Sometimes It's Okay to Meddle: Or, How to Encourage First-Year Students to Visit the Writing Center
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Date
2012
Authors
Pexton, Valerie
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When I was a kid, I loved the original Star Trek.
Every time I heard “to boldly go where no man has
gone before,” I got goosebumps. As I got older,
besides realizing the ungrammatical nature of the
construction (and the inherent sexism behind it), I
began thinking about some of the show’s chief plot
points; namely, the United Federation of Planets’
altruistic “Prime Directive” which prohibited
interference with other civilizations. This directive,
supposedly ironclad, was consistently violated by the
Enterprise crew and usually on Captain Kirk’s orders.
However, most of the violations were well intentioned
and generally resulted in a positive outcome for
whatever group of aliens was the object of the
Enterprise’s meddling. This tendency of course only
reinforced Kirk’s unstated philosophy that interfering in
others’ affairs is sometimes the best way to get things
done.