Category Archives: English

The Craft of Writing Effectively

“Larry McEnerney, Director of the University of Chicago’s Writing Program, led this session in an effort to communicate helpful rules, skills, and resources that are available to graduate students interested in further developing their writing style.” Here are some excerpts … Continue reading

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Why Do Some People End Their Sentences In ‘Yeah’?

From Quora: “Most British people don’t say Yeah at the end of a sentence. It would be most prevalent in certain dialects in South Eastern England. It is used as a affirmation of the sentence it ends, or the series … Continue reading

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Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative

From the LROB: * It isn’t just that everyone now has a story; it’s that everyone is a story. Who you are is the narrative you recount about yourself. Whether the life history of someone forced into sex work reflects … Continue reading

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Departments on the Defensive

From the New York Review: * Academic criticism can thus be regarded as an innovation of the 1920s, like the lie detector, water skiing, the timed traffic light, and the bread slicer. * the pitched battles over curriculum and methodology … Continue reading

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Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

Here are some highlights from this 2022 book by Katherine Rundell: * The power of John Donne’s words nearly killed a man. It was the late spring of 1623, on the morning of Ascension Day, and Donne had finally secured … Continue reading

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