Negotiations often start with the question “What do you want?” The more important question, according to the authors of this classic book on negotiation theory, is “Why do you want that?” Understanding the interests that determine the positions is critical when searching for a wise solution. It isn’t easy. While … Read More
Author: Kate Stover
“…the majority of writing problems that I encounter in student papers should not be considered problems so much as symptoms.”
Bad writing has many symptoms, but only one primary cause, according to John R. Trimble, University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at UT-Austin. The problem comes from the writer’s failure to be guided by the needs of the reader. Many novice writers, he notes, don’t understand the difference between writing … Read More
“The problem is that an interesting life doesn’t make an interesting memoir.”
William Zinsser, author of Writing About Your Life, continues, “Only small pieces of a life make an interesting memoir.” Rather than attempting to write about important periods of history, “be content to tell your small portion of a larger story.” (16) Choose to write about “small, self contained … Read More
“Her father always said, ‘That loneliness of his,’ and when she saw it in him now, she felt lonely, even abandoned for the moment it lasted . .”
Writing about loneliness is surely one of those tricks that should come with the warning “Do not attempt this at home.” Often, descriptions of loneliness trigger disengagement. It takes a master, such as Marilynne Robinson, to write a novel about loneliness that’s a page-turner. In an interview, when asked … Read More
“Teaching is situational.”
One of the first lessons that new teachers learn is that it’s impossible to predict how well a workshop, lecture or discussion will work. Teaching is situational. What works well in one class might not work in another. That’s why Stephen D. Brookfield, one of the most respected scholars … Read More
“You are a coward as well as a snob and a tyrant, Atticus.”
Much has been written about Atticus’s moral compromises in Go Set a Watchman, which might remove him from the list of “Best Dads in American Literature.” However, what I find more remarkable is Scout’s courage to reject the views of the men she loves most and to tell them that … Read More
“Your job is to find what the world is trying to be.”
This is the last line from the poem “Vocation” by one of my favorite poets, William Stafford. He was an advocate of the process of discovery. In Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, he writes, “A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who … Read More
“The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.”
The power of this final sharp sentence in the essay “The Santa Ana” by Joan Didion comes, in part, from the preceding sentence’s beautiful set-up: “Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way … Read More
“The light tastes like laughter.”
This metaphor is simple, and yet it packs a punch. It’s from the poem “The Town Where I Belong” in Faith Shearin‘s new collection Telling the Bees. Part of its power comes from the way three of the five senses are used in these few words, a feat … Read More
“My memory is an archipelago.”
Arranging everything in chronological order in memoirs can be, well, boring. The challenge is finding an alternative structural method that doesn’t bewilder readers. The author of this memoir takes a bold approach: she gives us many tiny stories/reflections/anecdotes as stand-alone chapters, and she lets us draw our own conclusions and … Read More
“It was as if nothing I’d ever done in my life prior to this counted.”
The wonderful thing about 600-page sagas is, in my view, the opportunity to develop a wide perspective. Readers get to see the consequences of decisions as they play out over the span of decades. Sometimes characters come to see things differently, and sometimes readers do, too. Moments of reconsideration can … Read More
“Let us start this preposterous journey in the most British way imaginable: with a series of meandering apologies and caveats.”
With this first sentence, I was hooked on this collection of stand-up routines and one-liners by BBC writer Fraser McAlpine. With an addiction to Downton Abbey, a life-long love of the Beatles, strong memories of Princess Diana, and a daughter named Anna who lives in England, I am an … Read More
“Can you taste what I’m saying?”
The poem continues: “It is onions and potatoes . . . it is obvious. . .” This is how Philip Levin conceptualizes truth in the poem “The Simple Truth.” I’m often reminded of this gritty, elegant poem when I scrub potatoes for dinner. He writes, “Some things you know all … Read More
“Whatever your ailment, our prescriptions are simple: a novel (or two), to be read at regular intervals.”
Finding the right book at the right time — isn’t that what we all want? It certainly is one of the central obsessions in my world. That’s why I’m delighted to discover The Novel Cure, which provides 751 suggestions for novels that can “cure” certain problems. The premise is that … Read More
“But, like most families, they imagined they were special.”
What makes this family special? Anne Tyler provides this list: They thought their uncanny ability to keep their dogs alive for eons set them apart, as did their fierce disapproval of any adults who wear jeans, and their air of good-natured patience “that was not entirely deserved.” They also have … Read More