Here’s a piece I published several years ago in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a link to the original. It's also included in my new book, Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. Hope you like it. THE ESTHETIC PLEASURES OF ACADEMIC WRITING WHILE IT MAY SEEM UNLIKELY, SUCH WRITING CAN ACTUALLY … Continue reading The Esthetic Pleasures of Scholarly Writing
This post is a review by Phil Christman in The Bulwark of a new book by John Warner -- More than Words: How to Think about Writing in the Age of AI. Here's a link to the original. In this essay, Christman and Warner explore a view of writing that I've been thinking about for years: … Continue reading Against the AI Writing Machines
This post is a collection of tips about good writing that I have used in classes over the years. I hope you find them useful. Academic Writing Is a Process of Entering an Ongoing Conversation So you don’t just jump in, you try to situate your argument in the larger conversational arena. Orienting the reader … Continue reading Writing Tips
This post is a classic essay by Philip Jackson from his 1974 book, Life in Classrooms. Here's a link to the original. To me, it's the best piece that has ever been written about "the daily grind" that students experience in elementary classrooms, which I often used in my classes. It's all about the hidden … Continue reading Philip Jackson — The Daily Grind
This post is a piece by Frank Bruni from the Times. Here's a link to the original. It's the new year, so it's time to take a moment to celebrate some the best writing that appeared in the last year. This is what Bruni has done here. In particular, he shows us his favorite sentences. I … Continue reading Frank Bruni — The Best Sentences of 2024
on Getting It Wrong — Rethinking a Life in ScholarThis post is an overview of my life as a scholar. I presented an oral version in my job talk at Stanford in 2002. The idea was to make sense of the path I’d taken in my scholarly writing up to that point. What were the … Continue reading Getting It Wrong — Rethinking a Life in Scholarship
For anyone who’s interested, I’m posting below an updated list of all my publications and course syllabi, including links to these works and to full course materials. Here’s a link to the list as a Word document, which is way more useful. Feel free to share. David Labaree Links to Publications and Course Materials December 8, … Continue reading Links to All My Publications and Course Materials — An Update List
If the greatest joy that comes from retirement is that I no longer have to attend faculty meetings, the second greatest joy is that I no longer have to grade student papers. I know, I know: commenting on student writing is a key component of being a good teacher, and there's a real satisfaction that … Continue reading Robin Lee Mozer — I Would Rather Do Anything Else than Grade Your Final Papers
This post is an analysis of the engine for scholarly production in American higher education. The issue is that the university is a unique work setting in which the usual organizational incentives don’t apply. Administrators can’t offer much in the way of power and money as rewards for productive faculty and they also can’t do … Continue reading The Lust for Academic Fame
This post is a continuation of my tribute to Joe Moran's lovely book, First You Write a Sentence. It's part of my ongoing series of posts about issues in writing and books on writing. What I like so much about Moran's take on the subject is that he not only gives cogent advice for how … Continue reading Joe Moran: How to Write a Sentence, Pt. 2
