See a large collection of writing handouts, including academic writing , creative writing, and business/professional writing.
Good news writing, and praise for Trump’s cool demeanor during a crisis, from : The Independent The large man in the grey suit interrupted Donald Trump. No one interrupts Donald Trump – especially at the White House. At his White House. Then the man turned his back to the television cameras showing the utterly surreal scene live around the…
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I regularly teach Flannery O’Connor, and assign a whole book of her short stories when I taught an American Lit 1915-Present course. Now that I’m teaching “American Lit 1776-Present” I keep her stories in rotation, but I have more material to cover, so I have to be more selective. O’Connor’s fiction contains many themes and…
Jerz > Writing > Technical Writing Tips Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)Is AI making us less intelligent?January 6th … the board game?Letter to the editor: Setting record straight on Seton Hill newspaperDon't Be a Sucker (antifascist film from 1945)
It seems that an unusually high percentage of links I posted to my website in July 2000 no longer work, but here are a few links that I could find via the Wayback Machine: The guy who invented the “pet rock” won the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest for really bad writing. Humorous courtroom transcripts Q: All…
Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer t…Is AI making us less intelligent?The press lobby is going feral—ignore itJanuary 6th … the board game?
Students who put a lot of effort into learning the editing guidelines in the AP Stylebook might benefit from the occasional reminder that good news writing requires the creative use of language, a good idea for detail and the ability to make connections between your readers and the news. The sources we interview are real…
Americans can fairly and legitimately differ on important values. Freedom or security? Peace or justice? Which short-term sacrifices are worth making, for which long-term benefits?
Most readers will nod along with whatever parts of a story affirm their values. A significant number will reject any story — even one that’s carefully sourced and fact-checked — if it challenges their world view. (“So biased!” “Fake news!”)
Whenever even the fairest-minded journalists tackle a high-stakes story involving groups with different levels of access to wealth, education, healthcare and personal security, any honest story they publish is going to make someone upset.
AP Style follows the standard English practice of capitalizing proper nouns. They stayed with Uncle John at Gracious Living Inn on the shore of Grenada Lake while on vacation in the South. Capitalize the names of particular people, places or things. (Proper nouns.) In the above example, “shore” and “vacation” are common nouns. They stayed with my uncle at a hotel on the south end of a peaceful lake.…
Marked 832 AP English essays in a week of online work. Rating is based on how accurately I marked the pre-graded training examples scattered in amongst the flood. A really good professional development tool, that helps me to align my assessment with what my peers feel is high school writing skill that deserves college credit.…
Since new technical skills are always in high demand, young college graduates who have them earn a short-run salary premium. Yet when the job changes, these now experienced workers must learn new technical skills to keep up with fresh college graduates and a constant stream of talent from abroad. The result is slower salary growth…
Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer t…Is AI making us less intelligent?The press lobby is going feral—ignore itJanuary 6th … the board game?
In the context of my role as a teacher interested in encouraging my students to understand the difference between credible information and propaganda, this language from DonaldJTrump.com will make a good discussion topic. I teach my journalism students to cover stories fairly. Journalists would not be doing their job if they simply repeated the results of…
Cops are trained to make snap decisions under highly stressful situations. Often their training saves lives. Sometimes they deeply regret decisions they make. After thinking back on his recent behavior while working during a protest at Foley Square May 31, NYPD officer Robert Cattani offered a heartfelt apology: “I know I made the wrong decision,”…
Andrew Gelman of “Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science” writes: Peer review is fine for what it is—it tells you that a paper is up to standard in its subfield. Peer reviewers can catch missing references in the literature review. That can be helpful! But if peer review catches anything that the original authors…
Carefully choosing language that fits your slant is a powerful form of persuasion. I try to teach my students to recognize and avoid biased language, which is a more difficult process than simply firing back with different biased terms that support your own slant (“You’re an anti-choice woman hater,” “No, you’re an anti-life baby killer!”).…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The episode feels like a gimmick approved by a cigar-chomping producer who barked at a room of scrappy doe-eyed writers: “Put a script on my desk by 4pm today, or tomorrow you’ll be back on the bus to Dubuque!” Picard is transported to a windowless chamber where he and…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. A space anomaly activates an alternate timeline in which the Enterprise-D is a bustling battleship, Picard is a hard-edged militant facing defeat after decades of war against the Klingon Empire, and somehow only Guinan realizes something’s wrong. This version of Picard struggles with ethical complexities that “our” Picard could…
The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane. Here are some of the ways law enforcement officers escalated the national unrest.
Updating the graphic for a writing handout on how to write instructions, which I created in 2000. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer t…Is AI making us less intelligent?January 6th … the board game?Letter…