It is that time of the year when I check the job market with the goal of being employed after the school year ends. The anxiety is accompanied by the self-recrimination for not obtaining a STEM degree to qualify for the jobs I know I could do, including teach in…
Category: Writing
All things writing related in my life.
Since completing my doctorate, I haven’t had a compelling reason to read much about the psychology of autism. When I read scholarly articles in psychology, they tend to be connected to economics or politics. You might imagine that economics and policy, so connected to rhetoric and persuasion, would delve into…
As readers know, blogging frequency varies with life events and schedules. This semester, my schedule allows little time for blogging — or even taking much-needed breaks to recharge my body and mind. The list of activities remains long, as always. I’ve mentioned my to-do list many times on this blog…
Perfection and compulsive organization drive me to over-prepare for the courses I teach. I’ve found that some instructors, especially at the college and university level, are comfortable with a loose seminar approach to teaching, I like to have lots of notes, outlines, slides, and handouts. Without the structure, I would…
Although I am complaining lately that my syllabi, lecture notes, quizzes, and homework prompts have yet to be finished, the reality is that I look forward to the start of school and the return to scheduled, predictable days… and a paycheck. I’d be content sitting at home and writing. That…
Writing for stage requires some understanding of the motivations and emotions of the characters that appear before an audience. Sometimes you also have to appreciate unseen characters that either shaped or continue to shape events and other characters. Writing, therefore, is exercise in empathy and more. If you cannot imagine…
Each new semester begins with anxiety, doubt, fear, and insecurity. Teaching means standing before a group of people, trying to convince them you are going to say and do something worthy of attention. This was difficult teaching at a mid-range state university, a land-grant research university, and even a small…
Until the last year or so, I fought insomnia on a weekly, even nightly, basis. Stumbling into a regular sleep schedule for the last year has been nice. And now it seems to have ended. I’m back to a shifted, annoying, non-sleep schedule. I’ve tried wine, coffee (yes, it puts…
The research for my dissertation indicates many individuals with autism disorders and/or savant abilities view language in terms of patterns and rules. This results in the “stilted” usage, the “little professor” forms of writing and speech. I’m wondering how this also challenges basic assumptions of learning and language. I love…
While working on the research for my dissertation, I have read page after page on writing pedagogy asserting that the goal of a university writing course should be to teach students that knowledge is socially constructed and that “truth” is relative to culture and community. The problem with this assertion…