Category Archives: writing/editing
Ideals and Realities
This has been reading week: a break from teaching at the U. Ideally, all of the hours freed up by that (and we’re talking a buttload of hours since I’m teaching three undergrad classes, one grad seminar and a graduate … Continue reading
Filed under personal, writing/editing
Grading Peeves
I’ve often thought about handing out my students a list of expressions and mistakes to particularly avoid in their essays. You know, those bits that jump out and inspire a pained wince as well as a swift circling with the … Continue reading
Filed under teaching, writing/editing
Maintenance
Tomorrow the nice fellow from the heating contractors comes to sell us a new furnace. Necessary maintenance moved up in our scheme of things when this year’s routine service required two further follow-ups with no resolution of the underlying problem. … Continue reading
Filed under personal, teaching, writing/editing
10,000 hours
While Malcolm Gladwell may be an annoying gadfly at times, in his assessment of the importance of practice in mastery, he’s dead on. Ten thousand hours, he explained in Outliers, is the amount of time believed needed to achieve true … Continue reading
Filed under academe, pop culture, writing/editing
Could Be Worse
Could be dead, or stabbed. Or it could be midweek! But it’s Friday and I’m whole and hearty. Bonus! Made it to the weekend and neither the meeting with the dean nor my burgeoning workload managed to bring me down. … Continue reading
Filed under academe, writing/editing
Histories of “bad” people
I often get asked how I can research historical personages who aren’t “nice people”. It began with my doctoral research focusing on such wonderful people as Henry VIII (he of the six wives and several executed advisers including Thomas More … Continue reading
Filed under history, writing/editing
Overcome By Events?
The last two days I’ve been nibbled to death by ducks, seriously eyed by the alligators that were in the swamp I drained or, as Notorious Ph.D. succinctly phrases it, Overcome by Events. Some of it good, mind you. Our … Continue reading
Filed under writing/editing
Write Early, Write Often
When I’m not embroiled in editing (a very pleasant chore in many ways, let me tell you, given the calibre of contributors we’ve found for The Hobbit and History) or taking care of the various mundane chores of Real LifeTM, … Continue reading
Filed under academe, personal, writing/editing
