Friday humor

[gromaine3 at comcast.net]

It's Friday, I'm in casual clothes, and I thought I'd share a scary moment from this week's lecture that could be filed under the dream where you're teaching in your underwear...

I was conducting a lecture about spicing up marketing literature with imagery, alliteration, parallelism, etc. Then I got to a slide I had only minimally studied after throwing it together. It had to do with there being, oh, seven different kinds of metaphors, from Beck's 1991 paper, Implications of Metaphors in Defining Technical Communication. 

"Abstract: Identifies four metaphors that appear dominant in current studies in the field of technical communication: transmitter, channel, balance, and bridge. Suggests limitations upon each of the metaphors. Discusses the alternative metaphors of lock, translator, transformer, synthesizer, conductor, and orchestrator. Proposes orchestration as a fruitful metaphor for technical communication."

Maybe I thought I was going to be able to just skip right over the definitions, or maybe I thought the names would make them self-evident. Whatever; those pesky students weren't buying it. I'd forgot what a thrill it can be when teaching material for the first time.

Enjoy your weekends while I study up on metaphors.

Garret Romaine
Portland State University