Announcing a New Resource for Graduate Mentors, Instructors

Because graduate mentors and online instructors support the learning of our graduate students in so many ways every semester, we want to give them a place in the PC Learning Commons Weekly where they can find essential resources to support them. Mentor Coordinator and Associate Faculty member Bev Santo will begin posting helpful information here on a regular basis so that it is easy to find later. 

She also hopes to promote dialogue among mentors and faculty by establishing the "Resources for Mentors & Instructors" section of the Weekly. All posts relevant to graduate mentors will be collected under the label "Resources for Mentors" (see the list of labels to the right of this post) for quick access. Thanks to the blog format, readers can comment or reply to any post to start a conversation or just say hi. Bev welcomes mentors' suggestions for new resources and post topics that could enhance their experiences with graduate learners.

In addition, mentors who subscribe to this blog or visit it regularly are encouraged to make use of the writing advice, announcements, and links to learning resources that appear throughout the Weekly. (To subscribe, type your email address in the "Follow by email" box to the left of this post.) We would even welcome short notes or tips from mentors or online instructors who are inspired to share them with us. 

For starters, here are a few links to the PC website that form the most basic toolkit of a successful graduate mentor:

Master of Arts Resources Page 

Master of Arts Academic Calendar

MAP Handbook

MAP Counseling Psychology Handbook

Graduate mentors and online instructors will also be receiving a monthly email from Bev to keep everyone up-to-date on changes to policy or procedures. 

Photo credit: chris zerbes / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

MIT Online: A Massive Resource for Mentored Studies

"Students may elect to create their own courses in self-designed degree programs." It may have been that sentence or one like it that prompted you to enroll at Prescott College in the first place, particularly if you are an experienced learner with an independent streak. As each new set of study contract deadlines rushes towards you, though, creating amazing courses tailored to your degree plan is hard work. You seek advice from the faculty or a mentor, but what if there were a bank of free, first-rate syllabi somewhere that would not only spark your imagination with intriguing course titles but lay out readings, discussion questions, assignments, video and audio lectures, and, in the sciences, "simulations, applets, and visualizations" so you can fully engage with the course? And just in case you want to do the course in a language other than English, say in Spanish or Portuguese, there were dozens of courses that have been translated into these and ten other languages?

That world-class resource exists and it is called MIT Open Courseware, OCW for short. Before you design your next mentored course or independent study, go to the OCW site and search for courses by topic. Or simply browse the list of 2150 courses. The site is easy to navigate and you do not need to create an account or pay any fees (although donations are accepted) to browse or download materials. All courses are authored by MIT faculty in disciplines ranging from Aeronautics to Autism Theory to Japanese Politics to Urban Studies...you'll need to see for yourself how far-ranging their course list is. 

You can use OCW for inspiration only, but once you see the course descriptions and syllabi available in this permanent and ever-expanding resource, it's likely you'll have a hard time deciding which free course to take first. You will still need to find a community-based mentor for each course in order to earn PC credit. However, your mentor can take the role of discussant rather than course-leader, which may make the mentor role more attractive to the busy professionals you want to study with. 

As with any other mentored course, discuss with your advisor how an OCW-based course might fit into your degree plan to make sure you are getting the most value for your time and dedication. Then let us know at the Learning Commons how you are putting OCW to work for you!  

Logical Fallacies in Written Arguments

While it is  important that you choose topics you are passionate about, the ultimate goal of your academic writing is to persuade the reader of your point, or, failing that, to inform. Logical fallacies are mistakes in reasoning. They may be intentional or unintentional, but in either case they undermine the strength of your argument in an academic paper. 

The best way to learn to recognize logical errors in your own writing is to practice identifying them in the things you read, be they news stories, blog posts, or journal articles. You will see for yourself how making logical errors in writing lowers the credibility of a piece of writing and weakens its effectiveness. You don't need a course in philosophy to grasp the following common logical pitfalls:

Hasty Generalization: A generalization based on too little evidence, or on evidence that is biased. Example: All men are testosterone-driven idiots. Or: After being in New York for a week, I can tell you: all New Yorkers are rude.

Either/Or Fallacy: Only two possibilities are presented when in fact several exist. Example: America: love it or leave it. Or: Shut down all nuclear power plants, or watch your children and grandchildren die from radiation poisoning.

Non Sequitur: The conclusion does not follow logically from the premise. Example: My teacher is pretty; I'll learn a lot from her. Or: George Bush was a war hero; he'll be willing to stand tough for America.

Ad Hominem: Arguing against the man instead of against the issue. Example: We can't elect him mayor. He cheats on his wife! Or: He doesn't really believe in the first amendment. He just wants to defend his right to see porno flicks.

Red Herring: Distracting the audience by drawing attention to an irrelevant issue. Example: How can he be expected to manage the company? Look at how he manages his wife! Or: Why worry about nuclear war when we're all going to die anyway?

Circular Reasoning: Asserting a point that has just been made. Sometimes called "begging the question." Example: She is ignorant because she was never educated. Or: We sin because we're sinners.

False Analogy: Wrongly assuming that because two things are alike in some ways, they must be alike in all ways. Example: An old grandmother's advice to her granddaughter, who is contemplating living with her boyfriend: "Why should he buy the cow when he can get the milk for free?"

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc: The mistake of assuming that, because event a is followed by event b, event a caused event b. Example: It rained today because I washed my car. Or: The stock market fell because the Japanese are considering implementing an import tax.

Equivocation: Equates two meanings of the same word falsely. Example: The end of a thing is its perfection; hence, death is the perfection of life. (The argument is fallacious because there are two different definitions of the word "end" involved in the argument.)