FYI this is a cut and paste
Remember the book “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”? Here is a true to life example from the University of Phoenix. An English Professor assigned his students a joint writing exercise that quickly degraded. Read the following:
Professor: “Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple; every other person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As your homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back also sending another copy to me. The first person will add a third paragraph, and so on, back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree that a conclusion has been reached.”
The following was actually turned by two of the students:
Rebecca (last name deleted) and Gary (last name deleted)
The Story:
(Rebecca): At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.
(Second paragraph by Gary): Meanwhile Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie whom he had spent one sweaty night with over a year ago. “A.S. Harris to Geostation 17” he said in his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far…” But before he could sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ships cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.
(Rebecca): He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychologically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feeling for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. “Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,” Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when days passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. “Why must one lose one’s innocence to become a woman?” she pondered wistfully.
(Gary): Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anuudrian mother ship launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks that pushed the unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anuudrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters hidden safely on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist down on the conference table and shouted, “We can’t allow this! I’m going to veto that treaty. Lets blow em out of the sky!”
(Rebecca): This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent chauvinistic semiliterate adolescent.
(Gary): Yeah? Well, you’re self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. “Oh shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F***ing tea? Oh no, I’m such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels.”
(Rebecca): Asshole!
(Gary): Bitch!
(Rebecca): Get screwed!
(Gary): Eat shit!
(Rebecca): SCREW YOU – YOU NEANDERTHAL! ! !
(Gary): GO DRINK SOME TEA BITCH.
(Professor):
A+ - I really liked this one.
Remember the book “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”? Here is a true to life example from the University of Phoenix. An English Professor assigned his students a joint writing exercise that quickly degraded. Read the following:
Professor: “Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple; every other person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As your homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back also sending another copy to me. The first person will add a third paragraph, and so on, back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree that a conclusion has been reached.”
The following was actually turned by two of the students:
Rebecca (last name deleted) and Gary (last name deleted)
The Story:
(Rebecca): At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.
(Second paragraph by Gary): Meanwhile Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie whom he had spent one sweaty night with over a year ago. “A.S. Harris to Geostation 17” he said in his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far…” But before he could sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ships cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.
(Rebecca): He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychologically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feeling for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. “Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,” Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when days passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. “Why must one lose one’s innocence to become a woman?” she pondered wistfully.
(Gary): Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anuudrian mother ship launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks that pushed the unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anuudrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters hidden safely on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist down on the conference table and shouted, “We can’t allow this! I’m going to veto that treaty. Lets blow em out of the sky!”
(Rebecca): This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent chauvinistic semiliterate adolescent.
(Gary): Yeah? Well, you’re self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. “Oh shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F***ing tea? Oh no, I’m such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels.”
(Rebecca): Asshole!
(Gary): Bitch!
(Rebecca): Get screwed!
(Gary): Eat shit!
(Rebecca): SCREW YOU – YOU NEANDERTHAL! ! !
(Gary): GO DRINK SOME TEA BITCH.
(Professor):
A+ - I really liked this one.
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