From Daisy Dunn’s review of Puchner’s The Written World: Socrates envisaged a time when we would forget how to remember. The Iliad, the Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Indian epic Ramayanahad been preserved through an oral tradition that seemed destined to perish through overreliance on papyrus. Akhmatova remembered because she had to but Socrates simply chose to. He…
I recently came across a box of old writing, including a binder where I had saved some undergraduate papers. When returning a Beowulf paper for a Brit Lit survey, my instructor had stapled a page of hand-written notes that began, “You come very close to successfully combining argument and explication here, much closer than…
Isn’t the news pointless and boring? Haven’t powerful people who have no personal stake in the matter and obviously have nothing whatsoever to hide called the lying fake mainstream news media the enemy of the American people?Why would anyone want to study journalism? Oh, wait… Former sports doctor Larry Nassar likely still would be sexually…
In English grammar, we use the definite article in front of a noun when we believe the listener knows exactly what we are referring to. Further, use of the word “the” suggests singular, as in The Pope. When you meet The Pope, then you’ve met The Pope. When you meet “the elderly” you’ve really only…
Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists. We are sharing a famous prayer that #PopeFrancis has adapted: a prayer to fight #fakenews. If you know a journalist, give them some love today, and feel free to share this prayer. (CNS illustration/Joanna Korhorst) —Catholic News Service Similar:Vandal scratches Poe phrase into car at…
A multimodal news package simply means “using more than one mode,” typically the written word + some other medium. Exactly what goes into a multimodal news package is negotiable. Editors and journalism instructors will each have their own expectations.
Students who are new to college literature classes often value literary biography very highly, expecting that one of their tasks is to spot one-to-one relationships between the literary texts and the personal lives of the authors. For instance, from the two Sylvia Plath poems that use Nazi imagery to describe troubled relationships with paternal figures,…
Similar:As I was preparing to take this screenshot, two more papers came in.I still have odd jobs to tie up, but I’m…AcademiaOnly a Dad (Edgar Guest poem, read by Carolyn and Peter Jerz for WAOB Audio Theatre)Carolyn and Peter Jerz recite “Only a Da…CultureWhy do academics dress so badly? (Answer: they are too happy)I…
A student in my “American Literature: 1915-Present” class used the medium of a 2D graphic adventure game to deliver her multimodal final project. (Students also wrote a traditional term paper.) You are the cameraman of a new TV show based on Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth.” But things quickly go downhill when a…
Reagan recognized that as leader of the free world, his words carried enormous weight, and he used them to inspire the unprecedented spread of democracy around the world. | President Trump does not seem to understand that his rhetoric and actions reverberate in the same way. He has threatened to continue his attempt to discredit…
A mechanism description analyzes (that is, subdivides into components for further scrutiny) an object in space. When you try to organize your major subsections, if no other obvious pattern seems appropriate, you can always fall back on the more-important-to-less-important strategy. Don’t sell the object. A technical writer is not required to persuade the reader that the object is wonderful,…
Don’t spend three pages establishing that some people burn to death, some people freeze to death, and some people drown. Start by saying what we need to do now that the iceberg we are stranded on has caught fire. Similar:Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare course / Propos'd in blank verse like the Bard…
The car shop wanted to charge over $300. I found the part online for under $40. With the help of a YouTube video, the job took about 45 minutes. (Much of that time I spent wandering around my house looking for tools. Grateful that my father-in-law gave me a ratchet set as a wedding present.)…
Similar:Apple Hill Playhouse is closing, leaving theater group seeking new homeConfiguring socially distanced seating a…BusinessPinkalicious — "Buzz Off"My daughter plays the Bumblebee in “Buzz…AestheticsThe Miller of the Dee; by James Baldwin; read by Dennis JerzI showed up at the recording studio for …AestheticsA #neovictorian master status display board for a #steampunk #blender3d project. Inspired…
That’s a prop knife in my right hand. Similar:The Child (TNG Rewatch: Season 2, Episode 1)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…CultureShe was nervous about the dog misbehaving during "Tomorrow," so I told her she could pract… https://youtu.be/718e4XsNvGY Leap…AmusingOkay yes, this affirmation does matter to me and it will go into my annual review for next…Marked…
I have no reason to trust Facebook to filter my news for me. However, so many people get their news by social media, maybe this will be an easy way for people to check whether a viral meme is a hoax. Maybe an option marked “Look up vetted news reports related to this post.” Yes,…
In general, I avoid clicking on any headline with the weasel words “can” or “might.” However, I did enjoy this reflection on the positive impact of literary reading. I’m teaching a compressed online literature course, so that involves re-reading the literary works I assigned, as well as engaging with what my students write about those…
Similar:Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class. Twelfth-grade reading scores are a…BooksDani Girl (Geyer/13Players)https://youtu.be/5k06Z1_azMo Dani Gir…CultureNipper Hears "His Master's Voice"As a kid growing up in Fairfax County, j…BusinessMerry Christmas 2018PersonalExperience: I let a baby bird nest in my hair for 84 days He was abandoned by his flock, his nes…EmpathyPeter vs. the…
Similar:No, This Beach Photo Doesn't Prove The Media Is LyingHave you seen this image mashup being ci…Current_EventsAnother 40sq cm chunk of a #steampunk control panel. I'll do three more variations followi…AestheticsLooking in on the officers' wardroom (conference and dining) one deck above the main … I thought of the interior as “Missisip…AestheticsFantasticks (Theatre Factory,…
Similar:Judge rules Jim Acosta can have his White House pass back A federal judge ruled that CNN corre…Current_EventsThese chairs were cheap, but it really annoys me how the design collects water.PersonalForward is the officers' wardroom. To the right is an airlock. Left leads to the on-call o… AestheticsFurnished a random nook in the #neovictorian #steampunk…