TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
6. WRITE ON TOPICS ABOUT WHICH YOU ARE PASSIONATE. Your excitement about the content should burst through your writing. If you’re bored about your topic, you will kill your readers and prompt them to click “delete.” They don’t deserve linguistic purgatory—writing with the excitement of a wad of used paper towels. That can induce a coma. Light a fire under your writing to create at least a spark of interest by your readers, and torch the paper towels while you’re at it. If necessary, find a way to produce a percolating caldron of controversy or some other metaphor to stimulate your readers’ minds.
Writing Gifts: Leverage your knowledge and expertise with your writing gifts to put your unique spin on every topic. Express your passion for your serious subject in your writing.
What writers have inspired you? What words stop you in your tracks? Here are two examples you’ll know.
Two Writers:
David E. Kelley: Award winning TV screenwriter David E. Kelley (L.A. Law, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal) revealed his signature style in his characters’ words and behaviors, even dancing, such as the “dancing baby” and John Cage on Ally McBeal. Kelley fused his quirky, off-beat humor with the surreal and the serious. He’s also known for seeding his plots with political and social “hot-button” issues, especially on Boston Legal. Kelley said,
“Often we try to seduce the audience at the beginning that this is going to be fun, a romp or a ride, and then once the ride has begun, to reveal some serious subject matter for them to think about.”
Aaron Sorkin: Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night) has a different style. His teleplays for the Emmy-Award winning The West Wing had his trademark rapid-fire dialogue (which I love) and extended monologues which were complemented by director Thomas Schlamme’s visual “walk and talk.” His style-mark was also the repartee between his characters as they small talk and banter about various whimsical events. What fun to hear and watch! Sorkin said,
“I enter the world through what I write. I grew up believing …that I am a screw-up…and had nothing to offer in any conversation. But when I started writing, suddenly there was something that I brought to the party that was at a high-enough level.”
Find a Fave Writer: Now you know a couple of my fave writers and why I do what I do in my writing. Both Kelley and Sorkin infuse serious material with humor. I bet you have your own faves. If not, find an author in print or visual media who can inspire you the way these guys have inspired me.
Tomorrow, I will continue to describe “passion” and putting your “heart” into your writing like William Forrester (see 1st blog if you missed it), no matter what you’re writing about, including a preposition at the end of a sentence.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
SEXUAL CONTENT AND INNUENDO
Sometimes our thoughts just travel down this road naturally. That’s what evil minds do. For many of you, these naughty trips may be more frequent than for others. They can be stimulated by the bombardment of media that permeates so much of what we see, hear, and do or over-advertised medications you may be taking. Our students are exposed to these same stimuli.
MEDIA BOMBARDMENT: This topic is the core of many stand-up routines by comedians who appear on HBO, Showtime specials, and Comedy Central. It is also the primary vehicle for many popular TV shows, such as Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, Cougar Town, Nip & Tuck, and Reno 911!, the syndicated Boston Legal and Sex and the City, a large proportion of R rated movies, and a bazillion YouTube videos.
CLASSROOM BOUNDARIES: Regardless of the gender composition of your class, sexual humor is out of bounds. Be sensitive to sexual comments and innuendo in the music and video clips you select to illustrate various types of content. It is up to you to place blocks on sexually-based material in any jokes, references, or media.
Try not to even think about it as you are lecturing. Move rapidly over anything suggestive. Students’ comments on what you say can get out of control very quickly. They take their cues from the way you handle everything in class, especially edgy issues. (Note: These guidelines do not apply in the same way to those of you who teach courses on human or rodent sexuality. You have even more problems to address.)
As the beloved Sgt. Phil Esterhaus of the classic TV series Hill Street Blues said every morning at the end of his precinct briefing of his police officers: “Let’s be careful out there!”
WORKPLACE BOUNDARIES: Read my letters: S E X U A L H A R A S S M E N T!! If adulterous, evil political, sports, and entertainment celebrities are your role models, get clinical help. Unless you want to be reprimanded, fired, sued, shot, or worse, don’t even think about it in jest with co-workers in your department—at meetings, at retreats, in training, in the elevator, at the water-cooler, in the storage closet, or in business travel or conferences. (ALERT: If you're not sure how to get in BIG trouble in these venues, watch reruns of Boston Legal.)
My next blog moves into the “locker room,” so to speak, with the use of profanity and vulgarity in the classroom and workplace. I know this is a topic near and dear to the hearts of a few of you who may see nothing wrong with that language on the job. You can dig your tongues in, but please remember that this blog material is not about you or me; it’s about your students and co-workers and the effects it can have on their learning and productivity, respectively. At least, think about it.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
RIDICULE
DESCRIPTION:It doesn’t get any nastier. Ridicule may be a jest that makes fun of someone sportively or good-humoredly, but usually it is intended to humiliate. It may consist of words and actions, such as scornful or contemptuous laughter. It is usually mean spirited and malicious, and may include sarcasm or other derisive, taunting, or jeering comments. Motives for and functions of this type of insult-humor may range from the actual expression of hostility to self-deprecation to ironic reversal, where the insult is turned around and used against the attacker.
EXAMPLES: In the popular comedy Meet the Parents, the character Greg Focker (played by Ben Stiller) was ridiculed throughout the movie by several hostile members of his fiancée’s family for being a male nurse and, at the end of the movie, for his real first name, Gaylord (“Gay Focker”).
Comedian, composer, author, and producer Mel Brooks describes the power of ridicule in his smash Tony-award winning Broadway musical The Producers. (Note: Brooks also produced movies with the same title preceding and succeeding the show.) In an interview on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace (April 5, 2001), Brooks noted that the greatest form of revenge he could execute against Adolph Hitler is ridicule:
"How do you get even with him [Hitler]? There’s only one way to get even. You have to bring him down with ridicule…. If you can make people laugh at him [Hitler], then you’re one up on him. It’s been one of my lifelong jobs to make the world laugh at Adolph Hitler."
Brooks did just that in the show’s signature production number, “Springtime for Hitler.”
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: Any personal characteristic can be held up to ridicule. A foreign accent, a lisp, a stutter, an unusual gesture, and a physical disability represent common targets. For example, one of the lawyers on the defunct TV series Boston Legal, Jerry Espenson (played by Christian Clemenson, who was promoted to M.E. on CSI: Miami), had a condition known as Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism). In numerous episodes, he was ridiculed repeatedly by his colleagues and clients for his awkward and strange physical symptoms.
BOTTOM LINE: Ridiculing a student in the classroom or a faculty or staff member in a meeting to embarrass or humiliate that person is inexcusable. Be sensitive to unusual physical characteristics and disabilities. Try to understand their source and resist every temptation to ridicule them.
Next, I move on to sexual content and innuendo. Isn’t it amazing that blog time and words are being spent on these topics in an effort to raise your consciousness level about how you teach? Unless you’re willing to make mistakes like I did, your sensitivity to offensiveness needs to be fine-tuned, and, even then, you’ll probably offend. It is a constant battle with which I still struggle in my presentations. I hope these examples and descriptions are helpful.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
PUT-DOWNS
Ya gotta love ‘em. Most everybody does it. The put-down may be the most ubiquitous form of humor. Everywhere we look, from Leno to Conan (Where ever you are!) to Letterman, to images of professionals on sitcoms, to colleagues, and even to our closest friends and our families, the put-down is inescapable.
Check out the regular insults spewed by Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) at his colleagues, boss, associates, and patients on House. Lawyer Denny Crane (played by William Shatner) on the now defunct, but great, TV series Boston Legal was just as insensitive in his put-downs of racial and religious groups and people with physical disabilities.
DISPARAGEMENT HUMOR: Tendentious or disparagement humor belittles an individual or group that has been victimized, or that has suffered some misfortune or act of aggression. Sometimes it is rather harmless in the context of kidding around or teasing; at other times it can be mean, cruel, and hurtful, albeit a powerful weapon for verbal abuse. Freud believed this to be an important function of humor, allowing people to express aggressive and hostile feelings in a “socially acceptable” manner. There is even research evidence that people enjoy put-downs more when they have negative attitudes toward the victim.
Although there may be a time and a place for put-down humor, such as in those over-advertised videos of Friar’s Club Celebrity Roasts emceed by the late Dean Martin and others, the classroom is definitely not the place. Even recent versions of those roasts have become mean-spirited, profane, and vulgar.
HIGHER EDUCATION EXAMPLES: In higher education as elsewhere, the perpetrator is usually in a superior position in the organizational food chain compared to the victim. Since the victim, which is often the student, administrative assistant, TA, RA, or lower rank colleague, is already in a vulnerable position, the put-down by a lofty faculty member or dean can be devastating. This behavior is part of the bullying mentality and incivility in the workplace that is on the rise.
In the classroom and department, a faculty put-down may be followed by the words, “I was just joking” or “I was only kidding.” This is the typical “redeeming” strategy to get the faculty member off the hook for the direct hit (aka put-down insult). It never does redeem and never will. Anyone who does that should be reprimanded.
SPECIFIC TARGETS TO AVOID: I suggest you avoid the following specific targets of put-downs in all forms of media in the classroom and workplace:
• Popular, entertainment, or political personalities
• Race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, gender, religion, or sexual orientation
• Physical characteristics (e.g., fat, thin, short, tall, blonde, pregnant, bald, or all of the preceding)
• Physical disabilities or handicaps
• Mental handicaps or illnesses
Also, don’t even think about these put-downs of your students, administrative assistant, TA, RA, and colleagues.
ALTERNATIVE HUMOR: Creating humor that builds your students up rather than tearing them down is not easy. However, yielding to the temptation to tear down can produce the negative consequences described previously.
Are you having fun yet? Next topic is sarcasm, which is almost as much fun as put-downs. What do you think about these issues? Have you had experiences you would like to share? Please comment.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
