Background info: I’m a research cog for a large-ish university. Several times a day I get email annoucements about activities on the various campuses.
This one is bugging me:
The bolding in mine. What’s with the quotation marks? They don’t really want anyone there or do they want us there and not do anything?
Oh well, I need to get back to “work” 
I’m guessing you don’t have to do any actual digging.
I read it as having very strong Orwellian overtones.
Your attendence is “requested” for the purposes of introduction and “training” in the new “theory” of applied “team” building and collective “participation”.
Well, we had that instrutor that wrote an essay about 9-11 victims and caused a great mess. Then his character was attacked, the state legislature looked for ways to revoke tenure, and we haven’t heard for him again.
Nothing Orwellian going on here. :rolleyes:
You better go, or it will be “noted”.
It’s probably just another example of poor writing style. Some people feel that when they want to stress one particular word over another, the best way to do it is to put quotes around it. Since the bolding is yours, the only way they could get their point across that they really do want people to participate, apparently, is to draw extra attention to it by quoting it.
Which “really” drives me up a wall.
Kinda scary since this is a university.
My writing can be poor because I do science 
Perhaps “participation” could be their way of saying “Please give us money…”?
I hear ya.
I saw an RV the other day with this written in sticky letters on the back window:
Praise the “Lord”.
heh
I hope not. I work for these people and they charge me $50 a month to park in their parking lot. I’d be ok with this, but recently it was revealed that some of the deans went to a “alumi event” in a limo. :mad:
It is right to give him “thanks” and “praise.”
I can wax poetic on academic idiocy. There are days when I think,“These people are supposed to be more educated than me, why are they so foolish?”
Where I come from, the word “participation” in quotes generally means you’ll be expected to provide the interpretive dance for the event. I hope you’re prepared.
:eek: :eek:
Maybe I’ll do performance piece: “People running and screaming at the sight of small rodents.”
Followed by “Lab manager, now a legend on campus, cleaning her desk.”
That sounds lovely. I hope you have sufficient time to practice!
Let’s see. . .
Mice (several different colors) - Check
Tutu - Check
Swiss cheese - Check
Samuel L. Jackson - maybe when he’s done there
I can visualize it in my head, and it’s beautiful.
You know, I was thinking, maybe for an encore performance you could do an interpretive dance about how you feel when people overuse quotes. I sense it could be a very “dramatic” piece.
Alas, there are some things I cannot fully express, so I will decline the encore and leave your idea open to a more talented soul. 
I work at a university also, and it’s the same university I attended. When I showed up for move-in freshman year, they had these banners hanging in front of every dorm. The banners read:
Hill Hall “Welcomes You!”
They drove me nuts! I hadn’t had one day of college education, yet I knew that these were completely incorrect. What kind of education was I paying for? And these weren’t hand-painted things, either, they were professionally (well, Kinko-ly, anyway) printed.
They still use them, almost 10 years later. Still drives me nuts. I hate the beginning of school because of that and also because it means I can no longer find a decent place to park.