Recently in Higher Education Category
In his recent article appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, John Gravois highlights the seeming spread of "imposter syndrome" among young academics -- the mortal dread of being discovered as phonies within the ivory tower, despite being brilliant, highly successful scholars.
In his recent article appearing in City Journal (and adapted from a speech given at Ursinus College), John Leto laments the state of language and prose on college campuses and asks how we can restore the integrity of good English.Noting that academics themselves can be the ultimate "masters of gobbledygook," Leto also finds the euphemistic, evasive, and ambiguous prose that permeates advertising, political campaigns, and social movements to be just as unbearable. All around us, Leto claims, is language and prose that "bullies" readers into submission without conveying meaning.
Leto's answer to this seeming conundrum is Strunk & White-esque: 1) write with "candor, clarity, and sincerity," and 2) avoid "cliches, idioms, and rhythms of other people."
Jeffrey R. Young of The Chronicle of Higher Education recently wrote an article detailing the research of Michael Wesch, who is exploring the (performative) world of video bloggers and how their productions impact the growing online community in Web 2.0.
Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, has gained fame for his own YouTube production, "The Machine is Us/ing Us," viewed over two million times.
Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, has gained fame for his own YouTube production, "The Machine is Us/ing Us," viewed over two million times.
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