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Your First Line as Your Secret Weapon
“A lead should shine like a flashlight down through the piece.” John McPhee Let’s talk about the unsung hero of writing – the lead. You know, that opening to your piece that has the power to either capture your reader or bore them into leaving. There’s no one-size-fits-all for how to begin, but here’s the…
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Balancing Precision and Pleasure: The Duality of Writing
“You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for.” Zinsser, 1976/2016, p. 26 This is a statement from Zinsser’s book, On Writing Well. It’s the same book that just recently taught me I must do everything in my…
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Clear Writing, Clear Thinking, Clear Conscience
I’ve never loved writing. In school, whenever I was assigned any form of writing task beyond a mere paragraph, I would instantly fill up with dread. I knew the process could produce satisfying results, but the concept of forcing myself to sit down and inflict words upon a piece of paper to form a thoughtful…
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The Price of Convenience
“We’d rather do the quick, simple thing than the important complicated thing, even if the important complicated thing is ultimately a better use of time and energy.” Buster Benson summarizing a critical behavior tendency in his article, “Cognitive bias cheat sheet.” I’ve been pondering this idea lately, a characteristic of human nature in which we…
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Disconnected by Design
I believe that we are all victims of the promise that social media would make us more connected. We have access to the entire world at our fingertips and reassurance from big tech companies that we can foster meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging, and all we have to do is use our phones.…
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The Need for Notion
Let’s face it, we all have a lot on our plates. In a world dominated by digital communication where requests and deadlines are flying from draft to inbox, it feels impossible to keep track of everything that needs to get done. The same goes for education, especially in an online interactive media program. The lack…
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From Influencers to Changemakers
Over the past few years, social media has given rise to an age of content creators. Many platforms are lead in influence by a select group of people with a large following, promoting glorified lifestyles of anything from travel to parenting. I, like many others, find myself captivated by content like this. Hours go by…
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Distracted in the Digital Age: Analyzing Phone Checking Patterns
In an era where our lives are becoming increasingly more entangled with technology, it’s important to reflect on the kind of impact this has on our attention. It is no new fact that the more time we spend on our phones, the more fractured our attention becomes. I elected to take a closer look at…
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Mind-Wandering Versus Mindlessly Scrolling
For our entire lives, we have been taught that mind-wandering is wrong, regularly being told by authority figures that it is an unproductive waste of time. Recently, I have realized that this constant reminder of how “bad” mind-wandering can be truly shaped how I perceive it today. Every idle moment I have, I try to…
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Why I Can’t Focus
And how I realized I have never been good at it. I would consider myself to be a good student. I am confident in my ability to solve problems, I can make the complex connections between subject ideas, and I ask clarifying questions when necessary. Despite all of this, the rewards have never come easily.…
Hana Lataille 