I ordered one of the “Great Courses” from The Teaching Company the other day and it arrived the day before yesterday. (I say the day before yesterday because it was sitting outside the door when I went out to go to work yesterday. Evidently FedEx corporate policy states that knocking would disturb our quiet familial repose and the harmony of our Feng shui.) I got “Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft” which, coincidentally, was on sale. (I’m sorry, they may have the greatest product in the history of the world but I’m not going to pay $250 plus for it. Though that is relative since if they were offering a new car that actually ran for that price I and almost everyone in the free world would be ordering them by the boatload.)
The lectures are delivered by Brooks Landon of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Which, as an aspiring writer, was enough to induce me to get off of my wallet and buy. (That and the sale price. Am I inserting too many parenthetical asides?) I really wanted an MFA, but it doesn’t look like it’s in the cards right now. This, however, was right up my alley. (It’s sort of like really wanting a puppy but getting a goldfish instead because you have to buy it yourself and realize you are constrained by real world budgetary concerns.)
The first lecture discussed what sentences are. Evidently they aren’t a series of words. (Who knew?) Rather they are a series of propositions. How’s that for mind bending? If, for example, I say “Joe is sick” then there are a series of propositions contained in the idea of Joe being sick. First there is the proposition that someone named Joe exists. Then there is the proposition that there exists a state called sickness. Then there is the proposition that Joe exists in that state called sickness. You could go on for a while like that.
Though he didn’t state it I am assuming that he meant ‘proposition’ in the sense intended in logic: The content of a sentence that affirms or denies something and is capable of being true or false.
There is, however, one tiny bone I have to pick with The Teaching Company: The set. You would think that if a company wanted to be taken more seriously they would cut loose with a little more money for production. It looked like… Well, like this:
Learning Stuff
I ordered one of the “Great Courses” from The Teaching Company the other day and it arrived the day before yesterday. (I say the day before yesterday because it was sitting outside the door when I went out to go to work yesterday. Evidently FedEx corporate policy states that knocking would disturb our quiet familial repose and the harmony of our Feng shui.) I got “Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft” which, coincidentally, was on sale. (I’m sorry, they may have the greatest product in the history of the world but I’m not going to pay $250 plus for it. Though that is relative since if they were offering a new car that actually ran for that price I and almost everyone in the free world would be ordering them by the boatload.)
The lectures are delivered by Brooks Landon of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Which, as an aspiring writer, was enough to induce me to get off of my wallet and buy. (That and the sale price. Am I inserting too many parenthetical asides?) I really wanted an MFA, but it doesn’t look like it’s in the cards right now. This, however, was right up my alley. (It’s sort of like really wanting a puppy but getting a goldfish instead because you have to buy it yourself and realize you are constrained by real world budgetary concerns.)
The first lecture discussed what sentences are. Evidently they aren’t a series of words. (Who knew?) Rather they are a series of propositions. How’s that for mind bending? If, for example, I say “Joe is sick” then there are a series of propositions contained in the idea of Joe being sick. First there is the proposition that someone named Joe exists. Then there is the proposition that there exists a state called sickness. Then there is the proposition that Joe exists in that state called sickness. You could go on for a while like that.
Though he didn’t state it I am assuming that he meant ‘proposition’ in the sense intended in logic: The content of a sentence that affirms or denies something and is capable of being true or false.
There is, however, one tiny bone I have to pick with The Teaching Company: The set. You would think that if a company wanted to be taken more seriously they would cut loose with a little more money for production. It looked like… Well, like this: