An Elegy for the Canon
November 15, 2018
from The Western Canon by Harold Bloom ORIGINALLY THE CANON meant the choice of books in our teaching institutions, and despite the recent politics of [...]
Noam Chomsky on Postmodernism
November 15, 2018
I’ve returned from travel-speaking, where I spend most of my life, and found a collection of messages extending the discussion about [...]
Conrad’s Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus
November 15, 2018
A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line. And art itself may be defined as a single-minded [...]
Literary Criticism
November 15, 2018
There are many schools of literary criticism but the student of literature really has a choice between two fundamentally opposed approaches. The [...]
Sense and Nonsense about Grammar
November 15, 2018
The most common reason given (and refuted) for the teaching of grammar is that of usage. Even though most of my students write correctly 95%-of the time, [...]
ARHS Grammar Notes
November 15, 2018
The Eight Parts of Speech NOUN 1) a “thing”, in its concrete or abstract sense 2) person, place, thing / idea, quality, emotion 3) [...]
TOYS IN MY ATTIC
November 15, 2018
On the campus where I teach, there is a landmark, a large rock on which fraternity and sorority members paint their Greek letters, the political-minded [...]
Possible model for a clearly structured essay
November 15, 2018
Many beginning writers have difficulty imposing a clear structure on an essay. They aren’t sure how to begin, what to do next, or how to end. While [...]
How Not to Write Analogies
November 15, 2018
He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with [...]
Grammar/Language
November 15, 2018
Grammar and Language experience of whole literature (alas, too rarely holy), or any learning of grammar from manual, rule, or exercise is damaging to the [...]