Write Fast and Don’t Look Back

Thirty-one posts later, I have to say I am happy to be finished with my month of daily blogging, but I am also glad I did it for one reason above all: It encouraged me to take creative risks. In her book inGenius: A Crash Course in Creativity (a book about which I am considering doing a …

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Why Imagination Matters

An excerpt from a longer piece I’m working on (and the first of two posts today): I learn so much from teaching creative thinking and from the students. Something that is striking me these days is that the most important, the most potentially life-changing part of adding creativity to one’s life has nothing to do …

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Classroom Grace

I had planned to write on a different topic today, one that followed up on yesterday’s post which is at BlogHer, but then I read Kristen Case’s article “The Other Public Humanities” in yesterday’s Chronicle of Higher Education.” The title is unfortunate, for “public humanities” means almost nothing to those outside academia and certainly doesn’t hint …

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Plain Language Website

Last week, my technical composition students explored the government website Plain Language, which is devoted to clear writing in government documents. The information on the site is useful for anyone interested in finding ways to communicate more effectively (and would make a great homeschooling resource). You might start with the “Tips and Tools” section for …

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The Pressure to Please

For my post today, head on over to Psychology Today for “When Not To Be Nice“: “Some of the most intense pressure I feel is not from my work or my personal goals or even society. The pressure I have the hardest time managing and resisting is the pressure to please. Everyone. All the time. I know …

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