DigitalCommons@C.O.D.

Calder, Douglas

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 43
Spring 5-1-2016
The Betrayal
Douglas Calder
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
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Recommended Citation
Calder, Douglas (2016) "The Betrayal," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 43.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/43
My wife 
My partner 
Though I do not always treat her so 
  
We should traverse life together 
Yet I fight her 
Even when she sees the way 
And I do not 
  
We should be a team 
Yet we are often adversarial 
I wonder why that is 
Yet the reason looks back at me 
From the bathroom mirror 
  
We should have trust 
Yet I have done things 
To destroy that trust 
  
She stands by me 
Even though I do not deserve it 
I must make amends 
To restore that which 
Can still be salvaged 
  
I must rebuild 
That which has been torn down 
That which I have torn down 
  
I marvel at the fact 
That I am allowed 
This opportunity 
To redeem myself
But my wife 
Is a good and trusting person 
Even though I have 
No right to expect it 
She is patient with me 
This is why I do love her so 
  
She feeds me 
She provides me shelter 
I owe the very presence of 
The clothes on my back 
To her generosity 
  
I need no other but her 
Yet I strayed from the path 
For months I was away 
When I did return 
Her anger was a sight to behold 
Yet love wins out 
  
A strained love to be sure 
Yet love it is 
That draws us back to each other 
  
Respect and trust 
Once implied 
Now must be restored 
By the one who caused the damage 
By me 
For my wife 
For us
The Betrayal
Douglas Calder
Spring 2016 371
Calder: The Betrayal
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2015


English

The Betrayal

This presentation introduces an ongoing study evaluating how the College of DuPage Library’s Information Literacy Instruction Program contributes to students meeting institutional General Education Information Literacy outcomes. Via a cross-sectional exploratory survey, faculty teaching English Composition II and Fundamentals of Speech Communications will provide subjective understanding of information literacy and fact-reporting on use of information literacy services provided by the library. Results will impact the direction of the library’s information literacy instruction program and shape assessment of student learning

Kelley, Jennifer

Program Level Assessment in the Library: Impact of Information Literacy Instruction on English Composition and Speech Communications Courses at College of DuPage

In this article, the author discusses the benefit of Wikipedia writing assignments compared to traditional term papers

Henningsen, Timothy

College of DuPage 
DigitalCommons@COD 
Faculty Scholarship English 
5-17-2016 
The Slow, Necessary Death of the Research Paper 
Timothy Henningsen 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/englishpub 
 Part of the English Language and Literature Commons 
  
Timothy Henningsen is an Assistant Professor of English at the College of DuPage. 
He’s run Wikipedia assignments in about a dozen courses, and has talked about the 
experience elsewhere. In this post, “The Slow, Necessary Death of the Research Paper 
(And How Wikipedia Can Revive Composition Instruction)” he discusses the benefit of 
Wikipedia writing assignments compared to traditional term papers. 
In March, the Wiki Education Foundation posted a blog that articulates “5 reasons a 
Wikipedia assignment is better than a term paper.” In it, Wiki Ed’s Eryk Salvaggio 
addresses common misconceptions about Wikipedia, and argues why it affords students 
and teachers an energetic alternative to the traditional research paper. In conclusion, he 
asks academics to take up his call. 
For the last 4 semesters, I have. 
Before this, however, I was among a large contingent of writing instructors that 
would’ve harrumphed at Wiki Ed’s post. After all, the research paper has been the 
uncontested pedagogical paragon in the college composition classroom for nearly a 
century. The research paper offers student writers an opportunity to practice deeply 
engaged, sustained writing; it teaches research skills, source evaluation, critical analysis, 
argumentation, revision, referencing, and, perhaps the most important of all: discourse 
engagement. 
And it would seem that ― despite debate over the value of this genre ― given the sales 
figures of books like Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say/I Say: The Moves 
That Matter in Academic Writing, the research paper might remain a staple in 
academia for another 100 years. 
Graff’s little book, which I’ve used in my own writing classrooms for the last decade, 
does an impeccable job at showing writing students how to crack the code that 
is academicspeak. Graff’s method is genius in its simplicity, its stated goal to “demystify 
academic writing” by helping students become “active participants in the important 
conversations of the academic world and the wider public sphere” (xviii-xix). 
Graff is one in a long line of academics who have touted the research paper as a means 
of teaching students how to engage in discourse communities. Writing is inherently 
conversational, and the research paper thereby allows students to participate in 
academic debate. 
Only that it doesn’t. 
The research paper does have its redeeming qualities, but writing instructors are 
kidding themselves if they believe the traditional research paper is the best method of 
getting students actively engaged in the various discourse communities that constitute 
scholarship. 
Ask any undergraduate who produces a research paper to what extent their paper will 
actually affect discourse and they’ll likely look at you cross-eyed. Students are smart 
enough to know that while the paper itself might invoke the discourse, they themselves 
don’t engage with it. 
Sure, students consult sources and respond to a variety of arguments and ideas related 
to their topic, but those responses rarely go beyond the margins of paper. Instead, 
students are keen enough to know that when they hand their paper to their professor 
upon completion, that paper is likely on a one-way street to the recycling bin. Read only 
by one reader, the sole consequence being a letter grade. 
The prospects of audience theory challenges this problem in requiring students write 
term papers which will have a real, tangible audience beyond the instructor. But even 
still, this doesn’t address the slog that students feel when told they have to write a 
research paper. In my experience, students immediately go into ‘zombie-mode’: they at 
first groan, then mundanely begin the process of collecting a bunch of sources, then pull 
sleepless nights, writing about those sources in a way they think their professor wants to 
hear. As soon as those students hit ‘print’ on their computer, that paper becomes dead to 
them. 
Which is why, I believe, that teaching with Wikipedia addresses these problems by 
offering the same outcomes that a research paper assignment does, with added benefits. 
If one of the main motives of assigning a research paper is to have students engage a 
discourse and speak to an audience, then unless that audience is real and tangible, the 
activity is inherently counterfeit. It might be good practice, but it’s nothing like playing a 
real game. Which is where Wikipedia comes in. 
Much thanks to the Wiki Education Foundation, its staff, and the resources they’ve 
produced, I have replaced the traditional research paper assignment with one that asks 
students to enhance or create a Wikipedia article of their choice. Not only has it injected 
a new lifeblood into my composition classes, but I believe it’s turned my students into 
better writers and researchers. 
From the outset, students are intrigued by the prospect of this assignment, having been 
told throughout their academic lives that Wikipedia ― in academic contexts ― is taboo. 
And yet those students are also somewhat intimidated, knowing that their audience for 
an assignment like this potentially grows from one (i.e., me), to hundreds, if not 
thousands, or more. 
Like the research paper, working on a Wikipedia article allows students to develop their 
writing (but publicly). It teaches research skills, source evaluation, and referencing (as 
all Wikipedia contributions require documented evidence). It requires critical analysis, 
forcing students to evaluate an article, and determine whether the information on a 
given subject is comprehensive, faulty, or perhaps incomplete. And unlike the research 
paper, contributing to Wikipedia offers real discourse engagement. 
My students are often quite astonished when they study the various talk pages on 
Wikipedia (they usually begin with the presumption that any internet discussion 
inevitably dissolves into pedantic name-calling). In seeing the collegial, engaged 
discussions that often take place, students quickly realize that the dissemination of 
knowledge is not only passionate, but collaborative. 
Since instituting this assignment, I’ve had students contribute to a plethora of Wikipedia 
articles. Instead of rigidly requiring students to limit their research to academic 
databases, they must employ critical research methods to be able determine where the 
best place to go to find credible, substantial information on whatever their topic might 
be (my students have investigated everything from the wanted poster to historic villages 
in Afghanistan; rock and roll side projects to globe-trotting basketball players; local, 
historic places to groundbreaking athletes). 
Beyond that, academic traditionalists might assume that student contributions to 
Wikipedia lack the argumentative aspects offered by the research paper. And on the 
surface, it would seem so: Wikipedia requires all articles to be written in a neutral point 
of view. Students thus cannot flex their persuasive muscles. 
But they can. 
The challenge for students completing a Wikipedia assignment is persuading their 
Wikipedia audience that the information they’ve added to an article is topically-relevant 
and noteworthy enough to be included in that article’s subject matter. For example, 
when in 2011 it was reported that Apple software was regularly tracking the 
whereabouts of its iPhone customers, the news quickly made its way to the Wikipedia 
article on the iPhone. But a student of mine evaluated the “secret tracking” section of the 
article last semester and felt that while the news was noteworthy, it didn’t provide users 
with the actual means of turning off this tracking feature. At risk of turning an 
encyclopedia article into a tutorial, this student had to determine how to craft text that 
would not only fit with the overall tone of the article, but also provide readers an 
immediate means of fixing this issue on their own phones if they were reading about this 
tracking feature for the very first time. 
The student thus decoded the discourse of the iPhone article, shaped his own text to fit 
that discourse, and thus contributed to the discourse. That student surely wouldn’t have 
gotten this experience with the traditional research paper. 
Ultimately, this is where the Wikipedia project goes far beyond the confines of the 
traditional research paper: students realize that they can personally participate in the 
dissemination of knowledge. Whereas students often feel like outsiders to academic 
discourse (this is the whole premise of Graff’s aforementioned text), students quickly 
realize that scholars are not the sole arbiters of knowledge production; adding content 
to Wikipedia gives developing writers agency in their own research and writing. For 
example, Jeffrey Ringbloom, a second-year student in my Fall 2015 composition class, 
reported the following: 
“… my perception of authority in an academic sense has changed after working within 
Wikipedia. I now realize that publications of academic work [are] not relegated to 
those holding doctorate degrees. Obviously, this [might] be needed for an article in a … 
peer-reviewed journal, but in something like Wikipedia it is different. On Wikipedia, 
anyone who is passionate about a subject and willing to put in the time and effort, can 
publish … credible and substantial work … Content is developed in a collaborative 
effort with other users. Then the information is available … all over the Internet.” 
Another student, Navgeet Sandhu, who began the project with a certain skepticism, 
learned to embrace the “communal vibe” that went along with collaborating with other 
Wikipedia users: 
“I went into this assignment with the negative mindset and the notion that all 
Wikipedia articles have no place in the world of academia, and am coming out with a 
newfound respect and reverence for those who go through and take the time to 
research, and prepare, and edit, and create the Wikipedia that we know today; the up 
to date and constantly evolving sum of human experience. In conclusion Wikipedia is 
responsible for the democratization of knowledge and the handing it back to the people 
it belongs to by the people who create it, and although people will disagree and 
harrumph in contempt, Wikipedia represents what academia should be: unbiased and 
uninhibited knowledge given to all who ask for it (and it’s free too).” 
As that very writing instructor who once used to arrogantly harrumph in contempt at 
the thought of promoting Wikipedia in the classroom, my entire pedagogical worldview 
has since changed thanks to this assignment. 
If you happen to teach writing or research, you should give it a thought. You’re more 
than welcome to join us. 
 
 
WORKS CITED 
Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, & Russel Durst. They Say/I Say: The Moves That 
Matter in Academic Writing, 3rd Edition w/ Readings. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 
2015. 
 
Photo: ‘198 Ways’ Notes by Dom Pates, CC-BY 2.0 via Flickr. 
 
 
 


The Slow, Necessary Death of the Research Paper

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-events-fairs/1025/thumbnail.jp

2012 Manufacturing & Technology Expo_01

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1991/thumbnail.jp

2013 Fashion Show - Cosmetology Students_2

Wolsky, Alan

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 14
Spring 5-1-2016
Experimenting
Alan Wolsky
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Wolsky, Alan (2016) "Experimenting," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 14.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/14
Experimenting
Color Photography
Alan Wolsky
Prairie Light Review
10
1
Wolsky: Experimenting
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2015


Experimenting

Kosar, Jessica

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 20
Spring 5-1-2016
Danny
Jessica Kosar
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Kosar, Jessica (2016) "Danny," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 20.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/20
Danny
Jessica Kosar
I want to know the side that she knew so well 
before it was destroyed. 
I want the side that flourished and bloomed 
The lush green ivy encrusting window panes
            Brick wall was all I found
  
I want to hear the songs you blared on the radio 
before you drove off in silence
I want the affection that was once trademark 
before it was shelved at a Goodwill
  
You scarcely notice my touch 
            There is too much scar tissue
You say that silver is second best 
But she was fool’s gold
Tossing bikes to the ground, 
we exclaim this new finding: 
whorls and curls of bark 
strewn in prairie grass 
like so much evidence. 
  
Just two young girls, we 
can’t identify the species 
of the tree above; instead 
gingerly collect several scraps. 
Our small brown hands 
rub each piece like worry 
stones as we remark on 
the marvel of this tree 
both alive and not. 
Natural Causes
Ixta Julieta
The sun is setting and father 
wants us home, I say. 
So you and I document 
each fragment. (It’s vital, 
this preservation, you say.) 
  
Eventually these remnants 
will fit neatly into a shadow box, 
beside a dead yellow jacket 
and some fragrant sage. 
  
But tonight as we wait, 
we lay each bit of bark 
on clean butcher paper 
for proper examination.
Spring 2016 171
Kosar: Danny
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2015


Danny

Calma, Denise

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 31
Spring 5-1-2016
Wandering Heart
Denise Calma
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Calma, Denise (2016) "Wandering Heart," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 31.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/31
My own eyes do deceive me, for when I 
dream, and my eyes continue to be wide 
I lie awake thinking that I should try.
Many thoughts in my head race like the tide.
I need to clean my mind to see clearly
that I have dreams that are worth achieving. 
I hold those and more in my heart dearly, 
if I truly just keep on believing. 
But I know that there are those who say no.
Yet I know in my heart that I am right.
I do also know that it goes to show 
I never let my passion out of sight. 
Whoever follows in their heart and soul
can be completely full and as a whole.
Wandering Heart
Denise Calma
Denise Calma’s “Wandering Heart” is the 
winner of the College of DuPage 2016 Sonnet 
Writing Contest, held in honor of the 400th 
anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
Th ree Horses
Rachael Parker
Spring 2016 271
Calma: Wandering Heart
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2015


Wandering Heart

Cianciosi, Christine

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 45
Spring 5-1-2016
NY Skyline
Christine Cianciosi
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Cianciosi, Christine (2016) "NY Skyline," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 45.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/45
NY Skyline
Adobe Photoshop sketch
Christine Cianciosi
Spring 2016
39 1
Cianciosi: NY Skyline
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2015


NY Skyline

Duch, Patricia

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 46
Spring 5-1-2016
Paintings
Patricia Duch
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Duch, Patricia (2016) "Paintings," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 46.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/46
       The air inside the silent art museum was cold and biting compared to 
the damp and heavy muck outside. The consistent hum of the cooling unit 
and the echo of his footsteps where the only sounds that accompanied the 
boy through the dim halls of the museum. Reaching into his back pocket 
he pulled out the assignment that had brought him to the old museum in 
the first place. The last art piece he was to find was titled 1955, but after an 
hour of wandering the vacant corridors he was ready to give up. One of the 
last exhibits was located at the very back of the museum. The only light in 
the room fell from a few decrepit spotlights that illuminated the meager 
collection of  dusty paintings. Across the room, a lonely bench, on which 
sat a lonely looking man, caught his eye. Walking towards the bench the 
boy cleared his throat to get the man’s attention. The sudden noise broke 
the heavy silence, and when the man turned to look at him, it felt as if ev-
ery portrait in the room had turned to stare. 
       “Yes my boy?” the man asked.  
       He was old, dressed in a collared shirt and vest, with hair the color of 
ash. Next to him rested a sturdy looking cane with a head made of worn 
but polished bronze that held the permanent imprint of the man’s hand.  
       “I’ve been looking for this artist, sir, but I can’t seem to find him.”
       The man took the paper from the boy and squinted at it for a while. 
Then he turned back to the boy and extended his hand. 
       “You’ve just found him,” he said, with a smile flickering on his face. The 
boy grinned and shook hands with the man.  
       “Sir, your painting 1955, is it in this room?” 
       The smile faded from the man’s face. He sighed, and pointed at the 
painting  directly in front of them. “Yes, it is.” 
       The boy sat down at the opposite end of the bench and studied the 
painting. It was a young woman sitting in front of a pond. A willow tree 
cast shadows on her pale face, and brown curls framed bright green eyes.  
       “Who is that, sir?” 
       “My wife,” muttered the man, reaching for his cane and clutching it to 
him. 
       “Oh, is she here with you, sir?”
       The man fell silent. Then, sighing, he turned to look at the boy. “No. 
Two weeks after I painted her here, she drowned in the very pond that’s 
behind her. I came home to a note attached to this cane. It said she wasn’t
Paintings
Patricia Duch
Prairie Light Review40 1
Duch: Paintings
Published by Di italCommons@COD, 2015
strong enough to walk through life with me, but this would be.” The man 
fell silent again, and the boy with him. 
       “I’m sorry,” whispered the boy. The man said nothing. The heavy 
silence enveloped them once more and goosebumps formed on the boy’s 
arms. He took out his assignment and studied the questions once more. 
       “Sir,” said the boy after a minute “why did you paint her?” 
       The man said nothing. 
       “Was it because she was beautiful? or maybe—” but the man put a 
hand up, stopping the boy. 
       “She was so alive, always so full of life, I wanted to keep her that way 
forever, but . . .” The man trailed off and tears started falling down his face.  
       “I’m so sorry sir.” The boy watched as the man started to sob. He was 
holding the cane so tightly his knuckles were white. Then the man gasped 
and grabbed his chest. The cane the man had been clutching fell to the 
ground. The bronze head echoed with a ping. The man landed next to the 
cane and the boy. The painting could do nothing but watch.
Woman 
on 
pillow
Ink and pen 
drawing
Natalia 
Toreeva
Spring 2016 412
The Prairie Light Review, Vol. 38 [2015], No. 2, Art. 46
http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/46


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