Category Archives: Robert’s posts

Retraction Watch

A student recently alerted me to this splendid website and resource. It’s endlessly useful and interesting – a gift to researchers of all stripes, including students, teachers, scientists, and journalists. Some praise: “The seamier side of academia, lying, cheating and … Continue reading

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Pedagogy

Rigour seems to mean two different practices: The thoroughgoing-ness of the curriculum (here rigour is expected of the professor in terms preparation *and delivery*) and the exactingness of assessment (where the onus is on the student, at the mercy of … Continue reading

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Bryan Garner

I’ve put Bryan Garner’s website on our list of essential resources. Garner is a stratospherically erudite lexicographer, writer, and lawyer – and teacher.

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Get smart

To welcome humbling moments is part of good mental hygiene. There is, at any rate, no way around these experiences when you teach social and digital media to university students. On that note: Here is another amazing Overdrive Interactive graphic; … Continue reading

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The Melville School of Business

My academic neighbourhood at Kwantlen Polytechnic University has a new name, after philanthropists George and Sylvia Melville gifted $8 million to the school. I am so pleased, particularly with the initiatives this gift will fund. George Melville, cofounder of Boston … Continue reading

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Gratitude

I have been enjoying getting to know the work of translator/poet/essayist Michael Hoffman. Without an active sense of mischief, he says, translators can easily become bitter people. “Nobody sees what you are doing, and the minute you do something, people … Continue reading

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Pacing yourself

Even before my senescence began blooming, I enjoyed reading obituaries. The well-written ones are edifying distillations of character and action; their omissions are bolder than doomsday. James McMeel cofounded the Universal Press Syndicate, which distributed Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” and the … Continue reading

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“immortal words”

Allen Ginsberg “finally sat on the edge of the couch and said, ‘Well, Dr [William Carlos] Williams, here we are [Jack Kerouac, Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, and AG], all assembled. What immortal words do you have for us?’ So he … Continue reading

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The social media landscapes

My favourite class to teach, back in the day, was an advanced digital media class at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. No other class I’ve ever taught required such continual professional development, though, and it would take me many months of preparation … Continue reading

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How to write

I love my old friend Jonathan Mayhew’s prose. His blog, Stupid Motivational Tricks (Scholarly Writing and How to Get it Done), is often very charming (and it is always illuminating). Read this bit on the use of “scare quotes.” The … Continue reading

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