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Rachel Peckam's "The Elephants Evaluate: Some Notes on the Problem of Grades in Graduate Creative Writing Programs" while a bit on the long side she captured me with her form. In a big way it reminded me of a much more intense version of our observation paper. She went through several examples of her students and all had issues with grading she commented on. She also throughout some back ground I was unaware of such as the origin of grading in America. If figures grades would come from Yale in 1783 but the idea she brought up that perhaps grading and morality have a certain relationship. We do place a certain importance on grades that Peckam points out. Even she obsesses over her grades while trying to help her students not worry about their grades. This idea of grading creative writing hits home for me since my goal is to teach creative writing one day. How do we judge creative writing using a grading system? How can we give a point total for the imagination? It's a tough problem and Peckam does a great job of giving real world examples and weighing the difficult question clearly. I just had to include a quote from her, "It seems my soludon for grading is like chemotherapy. It's working, but it's killing us in the process." (96) She has a lot of meat in this article and I really like the idea of looking at how we treat creative writing in our education system.

Make sure to relate this back to what we're doing--mentoring undergrads in academic (not creative) writing.

The amount of different types of social networking existing in today's students' lives is gigantic, also fascinating for me. I find it important and interesting to think about many different aspects of social networking, its effects on our lives. I am also interested in looking at how people's writing can reflect their true identity at that particular point in their lives. So, this article, which is based on a research project, seemed relevant to me. Basically, it examines and discusses 5 things: a) what SL (Second Life) is; b) how SL fits the definition of a Web 2.0 technology; 3) how SL can be beneficial in composition classrooms; 4) brief review of the research methodology; and 5) how identity and otherness can be viewed in a virtual world and the writing that comes from that. The author says: "SL is a medium that challenges students and gives them experiences, and ultimately confidence, helping to make their writing more engaging to read and more enjoyable for them to write". As I was reading this article, it was interesting to look at SL as an example of liminal spaces for those who are newbies and feel as outsiders. Will they always feel and be viewed as "others"? Will this affect the writing they will do? To what degree is composition linked to literacy today? Can we predict its future and take measures accordingly?