Years ago, when I was working at the Center for Writing and Rhetoric at Claremont Graduate University, we started naming our meeting rooms after deceased musicians. I think it started with Lemmy: The Lemmy Kilmister Memorial Library. There were others, and I can’t remember them all. We had two rooms (three if you used the…Continue Reading Steve Albini Deserves the Whole Writing Center
Category: Writing Tips
Citation Generators (Never Work)
It is a marvel of modern technology that so few things work well. A marvel made more all the more impressive by how many things work especially poorly–poorly even considering that most things don’t work. Printers don’t work; television remotes don’t work; Microsoft quietly installed some AI garbage on my computer last week and suggested…Continue Reading Citation Generators (Never Work)
AI Writing and Attribution: AI Cannot Cite *Anything*
If you’ve looked for pedagogical resources on using AI writing in the classroom (“best practices,” info on assignment design, suggestions on how to catch plagiarism) you’ve probably seen notes like this: “Models like ChatGPT have been recorded in multiple cases to cite sources for information that are either not correct or do not exist” (Wikipedia,…Continue Reading AI Writing and Attribution: AI Cannot Cite *Anything*
ChatGPT Teaching Resources
Whether you think AI writing is the wave of the future or whether you think/hope it will get regulated into obscurity (God, I’ve seen what you’ve done for others…), it probably makes sense to figure out what to do with it right now. You’ve got students using it, you’ve got edutech grifters pitching expensive nonsense,…Continue Reading ChatGPT Teaching Resources
Cormac McCarthy Will Be Missed
Cormac McCarthy is probably my favorite writer–certainly the writer that has influenced my life the most. He put words that I could never write to feelings that I didn’t understand, describing tenderly the dark edges of the world being made and unmade, a witness to violent, disinterested creation. My childhood best friend and I are…Continue Reading Cormac McCarthy Will Be Missed
Artificial Intelligence Writing Rundown
Here’s a place where you can see my notes about AI writing. I’ll be updating this in the coming months and eventually hope to include pedagogical takeaways. If you’ve never taken a look at what AI writing looks like, I’ve put together a few samples. To make each of the samples on this page, I…Continue Reading Artificial Intelligence Writing Rundown
Goalsetting
Whether or not you set goals is between you and your God. But, if you are going to (and as someone who doesn’t, I think I’d probably be better off if I did) you might as well make them good. Something in between “I need to write X number of words” and “I need to…Continue Reading Goalsetting
Finding Secondary Sources Online
The internet will surely be the end of us all, but while it’s around you should get good at using it for research. If you ever have trouble finding resources for your papers (navigating results on the library website, getting too much garbage, not finding enough sources, figuring out whether a source is reliable or…Continue Reading Finding Secondary Sources Online
APA 7th Edition General Information and Tips
Professors, like many of us, are not always direct when expressing their wants. Nowhere is this more true than when a professor tells you that your paper should adhere to APA formatting/style guidelines. “My professor wants my paper to be in APA style…” If you’ve never seen a physical copy of the Publication Manual of…Continue Reading APA 7th Edition General Information and Tips
Reading Checklist Worksheet
Rather than going into your weekly readings looking to be surprised, you may have an easier time if you identify what you need to get out of those readings first. Remember, your job in graduate school isn’t just to retain content. You want to be able to understand your various readings in relation to each…Continue Reading Reading Checklist Worksheet