A Commencement Address for 2020
Good afternoon faculty, family members, and graduates of 2020, Raise your hand if you’ve heard the phrase “uncertain times” used to describe our current moment.…
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The Remembering Pool
On New Year’s Eve 2002, after living and working next to Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan for 16 months, I moved out of my hard-won,…
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The Homework We All Need To Do
Let’s think about writing for a moment. We think of writing in two ways. First, there is the writing we do everyday. The phrases that…
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Writing is a New Word
As I write in The Interactive Voice, words themselves are thesis statements. The lawyer Raphael Lemkin first developed and coined the term “genocide” in response…
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On the Significance of Days
When I was a kid, the calendar divided into average days and holidays. On holidays, there were presents and candy. Then the presents—and the holidays—lost…
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Twitter Is Dead; Long Live Twitter
Here is an article I don’t need to read again: a professor or teacher polls their classroom, discovers the students don’t use a social media…
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I Hate the Word “Content”
I’m not fond of “material” either. I use them in conversation and writing, but not often. Both words make me think of polystyrene peanuts. They…
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Manhattan is an Island
The skyline can make you forget this. When I worked at NYC Media at the turn of the millennium, my office was in the tower…
