Why The Humanities are Still King
When people hear that someone is majoring in English, chances are they think, “Oh, you are going to teach.” Or, “Man, what in God’s name are you going to do […]
Three Books, Three Days: Here’s What I Learned
Are you a reader? I mean like, are you mad about reading? Do you read a lot? At least a book a week? If you’ve found this site, I bet […]
Lightning Lessons in Writing: How to Use the Comma
All too often, inexperienced writers view, or worse, use, the comma as a pause in a sentence. While it’s true that we pause at commas, as we would any mark […]
Potty-mouthed Professors: Why They’re the Best
Trust me. I should know. I’m one of them. And if you are someone easily offended by foul, vulgar, profane language, this essay might not be for you. There is […]
Walking Through it All: Reviewing Ben Montgomery’s ‘Grandma Gatewood’s Walk’
In Ben Montgomery’s eye-opening profile, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail, readers encounter the real life folk heroin Emma Gatewood. On the […]
How to Write Anything (Part III)
In parts one and two of this mini-series on writing I discussed crafting an essay with a particular audience in mind, choosing a genre and writing with purpose, followed by […]
The Stories We Tell Ourselves: A Meditation on Frost’s Two Roads
(A quick note: while the gender of the speaker remains undetermined, I sometimes use the masculine for the sake of simplicity and consistency. It seems easier than having to repeatedly […]
How to Write Anything (Part II)
In part one of this “how-to” mini-series I discussed some of the broader aspects of the initial stages of the writing process. In that essay I covered genre, audience and […]
How to Write Anything (Part I)
Writing is contentious. As someone who works in higher ed., I ought to know. Looking around the country at different universities and colleges it’s easy to notice some interesting structures […]
