The Ethics of Words in an Ethical (Academic) World

The topic of my presentation was prompted by a question I’ve asked students in my writing class: why is it that colleges almost uniformly require students take courses on writing and speaking in their first year of college? Why do programs like Cornerstone usually consist of courses on writing and speech and not, say, biology and business? Why are words in spoken and written form so important? My presentation will answer these questions and show that the ethical issues related to integrity and cheating can be greatly clarified when students and faculty engage more deeply, radically with their words. This presentation will have two parts. First, I will argue that just when students should be inner directed, examining the body of assumptions (especially about words) they bring into college, college now encourages them to be more outer directed than ever with their continued involvement with (among other things) communication technology. Their inner, intellectual life remains radically unchanged. Using the insights of educators like Northrop Frye, Mark Van Doren, Alfred North Whitehead and Susanne Langer (and from the use of my own textbook on college level writing), I will propose that if all faculty in liberal education (not just teachers of Cornerstone) can understand why almost all colleges ask first year students to take courses on words, they can help students in any college course to develop a personal, revolutionary and ethical relationship with words such that this personal relationship with words will prompt the students to be academically honest with their use of words in other courses. In the 2nd part, I will ask participants to attempt some activities that show what I mean by developing an ethical and personal relationship with words. Through different activities they will: 1) examine the word-image dynamic going on automatically in their own minds; 2) see the metaphors that are in discursive texts; 3) see how their own minds automatically produce metaphors to make concrete one’s intellectual experiences; and 4) see that their deliberate creation of metaphors to convey ideas leads to a deeper engagement with not just words but their own their intellect. Finally, I will 5) show how a student need only use better the words that they have already put on the page (with special attention to infinitives and nominalizations) to achieve college level writing. When they use better the words they have, I argue, they will experience an evolution and a revolution with words that they will want to “show off” in their other courses (whether in speaking in discussions or in writing). This personal engagement with words amounts to more ... When the student has a personal engagement with words, they will have a more intense and vivid thinking experience and be a more active receptor of words conveyed in their courses