Due at 9 a.m. in class on Wednesday, April 25th.
1. Peter Elbow discusses two mentalities needed in the writing process:
“an inventive fecundity and a tough critical-mindedness” “IF and TCM”
v How does IF relate to programming and problem solving?
v Which Ghostbusters character does IF relate to the most and why?
v How does IF relate to the waggle dancing bees?
v How does TCM relate to programming and problem solving?
v Which Ghostbusters character does TCM relate to the most and why?
v How does TCM relate to the waggle dancing bees?
2. How do the Peter Elbow writings relate to the Dijkstra quote (VET SAT AUC TVV SO YMDC)? ( See also the ghost.txt handout, which is also available on the web site at www.cns.uni.edu/~jacobson/ghost.txt ). The Peter Elbow handout was given out in class on Wednesday, April 18th. It will be available on Friday, April 20th in Studio 2 if you missed the Wednesday class.
3. What do the floating books in scene one of Ghostbusters have to do with writing a term paper or writing a program or creating a painting or composing a song or problem solving in general? Read the ghost.txt handout or web page and discuss their meaning. Do you agree with my interpretation or disagree? Does it make sense?
4. What are some desirable habits of mind to cultivate in order to be a more effective programmer (and/or student, problem solver, leader, artist, musician, term paper writer, poet, parent, athlete, etc.)?
5. What are the advantages of separating the detailed explanation of HOW an algorithm works from the brief description of WHAT you are supposed to do? Discuss this and how it applies to problem solving. Why should the separating be very vigorous sometimes? (Recall VET SAT AUC, TVV SO YMDC).
6. Draw the diagram of the problem solving activities from the Polya book. (See your Wednesday, April 18th handouts).
The Peter Elbow handout includes selections from Chapter One: An Approach to Writing and Chapter Two: Freewriting. It also has the Polya diagram entitled How we think.
The ghost.txt handout is available at: www.cns.uni.edu/~jacobson/ghost.txt and is linked from our http://www.cns.uni.edu/~jacobson/c021.html web page. However, it DOES INLUDE some paragraphs from Polya on problem solving and about the diagram of How we think. Be sure to read 11.11 Mice and men. Read over the Polya page carefully. It is all about VET SAT AUC, TVV SO YMDC ideas mentioned in the ghost.txt handout.