4.0637 Qs: Shipwreck Topos; CETEDOC; Writing Assessment (3/56)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 26 Oct 90 11:32:50 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0637. Friday, 26 Oct 1990.


(1) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 90 09:34 CDT (20 lines)
From: Bill Kupersmith <BLAWRKWY@UIAMVS>
Subject: SHIPWRECK TOPOS

(2) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 07:59 CDT (11 lines)
From: BILL HOOK <HOOKWJ00@vuctrvax>
Subject: RE: 4.0631 CETEDOC Electronic Text Library

(3) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 16:21:46 CDT (25 lines)
From: Charles Ess <DRU001D@SMSVMA>
Subject: Writing assessment

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 90 09:34 CDT
From: Bill Kupersmith <BLAWRKWY@UIAMVS>
Subject: SHIPWRECK TOPOS

In John Dryden's _Threnodia Augustalis_(1685), a funeral elegy on the
death of Charles II, Dryden writes of the fruitless attempts of the
king's physicians to save Charles' life:

Like helpless friends, who view from shoar
The labouring Ship, and hear the tempest roar,
So stood they with their arms across;
Not to assist, to to deplore
Th' inevitable loss. (lines 192-95)

This looks like a classical topos to me, but does anybody know
a passage in Greek or Latin literature where an ineffectual bystander
is compared to a person safe ashore viewing a shipwreck?
--Bill Kupersmith
University of Iowa

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 07:59 CDT
From: BILL HOOK <HOOKWJ00@vuctrvax>
Subject: RE: 4.0631 CETEDOC Electronic Text Library (1/85)

These new products sound most interesting. Recognizing that they are
both in the pre-release stages, did CETEDOC give any indication of
price for these CD-ROMS?

Bill Hook
Divinity Library
Vanderbilt University
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 16:21:46 CDT
From: Charles Ess <DRU001D@SMSVMA>
Subject: Writing assessment

My thanks to one and all for speedy and generous responses to my most
recent query regarding business ethics texts. For better or for worse,
my colleagues are becoming more and more intrigued by this use of
BITNET and HUMANIST -- and so I'm becoming something of a communications
flunky for especially the humanities faculty. That said, if it will
not strain anyone's patience -- another query:

The Director of our Writing Center is looking for a consultant or
consultancy service operating through an academic institution to
provide some guidance and advice regarding external assessment of
student writing. She has developed a model of "longitudinal"
assessment -- i.e., one which tracks student writing through
their several years here, and she would like to expand her knowledge
and approach regarding assessment of this sort.

Relatedly, can anyone recommend a list which deals specifically
with writing across the curriculum issues and writing assessment?

Thanks in advance,
Charles Ess
Drury College