{"id":3241,"date":"2011-09-06T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T04:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3241"},"modified":"2011-09-06T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T04:06:08","slug":"oh-yes-learn-to-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3241","title":{"rendered":"Oh yes, learn to write"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walter Russell Meade on advice for new college students and their parents<\/a>\u2014if you are on of those, raise your hand.<\/p>\n

Good stuff, such as “The real world does not work like school” and “Choosing the right courses is more important than choosing the right school.”<\/p>\n

It’s actually a classic defense of liberal-arts education, including science, politics, economics, history, geography.<\/p>\n

And this, of course:<\/p>\n

Fifth, learn to write well.\u00a0 This paradoxically is going to be more important than ever for the next generation.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many editors at how many famous magazines have told me over the years that most professors and academics simply cannot write, and bemoan the immense amount of time they must devote to impose some kind of intellectual structure and comprehensible prose on the crabbed drafts they get from, often, fairly well known people.<\/p>\n

This will not last.\u00a0 Publications are not going to be able to continue paying editors to spin straw into gold; if you want to have a public voice in the next generation you are going to have to learn to write well.\u00a0 This is a hard skill to acquire, but it can be taught.\u00a0 Most schools don\u2019t do this well; it is expensive and academics generally don\u2019t value clear and attractive prose writing as much as they should.\u00a0 This is important enough that I would recommend you use it as a factor in choosing a college, but for those of you already enrolled, make a point of seeing what your school offers in this area.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot of what I do these days is helping people unlearn the bad, formulaic\u00a0 writing that they picked up in graduate school.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walter Russell Meade on advice for new college students and their parents\u2014if you are on of those, raise your hand. Good stuff, such as “The real world does not work like school” and “Choosing the right courses is more important than choosing the right school.” It’s actually a classic defense of liberal-arts education, including science, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137,12],"class_list":["post-3241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Qh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4067,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4067","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":0},"title":"Choosing This Year’s AAR Pagan Studies Papers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally finished \u2014 I hope \u2014 with the process of selecting papers to be presented in the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group's sessions and in our joint session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group at next November's American Academy of Religion annual meeting. Being co-chair is one of those secretarial-type gigs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4659,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4659","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":1},"title":"Rhetoric: It’s “Classical” Because It Works","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Back to the basics\" works if you chose the right basics. (We could debate that.) \"The Writing Revolution,\" an article in The Atlantic, argues that attention to basic rhetorical principles \u2014 as opposed to expressing your feelings or writing in order to become a better person\u2014 helps disadvantaged high school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1124,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1124","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":2},"title":"Gallimaufry with Ink","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Kitty Burns Florey advocates teaching handwriting in schools: \"Educators I talked to claim that kids master reading more easily when they write a word as they learn it: the writing process keeps their attention focused as they match symbol to sound.\"\u00b6 In my former home of Manitou Springs, Colo.,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2721,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2721","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":3},"title":"A Quick Writing Course from John McPhee","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I used to teach a class in creative nonfiction (a descendent of the \"New Journalism\" of the 1960s-1970s). If there is an American master of creative nonfiction, it would be John McPhee. I could have just taken this long interview with McPhee from The Paris Review, chopped it into bits,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1135,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1135","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":4},"title":"Cattle Mutilations: D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu All Over Again","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I almost hate to write this post. It's d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.Such was my reaction to a recent headline in the Pueblo Chieftain: \"Two More Cows Found Mutilated.\"Eastern Colorado was central to the \"cattle mutilation\" meme of the 1970s. I was younger and wishing that one day I would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2710,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2710","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":5},"title":"Trapped on Block Island","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Randy Cassingham makes the argument: \"There is no such thing as writer's block\" and invokes the \"10,000 hour rule.\" I used to tell students, \"The first million words are just for practice.\" But you can count blog posts on your way to the million. Cassingham's version of a traditional exercise:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/blockisland-300x172.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}