Perspective is one of the most important choices a writer can make in fiction. It’s also a complex concept with a lot of parts. In Part 1 of this discussion, we broke down the basic grammatical foundation for perspective, which accounts for the common 1st and 3rd person terms as well as past and present.Continue reading “Picking Perspective in Fiction Part 3: Narrative Structures”
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Picking Perspective in Fiction Part 2: Limitations and Scope
Last week, we talked about the grammatical dimensions of picking a perspective (also called point of view or POV) for your story. For a quick recap, you basically get two viable options for “person” and two for “tense”: that is, you can write in 1st or 3rd person (I or they), and you can writeContinue reading “Picking Perspective in Fiction Part 2: Limitations and Scope”
Picking Perspective In Fiction Part 1: The Grammar
One question I see a lot in writing groups is “Which perspective should I use?” Frustratingly, the asker never gets a straight answer, no matter how much detail they provide. That’s because this is one of the fundamental questions for an author to decide, and really no one can decide it for them. It’s alsoContinue reading “Picking Perspective In Fiction Part 1: The Grammar”
Writing Software For Beginners: No Need to Specialize
In a writing group I joined recently online, the question of writing software for beginning writers came up. There’s a lot that beginning writers worry about because they haven’t found what works for them yet, but I don’t think software needs to be one of them. Not because there aren’t a lot of choices ofContinue reading “Writing Software For Beginners: No Need to Specialize”
Teaching and Assignment Design In The Age of ChatGPT Part 3: Coda
The quarter has ended and I’ve had a chance to reflect on what happened since I last reported on teaching AI in my classroom. It got weird at the end of the quarter. Some teachers would be alarmed. I’m actually encouraged and comforted. As I reported before, I taught lessons in which my students explicitlyContinue reading “Teaching and Assignment Design In The Age of ChatGPT Part 3: Coda”
Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Words!
In one poignant session with the best therapist I ever had, while I was in the depths of a severe depressive episode as a graduate student, the therapist asked me what I would have if, tomorrow, my entire academic career was taken away: if I couldn’t be a teacher, I couldn’t work on my Ph.D.,Continue reading “Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Words!”
Writing In Community
The image of a writer in popular culture is often a solitary one: we imagine writers of old scribbling away in cold rooms with quill pens, and writers of now hiding in closets with their laptops, or else in a café alone at a small table with noise-canceling headphones on signaling that they are toContinue reading “Writing In Community”
Evaluation Without Grades: A Suggested Activity
I’m wrapping up finals week for what, unexpectedly and excitingly, is my final semester teaching at my current institution. Several years ago, on the advice of my colleagues and supervisors, I abandoned final exams for my writing courses, and although I miss my tricks to check that the students read the directions, it’s been overallContinue reading “Evaluation Without Grades: A Suggested Activity”
Report from NaNoWriMo 2021
First, I apologize that I haven’t been updating the blog. My personal life has been, well, complicated lately, and if I’m honest, the blog is often the first thing to go when I need to prioritize. But let’s talk about how November went (and next week I’ll have some pedagogy content, I promise). According toContinue reading “Report from NaNoWriMo 2021”
Report On Self-Assessment Grading
If you’ll recall, this semester for my New Semester’s Resolution, I was trying a more collaborative approach to grading that requires students to set goals by modifying my provided rubric and then evaluate their own work according to that rubric, so that they self-grade their assignments. At this point, students have submitted their first self-evaluationContinue reading “Report On Self-Assessment Grading”
Dr. Cox's Desk 