the book “men are from mars, women are from venus”? Well, here’s a prime example offered by an English professor at an American university. In-class assignment for Wednesday “today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story.”"The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then 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 to be absolutely no talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.”The following was actually turned in by two of my English students:Rebecca - last name deleted, and Gary - last name deleted:”Story: (first paragraph by 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.——————————————————-Meanwhile, advance Sergeant Carl harries, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over skyline 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. “As. harries to gestation 17,” he said into his transatlantic 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 ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.——————————————————-He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of skyline 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 the days had 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?