Music is so important to poetry, that not developing it is equivalent to being tone deaf and trying to create a song. Remember, Sonnet means “Little Song” in Italian, and lyric poetry is so named for its musical qualities. Yet so many poets omit taking the time to train the...
In 2002, I was a frequent guest writer and columnist for a Louisville, KY magazine called The Snitch. With the rise of concern about prison education reform, I’m reprinting this article, which is still relevant. It first appeared in The Snitch of Louisville, August 15, 2002, under the title, “Teaching...
I still own a 2007 Honda Fit Sport, a fun, lovely little car that’s versatile, has good milage for a gas-burner, and a rabid fanbase. Believe it or not, it was my first new car purchase, and I was so crazy about it I wanted to write about my experience....
In FINDING THE WORDS 1: BLACKOUT/ERASURE POETRY I presented a lesson on how to get out of your word rut and discover new vocabulary through that form. In this lesson, you’ll discover new words by playing the “Eight Words Game.” The game also works as a poetry generative exercise.
In my second-semester composition course, a student asked a question about how to write introductions to research papers. I jotted down some notes for her, so my musing today is to offer some quick advice on how to get that research paper started by writing good introductions. This isn’t a...
Overview Researching primary sources is time-intensive. As I like to say, “there are no shortcuts.” But there are tricks research writers use to gather information. Here are four of these researching tricks that can help you more quickly and efficiently locate primary sources:
Overview Students using research studies often are unaware of how to apply critical attention to details. Yet some details of even the most complicated sources are within even the beginning research writer’s ability to analyze. How to Use Sources More Critically shows how you can and should question source data...