“This is an engaging read, but can you revise it to sound more academic?” Most of us want to read writing I describe as demonstrating the Five Cs: clear, concise, compelling, correct, and complete. I tell my students and creative writing seminars to resist overwriting. Avoid affected academic prose, with…
Tameri
Peter J. Gloviczki is a talented poet — and an assistant professor of communications at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. Peter earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota, where I was fortunate to study writing and “new media” alongside him. Peter’s research specialty is social media and how…
As I was writing a post about “comments” in computer programming source code, I noted that I like comments and marginalia when I write for “human” readers. Even when writing for myself, I like to preserve my notes. One of the things we lose with the transition from paper to…
You as a Brand If you are a writer or artist of any kind, you are a brand. I tell my students, every person is a brand: you become associated with a product or service. Your reputation for integrity and quality will proceed you. I could write a long essay…
Concluding our survey of book review formats, I want to explore the “analysis” or “coverage” that publishers and editors sometimes provide to authors. In the film industry, script coverage is something many screenwriters pay a consultant to provide. Knowing what others think about your manuscript helps identify when you didn’t…
This weekend, TNT aired “The Librarian” movies. It reminds me of other great references to books and libraries. From The Mummy (1999): Evelyn: I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am. Rick: And…
Before exploring the mis-named “impartial” book review format, I want to mention the most influential form of book review today: the customer review. Just as “word-of-mouth” reviews by friends and colleagues can help you select a book (or avoid it), the online customer reviews found on Amazon, Goodreads, and elsewhere…
We learned a lesson tonight when I was trying to submit a script to a production company: PDFs from DOC files are much, much smaller than PDFs generated from DOCX files. Microsoft Word migrated from the familiar “.DOC” format of Word 97-2004 with the release of Word 2007/2008 (Windows/OS X).…
Book reviews allow us to share more than our opinions about specific books or authors: they are an opportunity to defend what we consider the qualities a good book should have, while often giving us easy examples of the traits a book should not posses. A well written review offers…
Publishers are still relevant in the Amazon-dominated world of book retailing, but they are losing their influence in some of the most important areas of publishing — and they will either adapt or fade into the smallest niches. Academic publishing is a huge industry, from peer-review journals to textbooks. There…