I reminded my Shakespeare students that I’m a full-time generalist and a part-time Shakespeare professor, and that I’m constantly comparing my own classroom performance with the brilliant well-planned lectures my professors delivered to classes of 100 or 400 students.
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.
Similar:Created a new graphic for an existing handout on writing editorials.The “lead editorial” represents the offi…EmpathyCave Gave Game: Subterranean Space as Videogame Place | Electronic Book ReviewElectronic Book Review just published an…AcademiaWhy the Weather Channel's Hype Has Lost Me for GoodAfter the break, we’ll tell you how impo…BusinessThe Rise of Curiosity JournalismKatz and his…
Sometimes when I find myself putting more than a usual amount of creativity into a comment on a student paper, I take a break from churning through papers to make another meme.
With Dr. Simon Van Gelder in Dagger of the Mind the Horta in Devil in the Dark; mirror Spock melds with McCoy in Mirror Mirror with Nomad the floating space probe in The Changeling. Kinda sorta with random guard (remotely projects the vague idea that the prisoners have escaped, so not really a meld) in……
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…
A Grave Tale (WAOB Audio Theatre) Written by Kelsey McIngyre Narrated by Dennis G. Jerz Similar:"Chores" — Clip from Snow White: The Musical (Stage Right Greensburg, Sept 2012)Here’s what it sounded like at our first…CultureTraditional Reporters and Data-driven Analysts Both Underestimated Trump's ChancesA data-driven news outlet that gave Trum…CultureAfter lights out, the girl is knitting.PersonalLiz…
“In the past, people fabricated content. There were ‘midnight flyers,’ which were pieces of propaganda usually sent out by candidates and put on the windshield of your car or under your door at home. And there were forms of content that contained serious misinformation in them. Sometimes they looked news-like and sometimes they didn’t,” explains…
The researchers found that participants with their phones in another room significantly outperformed those with their phones on the desk, and they also slightly outperformed those participants who had kept their phones in a pocket or bag. The findings suggest that the mere presence of one’s smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity and impairs cognitive functioning,…
A journalist’s response to President Trump’s early morning caps-imbued assault on the FAKE news media. Let’s be clear about what Trump is suggesting here. He wants the Senate intelligence committee to open an investigation into the “Fake News Networks” to get to the bottom of why so much of the news is “just made up.”…
Great behind-the-scenes story of the hard work that went into breaking the Tom Price private travel story. The first tip came from a casual conversation with a source back in May: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was using private jets for routine travel, possibly in violation of federal travel rules that allowed such flights…
Similar:Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo program So much to see at the Heinz History Ce…CultureThe geekling is 14 today.PersonalMidterm Grades Spring 2025: Posted!I planned ahead pretty well this term. I…AcademiaFinding downtime during orientation week is not a walk in the park. Except when the downti…PersonalThis weekend… Would YOU trade a…
Similar:Spring 2022 Midterm Grades: SubmittedPersonalUnmarked assignments. As more keeps coming in, can I reduce that number each day, without …PersonalSibling Affection and Paternal Abstraction as Drawn By a Six-Year-Old; or, Aren't My Daugh…My six-year-old daughter is a very visua…AmusingDr Jerz I think your microphone glitchedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPqnXF7A…AcademiaAs I was preparing to take this screenshot, two more papers…
We focused just on Act I today — the opening scene on the battlement, the initial court scene that introduces Claudius and Gertrude, the domestic scene where Ophelia gets mansplaining first from her brother then from her father, and Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost. After the slow opening acts in A Comedy of Errors, The…
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…
Similar:Appreciating the production values and so-stupid-it-might-be-brilliant comedy in Avatar: T…The daughter is showing my wife and me “…AestheticsLatest #blender3d progress on a villain's lair. Added more carpets and cabinetry, and sta… AestheticsThe Schizoid Man (TNG Rewatch: Season 2, Episode 6)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaWe'll Always Have Paris (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 24)Rewatching Star…
In an opening lecture, I briefly listed the five freedoms Americans are guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Then I moved on. I quizzed them the next week, and they didn’t do too well. They did a little better when I surprised them with a follow-up quiz. After that,…
Jerz > Writing > Journalism Using the inverted pyramid structure is one of the major differences between a news story and a personal essay. Similar:The Post drops the ‘mike’ — and the hyphen in ‘e-mail’When I announced these style changes, an…CultureThe history of Tetris randomizersA pleasantly detailed analysis of how th…CybercultureUpdated Media Bias Chart — Left/Center/Right, Facts/Analysis/Partisan/Propaganda (Ad Font…Update…
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…
Carolyn rehearses with Nick Lenz. Her show is Friday night. (She’s a napkin, wolf, and villager Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.) Similar:The Big Goodbye (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 11) When a holodeck glitch taints Picard's… Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generat…CultureIf I don’t stock the officers’ pub on my #steampunk #fantasy #CGI flagship, who…