Don’t Muph it! Three Ways to Avoid Muphry’s Law

Session Description
Muphry’s Law states that “any criticism of a writing or editing error will itself contain such an error”, as Stockton (2014) has summarized it. Particularly in the multi-lingual, multi-faceted, and multiply mediated information-overwhelmed twenty-first century the speed and pressure put upon teachers and learners who want to find the error-free have led to a Muphry Law tsunami. But the error-flotsam tide can be stemmed. Three useful skills will do that: Details detection, improved editing, and repeated proofreading
Presenter(s)
Katherine Watson
Katherine Watson, Orange Coast College, CA
Dr. Katherine Watson has been teaching French, English, ESL, linguistics, anthropology, and journalism for more than five decades, at first among farm laborers in picking fields, then in traditional classrooms, and ultimately online. She co-conceived, developed, and taught the first online adjunct to a telecourse offered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Annenberg Learner’s French in Action. Then, she launched the first completely-online course in California’s Coast Community College District. Her publications have concentrated on language and thought, as they are transmitted and learned through time, space, and mode of delivery, as well as the transdisciplinary nature of learning. Dr. Watson is also a professional translator and interpreter and a swimmer in any sea.
Session Type
45-Minute Interactive Session
Audience
All Audiences

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