Lots of links to start your week off right:
- I know this guy! Matt walked across the country, so now he’s walking every street in New York City.
- “It’s not surprising that writers, historically technophobic and requiring either sequestered mental space for composition or greater proximal awareness for gathering material, would recoil from smartphones.” Has the New York Times seen #yalit?
- I’d attend “How to Explain to Your Parents That Your Novel is Not Based On Them” and other rejected AWP panels.
- New thesis topic: cultural myths and literary tropes in pizza delivery menus that I will never throw away.
- Why can’t scientists write like poets? I know a few who certainly could handle/appreciate that kind of language.
- Is our personality in our genes? Maybe not.
Hooray for vivid language in scientific papers! A lot of my thesis was on a kind of object that was going through a transition from one state to another, and I used the word “liminal” when I got tired of “transitional” (and my thesis advisor told me he enjoyed learning a new word). Recently I wrote a proposal in which I called a particular object a “consummate oddball,” and it passed with flying colors. 🙂 So not all scientists like boring language! I will never be like that guy’s advisor. As long as it gets the right meaning across, my students can be as creative as they like! (And I’m glad my advisor felt the same way.)
Could you guess that this article was totally directed at you? 😉 So glad to hear that not all scientists are as narrow-minded as that advisor. Words were invented so we could communicate clearly and effectively. Science needs that clarity and effectiveness. The more words you know and use, the better!