‘Coffee makes me poop’ is a widely known meme on the web, but how much truth is there. Coffee and poop: myth or fact? Only one way to find out.
Tag: Literature
Why The Humanities are Still King
When people hear that someone is majoring in English, chances are they think, “Oh, you are going to teach.” Or, “Man, what in God’s name are you going to do with a degree in English?” And it’s true, English majors largely end up as teachers; however, they bring a lot to the table that other…
Three Books, Three Days: Here’s What I Learned
Are you a reader? I mean like, are you mad about reading? Do you read a lot? At least a book a week? If you’ve found this site, I bet you are. I don’t post random inspirational quotes, nor do I put up a ton of pics. I write. Also, my articles are probably a…
Lightning Lessons in Writing: How to Use the Comma
All too often, inexperienced writers view, or worse, use, the comma as a pause in a sentence. While it’s true that we pause at commas, as we would any mark of punctuation, that is not their function any more than the function of a period is a pause, or a semi-colon or colon are pauses. …
Potty-mouthed Professors: Why They’re the Best
Trust me. I should know. I’m one of them. And if you are someone easily offended by foul, vulgar, profane language, this essay might not be for you. There is an amazing essay written by Jordan Schneider in The Chronicle of Higher Education that covers why swearing in class isn’t that big of a deal;…
Walking Through it All: Reviewing Ben Montgomery’s ‘Grandma Gatewood’s Walk’
In Ben Montgomery’s eye-opening profile, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail, readers encounter the real life folk heroin Emma Gatewood. On the trail, her story is legend; and it takes on such proportions for a plethora of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with hiking. …
How to Write Anything (Part III)
In parts one and two of this mini-series on writing I discussed crafting an essay with a particular audience in mind, choosing a genre and writing with purpose, followed by the inner workings of how any and all essays are written: the rhetorical modes. For this third and final part of this mini-series, I address…
The Stories We Tell Ourselves: A Meditation on Frost’s Two Roads
(A quick note: while the gender of the speaker remains undetermined, I sometimes use the masculine for the sake of simplicity and consistency. It seems easier than having to repeatedly use “the speaker”, or singular they, or worse, “him/her”.) Ask anyone to create a list of poems they’ve read, know or remember from school, and…
How to Write Anything (Part II)
In part one of this “how-to” mini-series I discussed some of the broader aspects of the initial stages of the writing process. In that essay I covered genre, audience and purpose: something every writer needs to think about as they write. In part two of this series, the current essay, I show writers how to…
How to Write Anything (Part I)
Writing is contentious. As someone who works in higher ed., I ought to know. Looking around the country at different universities and colleges it’s easy to notice some interesting structures in English departments. Some schools, such as the one I teach at, have a single department called English that handles all aspects of writing from…
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