Tagged: writing

The Devlin Award

Every year, the Core Curriculum awards two students with the James Patrick Devlin Memorial Award, in memory of one of the founding members of the Core who inspired students and colleagues alike. It is presented on the basis of the excellence of a first-year Core essay, as recommended to a committee of Core professors by […]

Slow and Steady: the Value of Slow Reading

Imagine the difference between enjoying a relaxing, sit-down meal and scarfing down a granola bar while riding the T to work. While many would prefer the former, sometimes we must sacrifice quality and enjoyment for practicality. But should we treat reading the same way? The folks over at The Indy thought the same thing in […]

From the New York Times: No, the Internet Has Not Killed the Printed Book.

“No, the Internet Has Not Killed the Printed Book. Most People Still Prefer Them,” Daniel Victor of the New York Times assures us in the title of his latest. And also invites us to ponder whether the slip in grammar might not indicate that the Internet has killed or made moribund something else: literacy. Citing […]

“The Meaning of Human Existence”

  Biologist Edward O. Wilson has spent his life studying evolutionary biology, writing books, and winning Pulitzer prizes, among other things. He is still going strong at 85 years old, and recently published “The Meaning of Human Existence,” a book intended to explain and convince the general public of the scientific theory of evolution. Drawing […]

Brian Doyle’s Advice on How to Become a Writer

To anyone who ever aspires to one day be a published author, the question of how to become a writer is never far from the mind. The reason could be because the label is rather insubstantial. Unlike becoming a doctor, where the boundaries are set so clearly that even your name changes from Mr/Ms to […]

Losing Longhand?

In a post for the National Post, Andrew Coyne discusses the recent drop in students’ ability to write long-hand, and the potential harms that this could bring. Here is an extract: Typing is file retrieval, remembering where a letter is. With handwriting, you create the letters anew each time, using much more complex motor skills. […]

Times Higher Education – “Creative Writing”

The Core presents an interesting feature from Times Higher Education, in which they offer their insight on what the causes, and possible consequences, of the rise of “creative writing” may be. Here is a sample: Despite the speed and apparent smoothness with which creative writing has become incorporated into English departments, or (especially in the US) as a […]

Mo Yan’s Delicate Balancing Act

Sabina Knight writes, in this review, of author Mo Yan’s receipt of a Nobel Prize and the controversy that arisen due this event. Here is a sample: Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for his writing, not for political engagement. This essay thus offers a perspective on his politics based not on a few symbolic […]

Publication Opportunities for Students

The Core is pleased to present students with a fantastic opportunity to publish their work: The Agora, an on-line publication of Lynchburg College, specializing in responses to the great books of the world, has become a national journal of undergraduate academic writing. The journal, like the ancient Athenian Agora, seeks to be a marketplace for important […]

The Essay as Reality Television

Adam Kirsch discusses whether or not essays are “extinct” as a form of writing, and references Michel e Montaigne, whose work is studied in CC201. Here is a sample: The essay, traditionally, was defined by its freedom and its empiricism—qualities that it inherited from its modern inventor, Montaigne. “What do I know?” Montaigne asked, and […]