What do assumptions make of you?

Or what do you make of assumptions? Are assumptions good or bad?
We hear the cliche all too much about what assumptions make of you and me, but have you ever thought about how much that cliche assumes? Next time somebody says something like that to you, make a simple little request. Ask, “How can I [...]

CS Lewis had style

Since I care so much about writing, and since one of the greatest pleasures in life is a well-tempered sentence, I have been reflecting quite a bit lately on what makes for good style. I’ve been asking how to improve my own style as well as reviewing some writers whom I particularly love reading, among whom [...]

An effective Approach To Reading a Poem

Since a poem has the four qualtities identified and haltingly addressed in this post: it’s music, its imagery, its logos, and its unspeakable quality that I’ve reluctantly and insultingly reduced to its connotations, we can develop a strategy when we approach a poem that is consistent with the nature of poetry. We don’t need to [...]

How to Read Poetry (again)

Earlier I mentioned things like the music and the images used in a poem and then a third thing (maybe I’ll call it the connotations). But what needs to precede all of that is that the poet has something to say. It’s conceivable that he could use mediocre music and less than perfect imagery and [...]

That Shriveled Grind (on teaching reading)

“During the past five years we’ve heard from parents again and again how difficult it has been to get children who have read nothing but pap to focus when the books assigned in class get more complicated.
You wouldn’t belive someone who said it didn’t matter what your child ate as long as they ate something, [...]