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An academic historian blogs about history, Russia, the academy, writing and critical thinking. Most posts are aimed at an undergraduate reader, but everyone is welcome. All views are my own.
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Category Archives: Writing
The Writing Book Is Done!
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons. Carl von Bergen. Illustrierter Katalog der Münchener Jahresausstellung von Kunstwerken Aller Nationen im kgl. Glaspalaste 1891, 3. Auflage, ausgegeben am 24. Juli, München 1891 (Digitalisat der BSB)[/caption] After 18 years and 136,771 words, I’m … Continue reading
Restart
This blog went inactive for a while, so here’s an update to serve as a re-start. Regular posting to resume shortly. I went on hiatus while preparing my tenure dossier, and was very happy just now to edit the home … Continue reading
Posted in Random, Research, Writing
Tagged AnOrdinaryMarriage, GuidetoWritingHistory
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It’s That Time of the Semester
It’s mid-term exam season! These are some checks you should do before turning in any take-home essay exam for a history class. If you have any ambition to do well, you should be at the point where you think you’ve … Continue reading
Revision
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who revise, and those who don’t. The former are writers, the latter are not. This implies that the way to become a writer, is to revise. A lot. And that’s … Continue reading
Rules
Sometimes my students get a little too hung-up on rules, when it comes to writing essays. Mind you, some rules are vital—if your writing is ungrammatical, readers will have trouble following what you are saying. Other rules (which are really … Continue reading
Objectivity
Many students come to college believing that academic writing is objective writing, or is supposed to be, and if it’s not, it’s “biased,” which is another way of saying “bad” or “useless.” There is no such thing as objective writing. … Continue reading
“Summarize”
If you’re a college student you may often be asked to “summarize” a text or film. The tricky thing about this is that people use the word “summarize” pretty loosely, and what is being asked of you might not be … Continue reading
Scrivener: A Love Story
When I was in the early to middle stages of revising my dissertation into a book, I discovered Scrivener. At the time, the Windows version had just been released in Beta. I tried it, and it was still too buggy … Continue reading