“So far as the social sciences are concerned, all this means that their oft-lamented lack of character no longer sets them apart. It is even more difficult than it always has been to regard them as underdeveloped natural sciences, awaiting only time and aid from more advanced quarters to harden them, or as ignorant and […]
Continue reading →One of my favorite resources that concerns writing the college admissions essay– an annoying task– has recently disappeared from the University of Virginia website. Written by Parke Muth, a UVa admissions officer, the piece discusses what makes for an effective or ineffective college essay. I don’t agree with it entirely– it states that good essays […]
Continue reading →I’m struggling a bit with how to write this post, as I don’t want to inadvertently endorse the dogma of minimalism. The minimalist dogma is the constantly-evoked notion that doing less in writing is always doing better. Its origins are multiple, with major players being authors like Ernest Hemingway, style guardians like Strunk and White, […]
Continue reading →“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” — Ecclesiastes 9:11 Among the many tired banalities that get […]
Continue reading →For those who are interested, the classes I’ll be taking this fall include Seminar in Language Testing, a class on assessment of language proficiency through test instruments. The class will examine the history, theory, and application of standardized tests for evaluating language proficiency, both oral and written, cross-linguistically. Rhetorical methodologies, a class dedicated to research […]
Continue reading →So this is a very minor thing, on balance, but I see it enough to think it’s worth saying. In the realm of practical advice: if you have to insert a word or phrase to indicate that something you’re writing means something dramatically different from the surface meaning, you’ve already failed and should try again. […]
Continue reading →It’s a little funny to be getting excited about a semester that starts in late August, but I’ve ordered my textbook and crafted my syllabus for next semester. And I’m getting very excited. First, I’m excited to teach with The Short Guide to College Writing. It’s everything that most college textbooks aren’t. I don’t mean […]
Continue reading →“When this news came out, I said it would be best if the supposedly-iconic character DC was going to have come out was someone for whom the revelation that he or she was gay helped tie together things we’d always known about the character and their personality, much as J.K. Rowling did with Albus Dumbledore.” […]
Continue reading →I posted a comment on the indispensable blog by Alyssa Rosenberg at ThinkProgress that I’d like to expand on. The post is about DC’s plans to out one of their major characters as gay. I said in the comment that this doesn’t strike me as particularly moving, however enlightened, because comic book continuity changes so much. Another […]
Continue reading →(Ten to go, on account of I go to one so I can’t rightly visit it.) So here I am at “the Horseshoe,” Ohio State’s football stadium. I’ve decided to make a goal of visiting all of the Big Ten schools while I’m a grad student at one of them. Summer break is here for […]
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