I can’t stand writing! Or can I?
Photo credit: Life Magazine Lauren’s recent post about the physical process of writing struck a particularly resonant chord with me. As I enter the final chapter of my dissertation, I’ve been thinking...
View ArticleThe War on Cliché
Throughout history, student writers have used generalizations. In society today, everybody likes to make broad, sweeping statements and to repeat clichés. As the saying goes, great writing is timeless....
View ArticleWhat if we only see the gorilla?
Part One: At last year’s Symposium, during the morning roundtable discussions, my table got into a conversation about how to manage students on laptops in the classroom. Are they really writing? How do...
View ArticleRite of Myself
“I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” This Saturday I will perform a solo work...
View ArticleThe Digital I & Thou
At a recent faculty roundtable, a familiar conversation surfaced: why do students incorporate the rhythms, abbreviations and tones of digital communication at all the wrong moments and in all the worst...
View ArticleThinking Through Animals at the Westminster Dog Show
The emerging food movement, which has gained so much prominence in the past few years, is, surprisingly, entering the canon of composition curricula. At Queens College, the new topics-focused...
View ArticleReally Writing Writing Rubrics
I’m writing this post from the Landmark Ballroom, Salon 4, in the Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis, MO. Even more specifically, I just left a session at the Conference on College Composition and...
View ArticleBaiting the Hook
Every other week during the semester the Institute staff meet to discuss the various projects and initiatives of the Institute, and the responsibility and concerns of the Fellows. But before those...
View ArticleTuning In to Muse Radio
I want to follow up on April’s excellent post about “baiting the hook”; that is, getting to a place where writing becomes a more natural and (hopefully) easier part of our everyday existence. As a...
View ArticleThe Last 100 Miles
Or, Back: meet Wall. David and I have recently discussed our respective strategies for hailing those winsome and fickle scholarly muses. You can explore this topic more by checking out this episode of...
View ArticleArticle 5
I fucking hate blogs, but I’m obliged to do this 5 times for reasons I’ll explain later. So, for my first one, I thought I’d just introduce some questions. No one’s watching, so if you’re bothering to...
View ArticleBlogging as Bridging and Writing to Learn: A First Draft Look at Two Promises...
I don’t read blogs with comprehensive regularity…but as a student of urban education policy it’s difficult NOT to notice that there are notable education thinkers who are leading conversations about...
View Article3D Research Writing
On November 15, 2012, as part of “The Seminar on Innovative Teaching” series, the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute hosted a talk by Tim Owens titled “3D Printing and Making Across the...
View ArticleShh, Please, I’m Thinking!
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m an introvert. Maybe I should say that a little more loudly? If we’re dealing in the popular discourse that has developed around introversion and extroversion, introverts are...
View Article“Is This a Persuasive Paper?”
That question — “Is this a persuasive paper?” — is one that I can’t seem to avoid when teaching classes. A student asked it to me the other day in a writing class. Each time, I try not to appear...
View ArticleOwn It
I hate when people post to blogs anonymously. There are several blogs I follow regularly, on topics ranging from Appalachian Trail Thru Hikes to Philosophy (admittedly, there are many more on frivolous...
View ArticleBe Interested?
A few weeks ago, at the SUNY Council on Writing Conference, I heard Richard E. Miller give a fascinating keynote called “Who’s this for?: Audience in the Classroom without Walls.” What I found most...
View ArticleGetting Work Done, 25 Minutes at a Time
A pile of tomatoes: my new measure of achievement [START TOMATO] Anybody who has done any kind of self-directed work is likely familiar with clichéd tales of procrastination involving obsessive...
View ArticleFishing in Micronesia
In his article, “How to Have a Good Idea,” Macel Kinsbourne writes about a quandary he proposes to his students. I have adapted his story to work with my students. It goes something like this. There is...
View ArticleDing!
On a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, I ventured to the South Bronx to conduct a college admissions essay writing workshop at a church. A high school classmate of mine contacted me on Facebook and...
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