On the Importance of Reading and Writing
In Composition 101 at the University of Tennessee, students learn the basic elements of rhetoric and about how it applies to writing they...
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The Blog.
I post every Wednesday and Saturday about writing, editing, teaching, and travel.
- Feb 5
- 4 min
Peleș Castle
I've been thinking about how buildings tell stories. Like novels, buildings tell stories about who we are, what we value, what time...
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- Jan 29
- 3 min
Why Are We Here?
On the first day of school, after the usual introductions and syllabus review, I ask my students to pull out a sheet of paper and answer...
38 views2 comments
- Jan 15
- 3 min
Narrative Distance in Romania
I've been thinking about the similarities between writing and photography lately. About how you can zoom in or out towards your...
17 views2 comments
- Nov 6, 2022
- 4 min
Writing as a Way to Read Life
Literature differs from life in that life is amorphously full of detail, and rarely directs us toward it, whereas literature teaches us...
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- Oct 30, 2022
- 3 min
Target Versus Actual Audience
In my last post on writing, I discussed the idea that there is no such thing as writing in general. Writing is always "in particular"...
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- Oct 20, 2022
- 4 min
The Plot of Our Lives
A few weeks ago, in my post Clutter, I discussed the opening lines of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler: You are about...
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- Oct 15, 2022
- 3 min
Writing in Particular
In last week's post, I talked about audience. I said that you should write for yourself first (be passionate) and, secondly, for your...
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- Oct 9, 2022
- 4 min
The Audience
So we're supposed to be ourselves when we write. But what about audience? If we're supposed to write as ourselves, are we writing to...
33 views0 comments
- Sep 25, 2022
- 3 min
Consistency
So you want to start a blog? And you want to be successful? Good luck. There are more than 600 million blogs on the internet today...
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- Sep 10, 2022
- 3 min
Clutter
Consider the opening lines of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables: Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England...
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- Sep 4, 2022
- 2 min
Simplicity
In 1942, during World War II, the United States government issued a blackout order: "Such preparations shall be made as will completely...
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- Aug 20, 2022
- 4 min
The Transaction
On the first day of every semester, before going over the syllabus, I ask my English 101 students to introduce themselves. “Tell us your...
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