Stander Symposium

The first presentation I went to was called "Literacy Influences at the University of Dayton." The presentation consisted of four individual presentations. The one I liked best was that of Rohan Modi, a first-year Pre-Medicine major. His topic was about analyzing the environment of college students at UD and what the different distractions are. He wanted to know if there was advantages or disadvantages in studying in the different residence halls. He did a case study with six students. Two of the students were from Stuart, two were from Founders, and two were from Marianist. Out of the two, one student received "A's" in English, while the other received "B" grades. He also interviewed fifteen individuals from each of the three different dorms. Rohan watched the students as they wrote a paper for a class. He found that each person faced similar distractions, such as instant messenger, Facebook, and friends. The "A" writers were more disciplined and things such as Facebook in moderation while writing a paper, while the "B" writers were more easily distracted. He also found that were you live has a lot to do with the kind of writer you are. Stuart and Founders are both very loud, and the rooms are too small. The most difficult dorm to concentrate in is Stuart. I live in Stuart and totally agree. People are always in the halls, so it's very distracting. I have to go to the library or the Marianist lounge to do my work. I think Stuart needs to have quiet study lounges where people can do their work, so the school should take this into consideration when they renovate the complex.

The second presentation I attended was called "Student Research on Literacy and Its Influences." Again, there were four presenters. I liked Christine Jasek's presentation about Grammar and Literacy. Christine is a marketing major. She wanted to know if college students used good grammar and whether or not that leads to good written communication. She had fourteen first-year students take a grammar quiz, and she asked what their last grade on a paper was. I actually took the quiz, and parts of it were pretty difficult. The average quiz score was a 73%, but the average grade on the paper was an A-. The section with the lowest scores was that of parallel structure, and the section in which students did best on was fragments. So, good grammar does not equal good written communication. She found different reasons for poor grammar. We write how we speak, which hurts written communication. People do not correct others when they speak wrong. I thought this presentation was very interesting, especially for my future profession as a teacher. I need to make sure that my students really understand grammar, and grammar should be taught in context. I will implement it in all subjects, not just when we study grammar.