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Academic writing has a bad reputation. “When a scholar’s vanity/insecurity leads him to write primarily to communicate and reinforce his own status as an Intellectual,” as David Foster Wallace diagnosed the problem nearly two decades ago, “his English is deformed by pleonasm and pretentious diction (whose function is to signal the writer’s erudition) and by opaque abstraction (whose function is to keep anybody from pinning the writer down to a definite assertion that can maybe be refuted or shown to be silly).” Indeed. But the disorders behind the kind of prose that inspires provocations like Philosophy and Literature‘s “Bad Writing Contest” are, if you believe University of Chicago Writing Programs director Larry McEnerney, even more basic than that.
People love stories. We watch, read, tell, and listen to stories every day. Despite this, most researchers don’t think in terms of story when they write a journal paper. To Anna Clemens, that’s a missed opportunity, because storytelling is easy to implement in your manuscript provided you know how. Think of the six plot elements – character, setting, tension, action, climax, resolution – and the three other story essentials – main theme, chronology, purpose. You’ll soon outline the backbone of your narrative and be ready to write a paper that is concise, compelling, and easy to understand.
Isabel Wilkerson’s 2010 bestseller offered a long overdue account of an event in the United States that had a major impact on the cultural fabric of the country: the migration of African Americans out of the south during the early and mid 20th century. When we speak about the history of US migration, this diaspora is rarely mentioned. Cities like New York, Detroit, Chicago and Oakland were end points for many black Americans fleeing Jim Crow and segregation – often by the same railroad that took settlers out west. Would Detroit have produced the historic music of Motown without the hope of a better life that propelled some black southerners on their way to the mid-west? While many made this journey, this well-researched tome focuses on three people who left the south filled with hope during different periods: Ida Mae Gladney, George Starling and Dr Robert Foster.
We’ve previously featured Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker discussing writing at a Harvard conference on the subject.
Full-featured, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used by Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites.
Six ways writing things down can change your life, and how to make the most out of each technique.
knowing how to fashion an interesting and intelligent sentence is essential to communicating effectively, winning business, and setting yourself apart. “As Marvin Swift memorably said, clear writing means clear thinking,” said Kara Blackburn, a senior lecturer in managerial communication at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “You can have all the great ideas in the world and if you can’t communicate, nobody will hear them.” Luckily, everyone has the capacity to improve, says Bryan Garner, author of The HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. Effective writing “is not a gift that you’re born with,” he says. “It’s a skill that you cultivate.” Here’s how to write simply, clearly, and precisely.
Via Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
How Christopher Paolini, author of "Eragon" and the "Inheritance Cycle" series, managed to write and get an education.
In this lesson, we offer suggestions on how to guide students through the process when writing editorials — from brainstorming a topic to publishing their work — and all the steps in between.
Encouraging kids to think in pictures and words can free up their creativity and language skills as they write.
What seems like common sense isn't common practice, says Rowena Murray who shares her top tips for getting published
A brief look at ten of the best distraction-free programs for writers and non-writers alike.
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In the early 1900s, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans unearthed almost 3,000 tablets on the island of Crete, inscribed with a language he had never seen before. The discovery began a decades-long race to read the language of Europe’s oldest civilization. And the final deciphering of the script, which Evans called Linear B, ended up overturning an accepted history of ancient Greek origins as we learn in the TED-Ed video above scripted by classics professor Susan Lupack..
German critical theorist Theodor Adorno is known for many things, but a light touch isn’t one of them. His work includes despairing post-fascist ethics and a study on the sociology and psychology of fascism. Those who dig deeper into his catalog may know his rigorously philosophical Negative Dialectics or dense, opaque Aesthetic Theory.
As you have probably noticed, people don't write in cursive as much as they used to. Your own handwriting has probably faltered over the years, and if not, you have surely noticed handwriting of others faltering around you. 41 out of 50 states don't require handwriting to be taught in schools as of 2014. Maybe you…
Via Nik Peachey
This week’s Ted Ed list of talks we curated for you revolves around the theme: writer’s workshop. This is basically a playlist prepared by Ted Ed Channel on YouTube featuring 16 Ted Ed video lessons from which we selected the ones below. The talks are particularly ideal for classroom inclusion. You can use them with your students to teach them about some of the mechanics of writing and raise their consciousness to the important elements that make a good piece of writing.
Nothing drags down writing more than spreading good ideas over too many words. Making keystrokes matter has only grown in importance as communication and the text that powers it become increasingly inseparable.
In my first year of blogging I've been read over 4 million times. Here's a little of what I learned.
Do you love to write? Do you have any idea about how with the act of writing affects your brain? Well this visual is perfect for you then! According to this visual, you can really boost your brainpower by understanding the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe. The frontal lobe is the part of …
Here are 500 student opinion questions that invite narrative and personal writing, all together in one place.
Are you writing the next "Great American Novel?" According to an oft-quoted 2002 article from The New York Times, 81 percent of Americans believe they have a book in them -- and that they should write it.
Editor's Note: A version of this post first appeared on Techie Teacher and Character Coach.
"But Miss Parrish, I can't think of anything to write!"
Haven't we all heard similar lines in our classro
Have you thought about self-publishing a book? Here is some inspiration to help you try!
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