30P
- ROIAL
(Mason Fish Bowl Conf. Room): Sun-Wed 7P-10P
- James
Madison (230 Case Hall): Sun-Thur 7P-10P
- Civil
Engineering (3563 Eng. Bldg): Mon & Wed 6P-8P, Tues 1P-5P, Thur
5P-7P (subject to change)
- Mon-Thur
10A-9P; Friday 10A-5P
(Please
remember, there are nearly forty computer
labs on campus!)
- An
AMAZINGLY good site, the "Guide
to Grammar and Writing" from Capital
Community-Technical College. (NOTE: You don't have to have
MSPowerPoint on your computer, but those are WONDERFUL presentations!
- Also
wonderful, though still in "beta" (mostly working, but rough) stages is
the Metropolitan Community College's
guide to "Identifying
the Argument of an Essay."
- Rather
less wonderful, some actual exam quotes
to ponder....
- Be
certain you understand these scholarly
writing standards right away about theses, quotations, introductions,
and conclusions!
- Let me
make your life easier! Check out "Paradigm"
and see just how helpful this site will be to your writing for the rest
of your scholarly career!
- While
his audience was folks who want to be professional writers,
Stephen
King offers "Everything You Need To Know About Writing Successfully
- In Ten Minutes."
- Everyone
needs help with transition
words once in a while!
- Avoid
clichés
... like the plague!
- A neat
page dealing with How to Write a
Synthesis.
- A
timeline which
may be somewhat helpful (and I'm always looking for more to add to
it!)
- Hey! A
cool set of terms/concepts to use (while crushing tinfoil on your "crap
detector"/logical fallacy antennae) when looking for faulty logic!
- Plus,
see if you can "detect" the logical fallacies in this
"scientific" logic.
- Also see
what the Writing Center has regarding Writing in the
Public Interest!
- Great
stuff to keep in mind when collaborating!
- Four
sites indicating how to cite internet sources using MLA style. NOTE: My
only disagreement is that - when writing for the internet - we must italicize
what they have sometimes indicated as underlined!
- Site
One
("A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on MLA Documentation,"
Capital Community College, Hartford, Connecticut)
- Site
Two (the Internet Public Library)
- Site
Three
(University of Wiconsin-Madison Writing Center: "Writer's Handbook")
- Site Four (Landmark Project's "Citation Machine" -
pretty cool!)
[Back to Page Contents]
Samples
and Templates
- The
Checklist
(PDF version with links)
- Templates
for your Letter
of Introduction [PDF version], Agreement and
Proposal, Project Update,
Audience
Assessment, and Reflections
essay to be included in your SLWP Webfolios.
- Instructions
for your Agency
Fact File.
- An SLWP
WEBFOLIO template. You
are to make yours look JUST like THIS - though be sure to make it
"yours"!
- A WRA135 WEBFOLIO template. (Same
deal as above - make it "yours.")
- An SLWP JOURNAL template, based on a Spring 2001 student's.
- A sample
WRA135 webfolio
from a previous student.
- A sample
SLWP webfolio from
a previous student (a bit out-of-date in look and info, but still a
decent example).
- A sample
update from
a previous student.
- Check
out the Suggestions for
Participating Agencies!
- A sort
of silly sample
illustrating correct page layout.
- Our
"guru" of sorts for making PDF files, Roger Black offers advice on "Web Sites That Work." If NOTHING else, remember to
have BLACK text on a WHITE background with BLUE links at ALL times!
- An
actual
 PowerPoint file
from F99 for an agency. (Note the suffix of <ppt>, meaning
"PowerPoint.")
- For
folks who need to convert brochures &/or newsletters into a "PDF"
file (portable document format - like the rubric, it
requires Adobe Acrobat):
- An
EXCELLENT collection of files from Fall 2000.
(Please be patient, as this is nearly a 1.6Mb download.) Here's a
fine example from a previous WRA135 group. (How did they do it? Simple.
They got with the folks at the Writing Center!)
Another sample. Yet
another.... And
another. An
excellent example. Here's
one which SHOULD have been fixed! Another
with errors, but an excellent draft. A good try,
but too blurry (needed to be scanned with finer detail). Short'n'sweet,
but should've had the image
scanned in color.
- A fine newsletter ...
which would have turned out much better as a PDF file!
[Back to Page Contents]
Library-Related
[Back to Page Contents]
Politics-Related
- This is important. See through the spin at FactCheck.org!
- Try this
political quiz.
- Another
itty-bitty
one.
- Take the
Freedom Quiz
... while you still can....
- Speaking
of, this Independence
Day Quiz maintains you should get 24 out of 30 to pass!
- Take SelectSmart's quick
quiz on who's your best choice for President.
- Easy-to-follow
info on candidates at GoVote!
- Check
out the well-picked bones in the Skeleton
Closet!
- Here's
something I bet you didn't know about the "Pledge of
Allegiance."
- Howard
Fast's "Our
Unsingable Anthem."
- So
what's with this Constitution
thing everyone makes such a fuss about? (Another version here.)
- Ever
wonder what Congress is up to? You certainly should! (Hey, it's
your money!) Find out with Thomas (as in
"Jefferson"), the US Congress on the internet!
- So
what's the big deal with
 Diebold voting
machines, anyway...?
- Ever
wonder what the Project for
the New American Century is up to? You certainly should!
- Hey!
Here's a militia your folks
won't - or might not - mind your joining!
- Richard
Murphy loves "this country" and "the military," yet dares complain...?
Find out why. More thoughts from the folks who are actually
serving at Operation Truth. (It truly makes you think ...
more than just sticking some flag on a window.)
[Back to Page Contents]
Computer-Related
(Again: please remember, there are over eighty computer labs on
campus!)
- LOST A FILE in your AFS space? Even an entire folder? Relax and remember: "In each user's directory, there is a directory called <snapshot.afs> which holds any files that have been deleted or changed file(s) since 10 pm of the night before. This allows easy retrieval of files if they are accidentally removed or altered. At 10 pm every night this directory is cleaned out and the process starts over again."
- Access
your MSU mail
account from any browser, anywhere!
- Get help
with your MSU account
from any browser, anywhere!
- The
Website
Evaluation Exercise done in class on 10.19.00.
- A
wonderful glossary
of technical terms made simple.
- Recycle your old tech crap for money! Rated a c|net "Best of the Web," we learn of Second Rotation.
- Also
from c|net, 10 websites you didn't
know you needed!
- New to
this "download" stuff? Here's
what c|net offers.
- How Net
Savvy Are You? Think you know your PGP
from your BBS?
Take c|net's interactive
quiz and see if you are as cyber-smart as you think you are. Then,
learn the top ten things that even experts should know about the
Internet.
- Things
to "ask yourself" about a webpage.
Also, neat stuff - criteria and tips - you should know for your
webpage
construction, courtesy of WRA195H. Finally, fifteen questions to
ask about smart
surfing.
- Again:
about every question concerning your AFS
space answered!
- What,
exactly, are you "allowed" to put on your webpages and in your email?
Click here for important
information on Michigan State University's "Acceptable Use of Computing
Systems, Software, and the University Digital Network."
- There
are rules to surviving a horror movie ... and for email!
- As ever,
to view or print Acrobat PDF files, you'll need the Acrobat
reader (free) software from Adobe. You may want to configure your
browser to use Acrobat as a Helper application, too.
- Everyone
knows to Reduce/Reuse/Recycle, of course. Here's a site
to help you get money back for your old printer cartridges! (And if you
get together with friends, THEY will pay $5 shipping for 10 or more
cartridges!)
[Back to Page Contents]
Readings
- Prose
[Back to Page Contents]
- Roger and Me, The Big One,
etc. - stuff ... and where MSU (and therefore your money) fits in:
[Back to Page Contents]
[Back to Page Contents]
Readings - Poetry/Song
[Back to Page Contents]
Important
Fun Stuff</ | |
