"Purple is the new Red"

john cline deuce, your black ink is showing! Imagine, getting the
illustrious, the erudite, the short, Dr. I confused with Come In, the
Barbarian! sic him, KCat!



satrap
whose personality test showed that she is the quiet, reserved type
(calling Dr. Tim!)

john cline ii wrote:
A press release from Pilot Pen we may find of interest:
Purple is the 'New Red'
Monday January 24, 2:52 pm ET
Students and Teachers Prefer 'Kinder, Gentler' Purple Ink Over Red
for
Grading Papers
Purple Deemed 'Less Anxiety Producing'

Ink may signal worker's true color
Survey finds meaningin pen preferences
By GREGORY WEAVER
The Indianapolis Star

Have a passion for workers who are helpful and eager to please? Then
keep an eye out for those who have a passion for purple.

To be more precise, people who prefer purple pens believe they make
perfect employees -at least if you believe a survey conducted for
Pilot Pen Corp. by Opinion Research Corp. International of Princeton,
N.J.

More than 85 percent of workers who write in purple ink say their
bosses are totally satisfied with their work - compared with 75
percent of the overall work force. (The bosses of those 85 percent were
not surveyed.)

These "results" are based on a national random survey of 645 workers.

Another plus, the possessors of purple contend, is their placating
disposition. More than 82 percent say they try to help their bosses
even when not asked, the survey said. That compares with 67 percent of
workers overall.

Finding these purple pen users may prove difficult, however.

For example, purple pens account for less than 5 percent of all the
pens sold by Indianapolis Office Supply in recent months. Black is the
most popular, said marketing manager Susie Johnson, followed by blue
and red.

"I'm not sure which color says you are more reliable. But purple's
definitely a little more expensive."

But then, so are erasable pens, and Pilot Pen's survey warns employers
to be wary of workers wielding those mistake-correcting instruments.

Users of erasable pens are twice as likely as the average worker to
have had a bad performance review. They also are more likely to find
their jobs boring.

Perhaps the worst news for pen manufacturers is that workers most
likely to work long hours without extra pay are those who prefer using
a computer keyboard rather than ink and paper.

"The screwball contradiction is that more pens than ever are being
purchased today," said Ronald Shaw, president of Pilot Pen.

Maybe employers haven't spent enough time finding workers who combine a
disdain for handwriting with that rare desire to be overworked.

Check out the color of ink your co-workers are using, and see if they
fit these profiles developed by Pilot Pen Corp.:

Most likely to think the boss is nice: Women who use red ink.
Least likely to think the boss is nice: Men who use expensive pens.

Most likely to have been promoted or received a raise: Men who use red
ink.
Least likely to have been promoted or received a raise: Men who use
green ink.

Most likely to be looking for a new job: Workers who have stolen a
colleague's pen.
Least likely to be looking for a new job: Workers with 12 or more pens
at their desk.

Most likely to be criticized by the boss: Women who use expensive pens.
Least likely to be criticized by the boss: Women who use black ink.

Where the deuce do you find a purple 2-pack of G2s? .5 or .7?
What's the date code on the refill?

Joshua C Sasmor wrote:
Renard DellaFave wrote:
you can give them the tools they need -- that's called teaching.

tools. Too often in college engineering classes the onus of
actually
learning anything fell 75% to the student's own reading, and
homework.
Always thought it must be because someone's demanding that more be
learned than can actually be taught in the class time provided.
Absolutely

You agree...or are you saying you think that it's right, proper, and
builds character (or something like that) to have to work 2-4 hours for
every hour in class?

I would wager that I spent 4 hours outside of class for
every hour inside class - that's the way to learn!

It's a way to learn but it's essentially self-teaching and I think
means the teacher is failing (perhaps because of time limits) to "give
them the tools they need (to succeed)". I mean, a textbook and set of
questions are tools, but not ones anyone requires a teacher to obtain.

I teach at a local college here outside Pittsburgh (now that I
are a Pitt graduate) and I meet with my students for a total of 16
weeks,
3 hours a week. 48 contact hours - can you master _anything_ in that

span of time?

Yeah, that's a good bit of time. I don't know about "mastering",
sounds kind of intimidating, but I can certainly learn, say,
introductory calculus in 16 weeks of a M W F course with only a little
practice, and I'd rather that the 30-60 minutes per class spent
practicing were done _in_ class, with a teacher available for help, and
such that after the class was done I could return my mind to other
purposes with a clear conscience.

The class time is for discussion of methods, pointing out common
errors, group discussion and commentary. ALL learning goes on inside
the
head of the students!

That's a description of what happened in my experience alright. Well,
I did have good teachers and with them at least half the learning did
take place in the classroom when they presented the topic, and the
homework just provided a reminder later in the day that helped me
remember what they taught for a longer period of time. The
generalities, all I remember years later, I learned entirely in the
classes with the good teachers. (Speaking of Engineering school here,
not highschool, which I don't really remember well enough for this kind
of discussion).

In graduate school, I would wager that I spent 4 hours outside of
class for
every hour inside class

If that's to be required, nay, expected, then you sure can't tell it
from the scheduling of the classes and 16-hour semesters. 4 hours in 4
classes M W F and 12-16 hours of out-of-class requirements leaves zero
to 4 hours a day for everything apart from 8 hours of sleep. -2 to 2
hours after eating, -3 to 1 including commute time, and that hour I
probably need for other necessary life-maintenance activities.

- that's the way to learn! I cannot even expect to
master the yoyo in 48 hours!

2 days, no, but an hour a day, three days a week, for 16 weeks? I'd
expect to know a hell of a lot about walkin' the dog after that
thorough a course in yoyos even with no homework.

(note that 48 hours also includes 3 in-term
exams, so we really only have 45 contact hours and then a final exam)


Ritual torture like comp. finals are another thing I'd like to see pass
into history. Life & learning are tough enough without the people and
institutions who are supposed to be helping you creating unnecessarily
stressful situations where 16 weeks' effort is judged primarily by 2-3
hours performance at one time, after the class is over. Unless the
class was way too large, that teacher should know if I put forth
A,B,C,D, or F effort into it. (Whether to grade on effort or knowledge
is another debate, and relates IMHO more to the use of university as
vocational school than academics per se).

a little touchy about this on this weekend (I'm posting on Saturday)
as I
have recently had a debate with several students in a "contemporary
math"
(math for poets/poli sci/english/art majors) about the "unreasonable"
amount
of work I assign (one 5 question assignment before each class and
5-10
homework problems each class).

Does that, or shoud that, really take them more than an hour or so to
do?

Think about how long it takes to learn how to do something "simple"
like
write with a pen...

Physical skills like writing, speaking, dancing, or most sports (apart
from strategy) are learned differently and do require large amounts of
practice, preferably at as young an age as possible.

Ob content - I'm buying a new Pelikan this week!

I'm buying a new Rotring! The Freeway, on clearance at Swisher pens,
to go with my bottle of real, regular, should-work-with-my Sheaffer
Touchdown unlike-that-eel-stuff, red Noodlers' ink, and a bottle of
Antietam for good measure.

I'd like a more expensive pen, maybe another Conway Stewart, but am
trying to conserve enough to be able to buy this soon:
http://www.ddisoftware.com/prism/

Most likely to be criticized by the boss: Women who use expensive
pens.
Least likely to be criticized by the boss: Women who use black ink.


Gee, you mean no boss will ever like me? I'll cry tomorrow.



satrap
who wonders what happens to women who use expensive blue pens with PINK
ink

Renard DellaFave wrote:

Joshua C Sasmor wrote:
Renard DellaFave wrote:
you can give them the tools they need -- that's called teaching.

tools. Too often in college engineering classes the onus of
actually
learning anything fell 75% to the student's own reading, and
homework.
Always thought it must be because someone's demanding that more be
learned than can actually be taught in the class time provided.
Absolutely

You agree...or are you saying you think that it's right, proper, and
builds character (or something like that) to have to work 2-4 hours for
every hour in class?

You will if you're studying anything serious.

--
RJ

No, I did, and at most an hour was required. Got one B, the rest A's
for an E.E. degree. So, I think I can say that with assurance.

Renard DellaFave wrote:
Joshua C Sasmor wrote:
Renard DellaFave wrote:

[...] Too often in college engineering classes the onus of actually
learning anything fell 75% to the student's own reading, and homework.
Always thought it must be because someone's demanding that more be
learned than can actually be taught in the class time provided.

Absolutely

You agree...or are you saying you think that it's right, proper, and
builds character (or something like that) to have to work 2-4 hours for
every hour in class?

Yes - I agree. Something worth learning correctly is worth
whatever you are willing to put into it. If you can manage to
learn calculus just by sitting and listening to me explain it,
then I applaud your ability! I had to spend hours practicing
(homework) and reading the book and then discussing with my
fellow students... I include all of that processing time in
the estimate that I make below.

I would wager that I spent 4 hours outside of class for
every hour inside class - that's the way to learn!

It's a way to learn but it's essentially self-teaching and I think
means the teacher is failing (perhaps because of time limits) to "give
them the tools they need (to succeed)". I mean, a textbook and set of
questions are tools, but not ones anyone requires a teacher to obtain.

This is true - but a book is written by someone who already knows
the material - someone who may or may not remember the feeling
of a problem that looks like climbing a sheer rock wall. I have
always relied on a textbook as a reference, never as more than a
guide for my own understanding.

I teach at a local college here outside Pittsburgh (now that I
are a Pitt graduate) and I meet with my students for a total of
16 weeks, 3 hours a week. 48 contact hours - can you master
_anything_ in that span of time?

Yeah, that's a good bit of time. I don't know about "mastering",
sounds kind of intimidating, but I can certainly learn, say,
introductory calculus in 16 weeks of a M W F course with only a little
practice, and I'd rather that the 30-60 minutes per class spent
practicing were done _in_ class, with a teacher available for help, and
such that after the class was done I could return my mind to other
purposes with a clear conscience.

Let's suppose that the calculus class was run that way. I come in on
the first day of class and spend 10-20 minutes (out of 50) to discuss
the first topic (limits) and then off you go to do problems for the
next half-hour. I tried this last year. After two weeks (6 meetings)
I asked them why they all seemed so frustrated - no one was asking me
any questions during the "problem time." _Every_one_ of these students
requested a more traditional expository lecture format - to a person!
So I went back to my method of:

The class time is for discussion of methods, pointing out common
errors, group discussion and commentary.

And the students were more satisfied, asked more insightful
questions and did better on their exams!

ALL learning goes on inside the head of the students!
[snip]
In graduate school, I would wager that I spent 4 hours outside of
class for every hour inside class

If that's to be required, nay, expected, then you sure can't tell it
from the scheduling of the classes and 16-hour semesters. 4 hours in 4
classes M W F and 12-16 hours of out-of-class requirements leaves zero
to 4 hours a day for everything apart from 8 hours of sleep. -2 to 2
hours after eating, -3 to 1 including commute time, and that hour I
probably need for other necessary life-maintenance activities.

First of all, my graduate school load was three 3-credit classes (9
hours). So I spent approximately 36 hours a week on my coursework
outside of class. That's just slightly longer than the typical 40 hour
work week, if I include class time. So 9 hours a day on school made
it my full time job. I fail to see the problem with this - I was a
full-time student.

At the undergrad level, I would say that you should spend at least one
hour outside of class for each hour in it. So that's 32 hours of work
for a 16 credit load - per week. Now since not all students are taking
16 credits, I think this is a reasonable level.

- that's the way to learn! I cannot even expect to
master the yoyo in 48 hours!

2 days, no, but an hour a day, three days a week, for 16 weeks? I'd
expect to know a hell of a lot about walkin' the dog after that
thorough a course in yoyos even with no homework.

Actually, after 5 years of yoyo work, I'm still not as good as the
current worlds champion - he's a 14 year old (when I last checked). I'm
putting a new picture of myself with my yoyo up on my homepage - check
my sig

[snip]

a little touchy about this on this weekend (I'm posting on Saturday)
as I have recently had a debate with several students in a
"contemporary math" (math for poets/poli sci/english/art majors)
about the "unreasonable" amount of work I assign (one 5 question
assignment before each class and 5-10 homework problems each class).

Does that, or shoud that, really take them more than an hour or so to
do?

It should take approximately 40 minutes. You must read the section to
answer the preliminary assignment (this part takes 10 minutes), and then
come to the class and discuss the questions on that page. Then, after
the discussion, you have a short homework assignment (takes me three
or four minutes, so I estimate that it takes my students 30 minutes).
Not more than an hour...

Perhaps it is a matter of perception. I believe that this material is
understandable, but it takes effort to learn it. I also believe that
some students think I do magic up in front of the classroom. I'll see
how it is on Monday - my calculus 1 class has their first exam at 9:00AM!

To come back to the original comment that got all this started, I still
use Waterman Red in a Lamy Vista (the clear version of the Safari) to
grade all of my papers - no one's been too damaged yet...


Joshua C. Sasmor
************************************************** ***********************
Joshua C. Sasmor - Pipe-smoker, teacher and mathematician
Home page: http://www.math.pitt.edu/~jcsst18/
************************************************** ***********************
Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.
- BERTRAND RUSSELL

When I was told, several years ago, that I needed to start grading papers in
a color other
than red, I used it as reasoning to buy lots of green and purple ink, as
well as many green
Pilot G-2s (I don't like the purple ones.)

My verdict, for what it's worth: green actually shows up much better on
student papers than purple,
so I usually stick with that, and use two separate pens -- the green G-2 for
the first run-through on
papers (where I can spot the big errors in organization and typos - "the
burden of proof ****s to the defense"
still being my favorite - that require bolder marking), and a fine point
fountain pen, usually a Hero or
sometimes a Sheaffer, also with green ink, to point out those things that
will require more extensive
comments, so that I can fit them all on the page.

Sally (who has been chided in the past for sarcastic grading comments - but
at least they weren't in red!)




"john cline ii" wrote in message
news:BMyQd.28835$wc.900@trnddc07...
A press release from Pilot Pen we may find of interest:


Press Release Source: Pilot Pen


Purple is the 'New Red'
Monday January 24, 2:52 pm ET
Students and Teachers Prefer 'Kinder, Gentler' Purple Ink Over Red for
Grading Papers
Purple Deemed 'Less Anxiety Producing'


NEW YORK, and TRUMBULL, Conn., Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Purple, the
traditional color of royalty, is making the trip from the castle to the
classroom -- thanks to the feeling among teachers today that when it
comes to marking papers, red is, well, a little too angry.
Purple's popularity can be tracked country-wide with the sales of
purple pens showing a marked increase and pen manufacturers, like Pilot
Pen, producing a wider variety of purple-inked products. "We've
introduced six purple pens to our line. Purple ink has really taken off
this year as more teachers tell us about their preference for purple as
a more-friendly replacement for red," said Robert Silberman, VP of
Marketing for Pilot Pen. "And their students agree -- it's less
aggressive but conveys a feeling of authority in a constructive way."

Office Depot, one of the world's leading resellers of office products
and services, has also noticed a spike in sales of purple pens, and is
offering a wider assortment than ever before. "There's been a
noticeable increase in the popularity of purple ink," said Michele
McLaughlin, Associate Retail Merchant for Office Depot. "We've
dedicated more shelf space to purple pens and based on positive
customer feedback, we also have three-packs and even dozen boxes of
exclusively purple pens."

Teachers from around the country have also reported the palliative
power of purple:

* "I teach High School Special Education classes so my students
already
suffer from low self-esteem. When I corrected their essays
with red
pens it made things harder on them. Using purple pens has
allowed me
to give my students constructive criticism without damaging
their self
confidence."
Heather Pizzuro. Monmouth Regional High School, Tinton
Falls, NJ

* "I use purple to correct class work. It isn't as harsh as red
or as
'old fashioned."
Susan Schenker, Library teacher, P.S. 41, New York, NY

* "I never use red -- I find purple to be more friendly and less
threatening."
Vanessa Powell, 5th grade, Snowshoe Elementary School,
Wasilla, AK

* "Red can be jarring, confrontational and abrasive. With purple
ink I
can critique my students in a gentle way that allows them to
focus on
the message and not the medium and my students seem to respond
more
favorably to purple. "
Justin Kazmark, 6th Grade Math Teacher, P.S. 188, New York,
NY

Color authority Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color
Institute and author of six books on color, says that purple has the
effect of "softening the blow" as opposed to seeing red, which raises
blood pressure, causing the heart to beat faster. "Red signals danger
and warning, and anthropologists have found this has been true down the
ages," she said.

About Pilot Pen

Pilot Pen, the third largest pen company in the U.S., offers
superlative writing instruments renowned for quality, performance,
cutting-edge technology and consumer satisfaction. Widely acknowledged
as innovators, Pilot was first to introduce Americans to fine point
writing and currently maintains the top share position in the gel pen
category with its #1 selling G2 pen. Pilot's line also includes the
acclaimed Dr. Grip family of products that features an ergonomic, wide
comfort grip that actually reduces writing fatigue and the prestigious
Namiki Collection of writing instruments for collectors and
connoisseurs, as well as general consumers. Pilot Pen has operated in
the U.S. since 1972; its parent company is the oldest and largest
manufacturer of writing instruments in Japan.

Contact: Andy Morris and Company
Carol Klenfner 212 561-7467

On 20 Feb 2005 13:25:13 -0800, "so what" wrote:

Most likely to be criticized by the boss: Women who use expensive
pens.
Least likely to be criticized by the boss: Women who use black ink.


Gee, you mean no boss will ever like me? I'll cry tomorrow.

Tell your boss(es) that your Core is out of production, and maybe they
can find one on the closeout table. Maybe that will help on the
expensive pen side.

Black ink? You don't really care what the creeps think, after all, do
you??

Pat

Email address works as is.