Updated a “Gender Neutral Language” handout

MTV recently ditched the “Best Actor/Actress” awards in favor of “Best Actor,” which suggests the gender-specific term “actress” is less popular among MTV’s target audience. I added that detail, fixed some broken links, and updated the graphic. See Writing Tips: Gender Neutral Language. Similar:The Novel as a Tool for SurvivalMuch of what Krystal writes about…

Harvard revokes admission of several students for posting “offensive” memes

The First Amendment of the constitution protects the incoming students’ right to say whatever they like, even if Harvard doesn’t like it. And, as a private institution that is not regulated by the First Amendment, Harvard has the right to kick out incoming students unwise enough to exercise their rights in this manner. (The government…

I should be writing my “Fake News” paper for this weekend’s “Computers and Writing.” Instead….

Could the absurd examples of bizarre public discourse please stop happening so I can investifart some of them? Similar:WAOB MisSpelled (final episode airs)The final episode of the fantasy/comedy …AmusingR Grammar Gaffes Ruining The Language? Maybe Not : NPRMatthew Gordon, a linguist at the Univer…CultureThe reluctant wisdom of a science major in my freshman writing class.”There’s…

Computer scientist Leslie Lamport to [Brandeis] grads: If you can’t write, it won’t compute

I like introducing my English majors to coding. Here’s a computer scientist who’s returning the favor, advocating the importance of writing skills. “If you succeed in attaining a position that allows you to do something great, if you do something that really is great, and if you realize that it’s great, there’s still one more…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu Logo

Digital Humanities: A Definition

Does the world need another working definition of digital humanities? Do you have one? Here’s mine. Digital Humanities is the deliberate, critical application of emerging technology to the study of traditional subjects such as literature, art, philosophy, and language, often (but not always) with a focus on how those traditional fields are now using emerging…

Old English Has a Serious Image Problem

This fall I will be teaching Shakespeare again; but thereafter, as part of a curriculum redesign, Shakespeare will be rolled into a “Shakespeare in Context” course that will also need to address Beowulf, medieval drama, Arthurian legend, Chaucer, Marlowe, etc. I intend to do this by teaching five different Shakespeare plays, focusing on one play…

Term grades submitted. Homeschool son graduated. Time to breathe.

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My hard-working media students curated a collection of psychology student editorials & infographics at blogs.setonhill.edu/DissingDissonance

My “Media Aesthetics” students worked with students from Elizabeth Jacobs’s “Social Psychology” class, where students wrote editorials and designed infographics about cognitive dissonance. My students helped the psychology students with their drafts, then chose essays they thought had a good chance of going viral, and used WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and Hootsuite to publicize those selections. Similar:Weaponizing Empathy:…

Dozens of Colleges’ Upward Bound Applications Are Denied for Failing to Dot Every I

I’m not saying that the Upward Bound kids deserved to be punished because application writers didn’t follow formatting instructions. I am saying that formatting matters. When your professors put “formatting” on the rubric, they aren’t simply trying to make your life difficult. For the want of double spacing in a small section of a 65-page…

Because words matter, old sport.

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English as a Minor or Second Major: Talk with us about Great Books — Seton Hill University

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Get Hands-on Writing Experience.

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Start writing your novel.

Journey with Seton Hill University teachers who publish novels, stories and poetry. Similar:Folger Shakespeare Library on "The Fate of Ophelia"On my ride into work yesterday, my mothe…AcademiaWhat Critics of Student Writing Get Wrong  [T]o improve as writers, student…AcademiaHiggs Boson VideoGreat video about subatomic particles, f…AcademiaWhy Japanese Kids Can Walk to School Alone It’s a common…

Puns really matter to us over here in English.

I swore I would wield my powers only for good. Witness my latest faculty service project. Similar:Practicing Intellectual, Evidence-based DisagreementThis is what a busy literature seminar o…AcademiaMy #Blender3D set design for a Zoom-based production of Rossum's Universal Robots, which I…I’ve loved this 1920s play for almost 30…AestheticsWhat a great time everyone had at the "Cabbies."CultureEx-Pope…

When You’ve Already Got a Major, But You Love Books (Seton Hill English)

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My colleague Dr. Cusick bakes Irish soda bread every year to honor Saint Patrick’s Day.

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