I have profaned myself with coarse sins and consumed my whole life with procrastination. (Lenten Troparia of Orthros)
Yep, that's me. I have an almost-final exam on Wednesday and a list of 85 terms to learn before I take it. I have about 60 defined and a couple dozen learned. And what am I doing?Procrastinating Blogging.
But this is important! I think I'm onto something. Deductive reasoning moves from general to specific, right? Starting with basic rules (children are more squirrelly on Friday than any other day) and moving logically to a conclusion (I will never teach another piano lesson on a Friday.) Inductive, meanwhile, goes from specific to general; it begins with observation (Maia is always waiting at the door when Rob pulls up) and moves to universals (cats must have very sensitive hearing.)
I have ten students in my Creative Writing class, and I think I can categorize them all as Deductive or Inductive writers. Deductive writers enjoy a very vague prompt ("Write a story about rain") from which they begin to construct specific characters, setting and plot. Inductive writers prefer something very specific ("Begin a story with the following quote: 'I can't believe you stole those flowers!'") around which they can build generalities of time and place.
Personally, I am firmly in the former camp. I always found those detailed prompts trite and constraining. But after assigning the flower prompt, I was shocked to read half a dozen fascinating and completely different accounts of stolen foliage and its subsequent denoument.
Back to work, that is, unless someone wants to further distract me with a response . . .
Yep, that's me. I have an almost-final exam on Wednesday and a list of 85 terms to learn before I take it. I have about 60 defined and a couple dozen learned. And what am I doing?
But this is important! I think I'm onto something. Deductive reasoning moves from general to specific, right? Starting with basic rules (children are more squirrelly on Friday than any other day) and moving logically to a conclusion (I will never teach another piano lesson on a Friday.) Inductive, meanwhile, goes from specific to general; it begins with observation (Maia is always waiting at the door when Rob pulls up) and moves to universals (cats must have very sensitive hearing.)
I have ten students in my Creative Writing class, and I think I can categorize them all as Deductive or Inductive writers. Deductive writers enjoy a very vague prompt ("Write a story about rain") from which they begin to construct specific characters, setting and plot. Inductive writers prefer something very specific ("Begin a story with the following quote: 'I can't believe you stole those flowers!'") around which they can build generalities of time and place.
Personally, I am firmly in the former camp. I always found those detailed prompts trite and constraining. But after assigning the flower prompt, I was shocked to read half a dozen fascinating and completely different accounts of stolen foliage and its subsequent denoument.
Back to work, that is, unless someone wants to further distract me with a response . . .
