In my College Comp class we read "Young Goodman Brown" and just finished watching Training Day. Now we are going to choose a theme and an element (character, plot, setting, or symbol) and compare the two.
As I was outlining the format and works cited, I just happened to mention that in the introductions students will want to note the author and the director. I didn't know the director off of the top of my head, so I used the generic "John Doe."
Today, I was helping the students put their works cited together. They had little problem with citing "Young Goodman Brown," but none had cited a film before. This time I wrote the citation out on the board and put in the real director, Antoine Fuqua.
It was at this time that one student exclaimed: "That's not his name!"
"What?" I asked, confused. I had just looked his name up earlier so I was surprised that she said I had given her another name.
"The director is John Doe!" she said, rifling through her notes.
The class got a kick out of that one.
After several minutes we stopped chuckling - and after explaining to the student that "John Doe" as well as "Jane Doe" are just generic names people often use in conversation for examples of names - the student asked, "What would you have done if I would have actually included that in my works cited?"
"I would have sent it to every English teacher I know," I said. "You might even make it on Jay Leno! The very least you'd have been part of email lore forever as one of those humorous forwards that are sent around forever. Remember the ones I should the class on creative math answers?"
At least she now knows not to take the name "John Doe" so seriously anymore.
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