The introduction to a paper is critically important. This is where you try to draw in readers, tell them what you're going to address, and show why this issue is important. It's also a place to show a little style, demonstrating that you're going to take readers on a fun ride. Below are two exemplary … Continue reading Academic Writing Issues: Getting Off to a Fast Start
This post is an essay by Hilarius Bookbinder recently published in his Substack. Here's a link to the original. I posted another piece of his here recently. He is my favorite read these days in my favorite new medium, Substack. He’s got a great nom de plume, don’t you think? Based on a few clues in … Continue reading Hilarius Bookbinder — In Praise of Frivolous Research
This post is an essay about the brief but glorious golden age of the US university during the three decades after World War II. American higher education rose to fame and fortune during the Cold War, when both student enrollments and funded research shot upward. Prior to World War II, the federal government showed little … Continue reading An Affair to Remember: America’s Brief Fling with the University as a Public Good
This post is a recent essay by A. O. Scott, published in the Times. Here's a link to the original. It's a lovely window into the mechanics of good writing. He's talking about one of my favorite authors, Mick Herron, who wrote the Slow Horses series that is now serialized on Apple TV. What’s So Great … Continue reading A. O. Scott — What’s So Great About ‘Slow Horses’? This Scene Says It All.
This post is a piece I published in 2020 in the Chronicle Review. Here’s a link to the original. It’s about an issue that has been gnawing at me for years. How can you justify the existence of institutions of the sort I taught at for the last two decades — rich private research universities? These institutions … Continue reading How Not to Defend the Research University
This post is a powerfully depressing essay by James Marriott, published in his Substack. Here's a link to the original. Here's an overview of his argument: More than three hundred years after the reading revolution ushered in a new era of human knowledge, books are dying. Numerous studies show that reading is in free-fall. Even … Continue reading James Marriott — The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society and the End of Civilisation
This post is the transcript of my discussion with Chris Saldaña of University of Wisconsin as part of the podcast, NEPC Talks Education. Here's a link to the audio version of this podcast. This is how NEPC describes the conversation in its press release for the podcast: In this month's episode of NEPC Talks Education, … Continue reading NEPC Podcast: Conversation with Chris Saldana about Education Policy
This post is a recent essay by Hilarius Bookbinder from his Substack. Here's a link to the original. He is my favorite read these days in my favorite new medium, Substack. He's got a great nom de plume, don't you think? Based on a few clues in his posts, I finally figured out his real name. … Continue reading Hilarius Bookbinder — There Is No Government Waste
When you're interested in improving your writing, it's a good idea to have some models to work from. I've presented some of my favorite models in this blog. These have included a number of examples of good writing by both academics (Max Weber, E.P. Thompson, Jim March, and Mary Metz) and nonacademics (Frederick Douglass, Elmore Leonard). … Continue reading On Writing: How the King James Bible and How It Shaped the English Language and Still Teaches Us How to Write
This post is an essay by David Brooks that appeared in the Atlantic in 2020. Here's a link to the original. He takes advantage of the Covid hiatus in college commencements to give the kid of commencement advice that he could never deliver in front of the parents, faculty, and students assembled there. Things like: Use … Continue reading David Brooks — A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 