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"All writing is experimental . . . It is an attempt to solve a problem, to find a meaning, to discover its own way toward a meaning." - Donald M. Murray

In "Teach Writing as Process, Not Product," Donald Murray stresses that the ideas in a paper are just as important as execution, and that academia too often limits how an idea might be executed in prose. Having written two papers thus far for this class (and with two more to go), I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how well our class has embraced what Murray calls "experimental" in our webpapers.

I came across an online book on Tripod entitled Suicide Bombers: The Psychological, Religious and Other Imperatives compiled by Mary Sharp. The book has an article in it by Ofed Grosbar called "The Drama of the Suicide Terrorist," which reads:

 The first chapter of the graphic representation of the 9/11 report struck me the hardest. Even though it wasn't constructed to elicit emotion (because it seemed to try to focus on the facts and not their emotional implications), I still found myself caught reliving the emotions of that day. I had a neighbor who worked in one of the twin towers; I was good friends (at the time) with his daughter, who is my age. I remember getting the news that he was lost, and I remember getting the news some days later that his torso had been found, wedding band still wrapped around his finger. Maybe the power of these first few pages is found in the fact that they are factual rather than anecdotal or personal or emotional.

  Scene I: Computer Troubles. 

We couldn't get the computer to work. It was straight-up G (that's a pun, because the "g" key was stuck down and we couldn't get a letter in edgewise). In light of this, J asked for reactions to Tarnation. 

J: It's scary and shocking. 

Biology in Society Senior Seminar

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2010

Session 8

Whaling

Questions:

Should whaling be regulated by an international body?

Should whale conservation be a priority? Should whales be managed as a resource in the same way we manage other fisheries or are whales somehow special?

Biology in Society Senior Seminar

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2010

Session 8

Issues Surrounding the Human Genome Project

“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” – Socrates

Questions:

Biology in Society Senior Seminar

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2010

Session 7

Psychiatry and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)

Kwarlizzie, Collette

Questions

 Fingo, Fingere, Finxi, Fictus - v., 3rd conj., "pretend, feign, disassemble."; from the Proto-Indo-European word meaning, "to mold."

In Latin, words do not have a direct translation. Instead they have "senses." For example, the "sense" of the adjective, "honestus" is "honorable" or "commendable"; either "honorable" or "commendable" would be an appropriate translation of "honestus", depending on context. Context determines the meaning of a word; words have no concrete meaning on their own - they only have "senses", the innate properties that mean nothing without surrounding verbal framework. 

Biology in Society Senior Seminar

Bryn Mawr College, Fall 2010

Session 7

Disconnect Between the Scientific Community and the Public