Anne's Blog

Graduate school is nothing if not a lot of reading, writing and money. Compared with on-site courses, distance education probably doubles the reading and writing, though not the money. Probably. The data isn’t in on that yet.

Anyway, writing especially is critical in distance education (DE) mainly because you’ll need to get your ideas across quickly, concisely, clearly, regularly and hopefully, with color.

If I could pass along any piece of advice on that, it would be to stay true to your research and content. The writing style will follow, if you know what you want to say and how you want to say it. Simplicity takes hard work. Show your effort by keeping your writing simple until you’ve learned the language of your field.

To get started, check out these books, if you haven’t already:

* Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

* The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White, which is fairly inexpensive for those of us who keep losing it or lending it out.

And most of all, remember to read Mark Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses,” a short (for that time) piece that still packs a lot of writing tips into an amusing critique of Fenimore Cooper’s Deerslayer series. A few pointers from this 19th century writing tutorial that still apply in the blogosphere:

“In addition to these large rules there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.”

Check out the rest of this inimitable humorist's writing tips at the Public Broadcasting System’s (PBS) website: http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_fenimore.html

Posted by Anne at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

“Are you sure it’s accredited?”
If I had a nickel for each time someone asked that about my online master’s program, I could pay my tuition through 2009. Honestly, despite three decades of advancing technology, people still see distance education as tacky correspondence courses -- or worse, as diplomas from some seedy boilerplate mill.
If you’re reading this blog, though, you have more savvy than that. You may interact regularly with perfectly legitimate online vendors whom you trust. Colleges are no exception – check them out.
More to the point, though, if you can access a blog, you have what you need, technically speaking, to take an online program. You are even more advanced than Microsoft Inc. because, gauging from the red, squiggly lines, my new Word 2003 recognizes neither “blog” nor “Weblog,” and you do.
But let me introduce myself, since that was my assignment. My husband and I have three adult children, two awesome daughters-in-law and two perfect grandchildren. Most of our extended family lives within five miles of our home in a Denver, Colorado, suburb.
My chosen pursuit is a Master of Family and Consumer Sciences/Gerontology through the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (GP-IDEA), a consortium of Midwest universities that includes Iowa State, my “home” university. My career links inevitably to that. I now work for nearly anyone who will pay me as I pursue my degree, but before that, I worked for 15 years as a business and technology journalist in magazines and on the Web. I left that field for college, finished a bachelor’s and now, here I am. With a master’s, I hope again to make good money at work I enjoy, and maybe inspire my grandchildren’s pursuits, as well.
Meantime, distance education is rewarding, but rough, with constant schedule conflicts because I have deadlines, but no set class time. Should I spend time visiting with my 70-something parents, or should I study for my aging program? Should I spend the day staining a high chair with my daughter or do my homework for that course on family interactions? Ironic, isn’t it? I can do coursework at midnight, if my 49-year-old self can manage to stay up that late. But more likely, I’ll be cramming somewhere down the road.
Online courses also inherently mean you work alone, and you can feel it. No one really knows what it’s like – except online classmates. I’ve found that students speak their mind and their hearts through their writing, and it creates a bond among us that is in its way, more personal than those with my other friends.
A caveat: Anyone who uses e-mail knows to rethink a note before sending it. We do the same with postings in class because unedited words can be misinterpreted. Similarly, I think we give each other a huge benefit of the doubt when we read the seemingly odd in someone’s words. This is how we foster rapport in cyberspace.
Chit-chat with profs doesn’t occur in the minutes after class on campus, but can take hours for a response. Yet when it arrives, invariably my profs have mastered the art of soothing e-mails, and their easy, uncomplicated explanations belie their doctorate-level learning.
Finally, the work is just plain intense. I never go anywhere without my textbook, hoping to catch a chapter during a wait. On campus, I would miss a class for travel. Now, wherever I go, so goes my laptop. I love it; I hate it. I need it; I don’t need this pressure. But one thing I am sure of. My program is accredited.

Posted by Anne at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)