Sep 24, 2021Mapping the FieldWe’ve entered one of the major thematic sections of my 601 course this semester, where we talk about “mapping the field,” particularly as it presents a challenge for folks who are new to it. …Disciplinography6 min readDisciplinography6 min read
Sep 18, 2021Talking to the WallFor the most part, during the pandemic, I’ve been able to teach asynchronously — in some ways, this has been a distillation of my “normal” pedagogical practice. No two writers work the same way, and no two respond to critique, suggestions, or encouragement alike. While I’ve been teaching in a…Online Teaching5 min readOnline Teaching5 min read
Sep 7, 2021Learning to TagThis semester, I’m teaching our program’s “601,” which bills itself as an introduction to the field. Most of our students already have a couple of years’ worth of writing studies under their belts, so I don’t think of the course as an exercise in content. …Metadata5 min readMetadata5 min read
Aug 11, 2021Brooke NotesI am either the best or the worst person to ask about how to take notes. I’m actually horrible at it — for most of my life, I’ve relied upon memory and marginalia as my primary storage methods. Now that I’m old(er), I realize how fragile that approach has proven…Reading7 min readReading7 min read
May 11, 2021The End-of-Semester Essay is a Blight[Over the years, I’ve told various versions of this story and made this argument in a number of small ways. This week, I felt motivated to put it together a little more formally.] In the spring of 2005, I taught a graduate course titled Network(ed) Rhetorics. In my syllabus for…Writing6 min readWriting6 min read
Jun 1, 2016The Rise and Fall of Hero BallIf I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the phrase “hero ball” in the past week as part of the sports commentariat’s NBA coverage… Monday night, the Golden State Warriors completed a mildly historic comeback, from 3 games to 1 down to the Oklahoma City Thunder, to capture…Hero Ball3 min readHero Ball3 min read
May 29, 2016Love #ActuallyIt’s almost a week old now, but I was thinking today about a tweet that I saw from Jamelle Bouie: Specifically, I was thinking about the way that #actually functions there. There’s been plenty of work done on what my friend Alice has called the metacommunicative properties of hashtags…Social Media2 min readSocial Media2 min read
May 28, 2016The Opposite of Rhetoric is RhetoricThe reputation of “rhetoric” as a term suffers from the tendency of many to use it as a synonym for hot air, bulls**t, or empty language. …Rhetoric3 min readRhetoric3 min read
May 27, 2016Notes Toward an Ethics of ReadingEchoing Parker Palmer’s ennobling assertion that “wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life,” [George] Saunders observes: “At any given moment you’re failing to see the way things actually are.” -Maria Popova You can never read the same book twice. This is kind…Reading3 min readReading3 min read
May 26, 2016Outrunning the BearThere’s a joke that I’m sure you’ve seen a handful of times, about outrunning a bear. Here’s the version of it that Benedict Cumberbatch (as Alan Turing) tells in The Imitation Game: There are two people in a wood, and they run into a bear. The first person gets down…Politics2 min readPolitics2 min read
