Philip Coates

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Philip Coates last won the day on July 14 2009

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About Philip Coates

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    --Playing Sports (running, basketball, body surfing)
    --Literature and History
    --Art Museums
    --Rock 'n Roll, Classical, Country and Western
    --Epistemology
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    Philip Coates
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    Patsy Cline, Michelangelo, Casablanca, Katharine Hepburn, Isaac Asimov

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  1. Thanks PDS, I used to teach literature, composition, and history mostly but I've gravitated more and more to literature. One reason is that unlike most subjects, literature courses keep changing a little bit (for those teachers allowed to select their own curriculum.) I'm teaching two other courses this term as well...I can explain**. > Go Blue. I was only at Michigan for a year, so it took me a second...Did you go there? Ann Arbor was a lovely college town. ** Actually no I won't. I always knew Michael would eventually prove to, like Linz and Diana, kick me out or start deleting posts of mine he didn't like. And that just started today. So he just crossed the line for me: Sayonara.
  2. Here's the course catalog blurb for a course I'm teaching starting in several weeks: COURSE DESCRIPTION: America doesn't have a Shakespeare, but we do have a Mark Twain. Many consider him the greatest quintessentially "American" writer. He is arguably the most influential across the last century and a half. He simplified language, brought about a more natural way of writing, wrote books that generations of school children and adults warmly remember, was a great satirist. Twain is often not only deeply perceptive about people and their ways, but is enormously, laugh-out-loud funny as well. As a work of social criticism masquerading as a simple adventure story, "Huckleberry Finn" may have swayed more people against racism than almost anything else in American literature. In addition to readings from his novels, essays, stories, and speeches, we will view parts of "Mark Twain Tonight", the celebrated DVD reenactment of Twain on stage in his travels across America starring Hal Holbrook, in his white suit and cigar bringing Twain to life. The anthology we will use is "The Portable Mark Twain" (to be supplemented by class handouts). Please order a cheap used copy from Amazon.com -two weeks- before class starts, then read the introduction and the first three items. Get the Penguin edition edited by Tom Quirk, not the one by Bernard de Voto. BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: Philip Coates is a graduate of Brown University. He has a Master's degree from the University of Michigan. He has extensive teaching experience -- in the business world, as a corporate trainer at Hewlett-Packard, as a tutor, and in the classroom at multiple levels. Phil is also a published writer and a popular lecturer. He has taught, been involved in workshops, or done research in a wide range of subjects over the years. These include literature and language, oral and written communications, self-improvement and leadership, thinking and persuasion, and philosophical psychology.
  3. > What exactly prevents your from using the simple, clear and informative quote function? Asked and answered.
  4. Note from MSK: Text deleted. It's easier. I'm tired of babysitting this poster and moving his crap to the Garbage Pile.
  5. Note from MSK: Text deleted. It's easier. I'm tired of babysitting this poster and moving his crap to the Garbage Pile.
  6. Subject: Locked into Delusions and Imaginary "Facts" > nobody takes you seriously...your credibility is shot to hell right now Michael, what's the weather like in your imaginary universe? I'm amused that 'nobody' means people outside of your tiny little circle of homeboys here. You have sort of delusions of grandeur thinking your minuscule little crowd of insult boys and misfits represents everybody. And it's laughable that I should take you or them and your opinions seriously. > I've seen you try to teach an expert elementary-level stuff in his field Another sign of delusion that you consider Jeff R and expert or consider literature "his field" more than it is mine. I have taught more courses in literature (not just sci-fi) than Jeff could even imagine. Did you buy his bluster that he's an "expert' who should not be questioned. > until your posting behavior improves And this is -fantastic- coming from you, ND, George, etc. One of youi is a serial psychologizer, and the other two think ridicule is a substitute for careful point-by-point argument.
  7. Show me where I actually changed the meaning in a paraphrase.
  8. Subject: being patient and pleasant and diplomatic and tactful (people and teaching and conversational and debating skills) Related to this is the question of when irritability and lack of tact occurs. For me and for most people, obviously when you are personally attacked as opposed to having your ideas treated with precision and respect. But in the OWL case WSS quotes, while the whole back story was not snipped, it seems as though it was the overall style of discussion that was an irritant for me - "academese" and nit-picking have always annoyed me. Where I'd like to improve is in dealing with these latter kinds of issues -- annoyance with the method or tenor of conversation. (When it is personal attacks and uncivil, there I don't have any desire to improve my style of response - when kicked in the teeth it's appropriate to kick back.) (Like many others, I'm a lot more patient, benevolent, less irritated, "in a good mood" in person. Usually repetitiousness of dealing with the same issue over and over and getting nowhere has not set in and there is no memory of past incivility or missrepresentation and so on. I've been told that as a teacher I'm very thoughtful, very accepting, very patient, a good listener, non-hectoring. And when people meet me and have a conversation or disagreement with me and sit down for a cup of coffee, I think they think they also have a thoughtful or pleasant and friendly interaction.)
  9. Subject: being patient and pleasant and diplomatic and tactful In #161, WSS reposts something from OWL of mine in which I'm in the middle of a debate on the rights of children. What's notable is how irritated debating with 'academic' types made me. I can certainly see how my crankiness and disrespect for the 'academic style' would piss them off. [WSS helped me see it just now by bolding the cranky or condemnatory parts]. Maybe there is a more diplomatic way I could have made the same points I did, but my style is not as diplomatic as it could be...especially as frustration builds up over time. I guess that's a flaw of mine. (I know there are many admirers of my writing style on this board who would be shocked because they thought I was perfect... ) The thing I need to think about is when I ruffle feathers with a side comment on bad writing or bad thinking or too much needles-on the-head-of-a-pin academic minutiae style, the reader who is angered will be distracted from *actually carefully considering* my serious points or insights. It's the old catch more flies with honey than vinegar principle. And I'm hardly the only person in the Oist movement who needs to learn it.
  10. > What post are you quoting from? I've searched but I cannot find it. This is very annoying. If you will not use the quote function, you could at least give a post number, especially when posts have been appearing at a rapid rate, as they have tonight on this thread. [GHS, 157] Sorry. I almost always give a post number, unless it was just above (one of the one or two posts the reader has just read). I forgot this time.
  11. William, thanks for reposting that long post of mine from OWL. I had forgotten it and I think it's one of my best posts. Certainly a pretty thorough discussion of the issue of the importance of method and of why it's important to critique it, learn about it in an intellectual movement or discussion forum. I don't like to repeat myself and when I've said the same things more recently I'm not likely to take as much time to lay out my view and my reasons in that much detail. So, that's helpful - it shows with crystal clarity where I'm coming from and that I was dealing with the very same issues of resentment when one's deep-seated 'thinking methods' are criticized (which I'd forgotten).
  12. > There is no proper use of quotation marks for a paraphrase unless you are quoting someone paraphrasing. [brant] Give it a rest, pal. > Here’s a plum example of you making one of your ignorant attacks, then not following through when challenged. [ND] Not it's not: You can't even read.