Monthly Archives: July, 2007
peer review
Peer review is a very common technique in composition and writing classes. However, unless you’ve got some good peers, the exercise can often seem pointless, a bunch of students sitting there saying, “Well, I thought it was good.” Okay, then. I remember hating peer review in college because I rarely heard anything useful, and was …
serendipity
Yesterday I wrote 362 words about serendipity, partially as an exercise and partially as a (late) submission toThe Urbanite, a magazine here in Baltimore that I really like, both as a reader and writer. They have a reader-submissions section every issue, under 400 words on a particular theme for each issues, and this time was …
children’s lit authors
My friend Dawn just sent out a link to a nifty website for anyone interested in writing for children. The Highlights Foundation is an offshoot from the classic children’s magazine, and they do workshops every year for children’s lit authors near Chautauqua Lake in upstate New York. If you can’t make the workshops, or just …
Iceberg Theory
Ernest Hemingway is not one of my favorite writers, but his famous short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” is justifiably cited as one of the best short stories in American literature. The implied references to abortion make it somewhat controversial, but as a writer, the story is most interesting for the way it unfolds almost …
Vignettes as prompts
One of the distinctive facets of the Internet experience is the small glimpses we get into the lives of other people, which seems to satisfy the inner voyeur in us all. It’s an endless well of vignettes, those “short, impressionistic scenes that focus on one moment or give a particular insight into a character, idea, …
literary soundtracks
I recently started checking in on a blog called Largehearted Boy, which bills itself as a blog about music, literature and popular culture. The songs posted are usually to my liking, but the real treat for me has been the Book Notes feature, where the blogger invites authors to share what playlists were their soundtracks …
Letters About Literature
I like to skim literary contest sites looking for good ideas for literature-based assignments. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress runs a yearly Letters about Literature where students write a letter to an author explaining how that author’s work changed their lives or ways of thinking. I’m going to have my …
What’s Your Function?
Welcome to my professional blog, where I’ll be discussing my thoughts and projects connected to the writing and teaching work I do. I’ll also be posting here each time a piece of mine is available on the internet or in a print publication. While you’re here, feel free to look through the tabbed pages at …
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