Reading on the Road
In the spring of 1988, I got married and, instead of a traditional honeymoon, spent the next four months vagabonding through Europe with my wife, Ann. We were both twenty-three, young by today’s standards...
Academic Success and Writing Blog
Teaching Students to Adapt to Change Makes Them Better Communicators and Professionals
In the past few years, the US workforce has gone through a shift in social norms, especially around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Citizens are demanding change through anti-racist work and increased inclusion...
Weighing the Books
Hey, everyone! This is Kurtis from the Writing Center. Given we are in the midst of the summer reading season, I thought a post that speaks to the power of books would be fitting...
Take Your Pick: Every Job, No Matter Entry-Level or Beyond, Needs Good Writing—and You Can Take That to the Bank!
“No way do I need to know good writing, man! I’m flipping burgers; perhaps I’ll sign my name to the burgers, but I know how to spell that!” . . . “I’m pulling people...
Everything I Know about Analytical Reading I Learned by Doing Theatre
If you do not see the podcast player, click here to listen. Like many professors, I’ve always enjoyed school, and I’ve usually done well. I love learning new stuff, whether it’s the recent breakthrough...
Unconfusing the Confusing: Meet the Brilliant Oxford Comma!
THE PROBLEM. Over the years I have learned some strange and seemingly impossible things from students, friends, relatives, and folks I don’t know. I have always thought of myself as a rational person, one...
Teaching in a Pandemic
Last March, I came home from a conference in Nashville on a strangely empty plane, the only one sitting in my row. Since my son was home for spring break the next week and...
Supporting Your Professional Career with Effective Writing
Many students question the need to develop their professional writing skills when texting, messaging, and social media seem to dominate communication in many environments. Indeed, we can message our accountant, text our doctor, or...
Finally Found: The Golden Fleece to Improve Student Correspondence to a Professor!
THE PROBLEM. “Dear (I forgot your name) professor” … “”Could give more clarification about the thing you mentioned in that section of my paper where I discussed it like you told me?” … [first...
Some Thoughts on the Question, “Why Do We Have to Write?”
Hi folks! This is Robley, a tutor in the Writing Center. In the previous blogcast, Kurtis shared my video Why Write?, which focuses on the writing most people do outside of school (like sympathy...