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:In May, 2001 I was blogging about…
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:Laying out our anti-socialization defenses & cleaning out the penitence shack for anot…Visiting Fort Ligonier. When the girl…CultureTerm grades submitted. Homeschool son graduated. Time to breathe.AcademiaAlike (2015)This short film reminds us why art matte…AestheticsMy 10yo Sings "Hopelessly Devoted to You"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq81GeqAY…PersonalMerry Christmas 2018PersonalHappy Sweet Sixteen, Carolyn!The girl spent her birthday weekend open…Personal
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:Out for a walk during some downtime. Paused to appreciate this beautiful city of #Pittsbur…AestheticsTechnical…
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:Another 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blender3dartAestheticsSo happy to work with @crissycp and benefit from her kindness and baking talents.PersonalDaily 10sq cm of control panel eye candy. #blender3d #blender3dart #steampunkAestheticsThe exposition officer needs instant access to a pencil case, logbook and mission-critical…AestheticsGround-nesting Yellowjacket WaspsWhile my 16yo son was mowing the lawn…
That’s a prop knife in my right hand. Similar:Seeing the premiere of a play based on the life of a Holocaust survivor who ended up as a …PersonalTimes photo staffer's invention: the streaming backpack “From a photographer’s perspective it…AestheticsNYT newsroom integration memoBy integrating the newsrooms we plan to …BusinessPop Culture Showdown with My Retro DaughterThe…
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:Journalism Isn't Dying. It's Returning to Its Roots.An important reminder that “objective” j…Culture11 Tips H.P. Lovecraft Had for Novice Writers”Avoid reading so as not to taint your c…CultureHitting the weekend with just 6 ungraded papers. #partylikeaprof Hitting the weekend with just 6 ungrad…PersonalSymbiosis (TNG Rewatch, Season 1 Episode 22)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…CultureRandom #steampunk…
Similar:The Miller of the Dee; by James Baldwin; read by Dennis JerzI showed up at the recording studio for …AestheticsIt’s that time again.PersonalMore #steampunk #blender3d goodness. #design #cgi #blender3dartAestheticsHaven (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 10) When a low-stakes rom-com shows Troi's beau and …Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaChallenge Accepted.PersonalStar Trek The Original SeriesAmazing…
Similar:So glad to be attending another live theatrical production. @quantumtheatre never disappoi…Projections, live music, sounds, props, …Business'Dream' casting a family affairAmong actors in Cabaret Theatre’s upcomi…CultureWhat is Technical Writing?I noticed an uptick in traffic to an old…AestheticsVibing to a park saxophonist as I code for an upcoming conference presentation, and wait t…Vibing to a park…