Do you know why it’s called an “em dash”?
My day job — as an English professor at an engineering college — gives me plenty of opportunities to comment on and correct the grammar of my students. I don’t often do the same kind of correcting …
Can a MOOC teach writing?
As Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, gain in popularity and media attention, it seems that the course format–featuring 1 instructor and many thousands of students–may not provide a good environment for helping students with their writing. As Steve Kolowich reports …
What do storytelling and technical presentations have in common? At first, you may think, “absolutely nothing!” And yes, there is a deep chasm between The Brothers Karamazov and the update you give your boss about progress with the design of a drug-eluting stent (just to give …
Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto apologizing to the people of South Korea
Recent events in the news have reminded me of the vexing nature of apologies. Each of us has seen public apologies in the media: Jimmy Swaggert apologizing to his congregation, Representative Kevin Yoder apologizing …
I was struck by Jordan Weissmann’s report in The Atlantic about the value that bosses add to the work of their employees. We are all familiar with the bad boss syndrome, immortalized in television, film, blogs, and the numerous “Rate My Boss” sites that proliferate …
