Usually, if you keep obsessing over a piece of writing, it gets worse. A word, phrase, punctuation, you can always find something to change, replace or move around. But other than factual or language aspects that are either definitively correct or not, at some point you have to know when to let go. But I…… Continue reading On Editing
Category: Nonfiction
Assigned Reading
Books find you when you’re ready to read them, when you need to read them. They just somehow know.
the self
From the first page of the first chapter of Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver. It’s the first time I’ve ever read her work. I keep coming back to this again and again. Our own self gets in our own way. And we let it. All the damn time. It most definitely is a ‘curious matter’. Of…… Continue reading the self
Writing in new ways
Even though I was still working with facts, and the organizational skills I’d practiced in research reports were extremely useful, I had to adapt to storytelling in historical narratives, to writing about a person rather than a collection of data.
Changes in 2020
One of the phrases I’ve heard people use a lot this year is ‘Everyone’s just over it’. The ‘it’ of course being COVID-19. ‘It threw a wrench in my plans’. And lately, ‘I’m so ready for 2020 to end already’. There seems to be an expectation that chucking out this year’s calender, with its muddled…… Continue reading Changes in 2020
Reading in the time of COVID-19
I don’t usually reread books. But this time, the Ramona Quimby series is the only place where my mind has settled, where I’ve sat long enough to read through to the end of a story. I had read The Magician’s Nephew (C. S. Lewis) and The Happiness Project (Gretchen Rubin). Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) was…… Continue reading Reading in the time of COVID-19
5 Things to Do When You Study Online
Five strategies to get the most out of your experience when you study online.
Writing a Customer Service Email
What’s your first reaction when I say, ‘Next time, you …’? How would you finish that sentence? I can see situations where this might be the beginning of a suggestion. But my immediate reaction when I read these words most recently was, ‘Excuse me? Why are you talking to me like that?’ What follows can…… Continue reading Writing a Customer Service Email
Mariam Sultan 