Using a Typewriter Simulator to Teach Media History
Working on the syllabus for my “Media and Culture” class on the history and future of the book.
Commentary: What My Struggling Students Wanted Me to Understand
I haven’t taught a developmental course at SHU, but when I teach freshman writing, I often encounter students who struggle with the transition from high school to college writing. Those who were praised all their lives as good writers can tell good personal stories, and they can deploy accurate summaries of non-controversial, “correct” facts. I give…
Curse you, conference proposal word limits.
I’m frustrated by these accursed conference proposal maximum word counts. (10) Curse you, conference proposal word limits. (6) Damn proposal word counts!! (4) Cut wherever possible. (3) Trim wordiness. (2) Simplify. (1) Actually, that helped. Back at it.
Revisiting a Website I Created in 1996: Engineering Writing Centre (University of Toronto)
During the Christmas break of 1996, when I was working on my Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, I asked my boss at the Engineering Writing Center if I could log about 10 hours converting a bunch of paper handouts into hyperlinked web documents. I actually put in about 20 hours, and slapped into shape…
Vanessa Otero’s Updated Media Bias Chart (Liberal/Mainstream/Conservative; Facts/Analysis/Opinion/Propaganda/Fake News) UPDATED 5.1
Otero goes into great detail describing her criteria for placing the various news sources. She changed a few labels and shifted position for a few sources. It’s not perfect. It’s not the only answer. It is, nevertheless, a very useful way to get us to think about what we’re clicking on, reading, and sharing. Update,…
William Zinsser: What Is Good Writing? (Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity.)
Most of the students in my “News Writing” class don’t want to be journalists, but they all want to make a living from their writing skills. I’m trying to emphasize some of the markers that journalists put into their work, in order to signal that their work is credible. For instance, one saying in journalism…
A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than screens
Saving this for next term’s “History and Future of the Book” course. Students said they preferred and performed better when reading on screens. But their actual performance tended to suffer. For example, from our review of research done since 1992, we found that students were able to better comprehend information in print for texts that were…
The Digital-Humanities Bust
Dinosaurs evolved into birds. Not all of them, of course. Birds are so much a part of our environment that we barely notice them. I’ve said the same about weblogs. Monetized and platformized and app-ified, the basic functions of blogging live on — a reverse-sorted stream of posts, a mechanism to engage with visitors to…
Journalists Prefer “Said”
Journalists prefer the neutral “said” to attribute a source’s statements, opinions, and emotions. Using “claimed” generates doubt. Using “explained” confers trust. Flowery alternatives compete with the unbiased reporting of facts.
A Simple Plot for a Literature Review
There are two things you need any time you are stuck in writing. You need to set the course and steady the course. If you are stuck while writing a literature review, then each of these things– set the course and steady the course– have particular ways in which you can do them easily, and…
British Politician begins reciting colonial-era Kipling poem in in Myanmar temple
After the UK ambassador cut off his recitation of a pro-colonial Kipling poem in a Maynmar temple, UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson said, “No? Good stuff.” The foreign secretary has been accused of “incredible insensitivity” after it emerged he recited part of a colonial-era Rudyard Kipling poem in front of local dignitaries while on an…
Who cares about hyphens, commas and capital letters? You should.
You’re a busy editor, fighting a deadline. Two submissions arrive in your email. One is brilliant but full of grammatical errors and style inconsistencies. You’d have to spend an hour fixing it up. Another submission is just okay, but it’s ready to go. Which would you publish? I often encounter students who’ve been told all…
I love my students enough to teach them the difference between passive voice and past tense.
If a goggles-for-brains Lego character can master the difference between active and passive verbs, you can too.
Short Reports: How to Write Routine Professional Documents
New graphic. First step in touching up my collection of pages on writing short technical reports. A business memo, a lab report, or a professional e-mail are all variations on the basic report structure described in this document. Feel free to modify these guidelines in order to meet your reader’s needs. Think of Your Reader First Your busy reader…
Paper too short? Here are actual tips for serious students, not dumb tricks your prof will notice.
Is your academic essay a bit short? First, make sure that you have formatted your draft as required (usually professors ask you to double-space). Faking a longer paper won’t make your writing any more persuasive or intelligent or analytical or factual. It won’t help you to learn what your instructor wants you to learn. My…
Classroom Vignette: MLA Style
Student (shouldering backpack and heading for door): Why does MLA Style have to keep changing? Me (checks clock): Well…
On the Virtues of a Dadsplained Literary Childhood
The last book I read to her was Wuthering Heights; next on the docket had been The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, and I had chosen it specifically because it features a daughter who benefits unknowingly from, and then grows beyond the need for, her father’s storytelling endeavors. (Alas, that reading was not to be.)
Are “Keds” still a recognizable kid shoe brand?
Are Keds a brand that my college students would recognize as kid shoes? In a handout on how to write short stories, I used “Keds” as a brand name. Should I change that to something like “Spongebob Crocs” instead?
Liberal Arts Majors Are the Future of the Tech Industry
My sister the computer programmer benefitted early in her career because she was an excellent writer. She was so good at taking notes that people would invite to her important meetings so there would be a good record, and people would consult her about important topics covered during those meetings. My brother the electrical engineer…
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.