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 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.
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
This post is about a 1975 paper by James G. March, which was published in, of all places, the Texas Tech Journal of Education. Given that provenance, it's something you likely have never encountered before unless someone actually handed it to you. I used it in a number of my classes and wanted to share … Continue reading James March: Education and the Pursuit of Optimism
This post is a tribute to a wonderful essay by the great British historian of working-class history, E. P. Thompson. His classic work is The Making of the English Working Class, published in 1966. The paper I'm touting here provides a lovely window into the heart of his craft, which is an unlikely combination of … Continue reading E.P. Thompson: Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism
This post is an essay by Joel Stein that appeared recently in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. It's purportedly about the issue of how much authors are going to get paid for all the material that artificial intelligence systems are hoovering up from the world's literature. The answer to this, of … Continue reading Joel Stein: What Should I Get Paid When a Chatbot Eats My Books
This post is an essay by Joel Stein published two days ago in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. It's on a theme that will resonate with most writers, especially academic writers. What are your books worth in the publishing market place? Not much. Even AI understands this, as Stein found out. … Continue reading Joel Stein — What Should I Get Paid When a Chatbot Eats My Books?
This post is a recent column by Frank Bruni in the times, part of his series "For the Love of Sentences." Here's a link to the original. Enjoy. For the Love of Sentences Image Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times In The Autopian, Matt Hardigree explained one carmaker’s advantage: “You don’t buy a Subaru so much as you … Continue reading Frank Bruni — For the Love of Sentences
I'm posting today one of the greatest speeches ever given, from that master of rhetoric, Frederick Douglass. It demonstrates the power of language to make arguments and change hearts. In a time like ours, when rhetoric is used to promote the worst social ills, it's gratifying to see what it can do in the right … Continue reading Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July”
