January 2020 – Princeton Writes

January 15 “Tell Me More” Conversation: President Emerita Shirley Tilghman

Elizabeth Durham2020-01-31T16:54:09-05:00

January 15 "Tell Me More" Conversation: President Emerita Shirley Tilghman The “Tell Me More: Humanizing Our Research” dinner conversation series kicked off on January 15 with a rousing call from Shirley Tilghman, President Emerita and Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs, to “Share the Wonder of What We Do.” Arguing that “science is under assault right now,” she invited the graduate student audience into a robust discussion of how best to manage the “responsibility to articulate your research” to an increasing, and increasingly heterogeneous, number of publics. “Making the case for what we do,” she emphasized, “is immensely important,” so [...]

January 15 “Tell Me More” Conversation: President Emerita Shirley TilghmanElizabeth Durham2020-01-31T16:54:09-05:00

New University Administrative Fellow: Elizabeth Durham

Elizabeth Durham2020-01-29T15:43:12-05:00

New University Administrative Fellow: Elizabeth Durham My parents are journalists. They prize clear, concise writing and disdain jargon. Years ago, flush with excitement, I called them to say that I had been admitted for a PhD in anthropology at Princeton University. For a while, they cooed and congratulated me, but then my mother, who is delightfully incapable of being earnest for too long, laughed despite herself. “Academia’s really great,” she chuckled, “if you want to become a professional bad writer.” That joke stayed with me. It came with me when I attended the Princeton-Fung Forum on Ebola in Dublin, Ireland in [...]

New University Administrative Fellow: Elizabeth DurhamElizabeth Durham2020-01-29T15:43:12-05:00

What’s Your Routine? by Cate Mahoney

Cate Mahoney2020-03-19T11:59:41-04:00

What’s Your Routine? by Cate Mahoney Benjamin Franklin's routine A telegram from Dorothy Parker to her editor I’m sure we’ve all been both Benjamin Franklin and Dorothy Parker at different times in our lives. I’m in the last stages of finishing my dissertation, and I feel more like Parker than Franklin, but I’m trying to balance that out. For sympathy, and perhaps inspiration, I’ve recently turned to Mason Currey’s two books on the rituals of great artists: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (2013) and the sequel, Daily Rituals: Women at Work (2019), which makes up for the curiously [...]

What’s Your Routine? by Cate Mahoney Cate Mahoney2020-03-19T11:59:41-04:00

Links for Learners

admin2025-02-18T16:35:59-05:00

LINKS FOR LEARNERS Schoolhouse Rock offers fun videos to help you master tricky grammar issues. Here's one on prepositions. Schoolhouse Rock Preposition video: https://youtu.be/avC53wsZiJA?feature=shared Schoohouse Rock "Mr. Morton": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoZn12BEjyM For "Quick and Dirty Tips" on grammar, listen to Grammar Girl's podcasts: Grammar Girl: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl/ Use idioms – figurative or non-literal phrases and expressions – to spice up your communication practices! With a toolbox of these common idioms, you will end up writing and speaking with a range of different tones and colors in no time: https://www.thoughtco.com/common-english-idioms-3211646 https://medium.com/@igorkarasev/20-essential-english-idioms-for-esl-students-d0a92f915e88 Browse the Oxford English Dictionary's academic word list, full of words you probably [...]

Links for Learnersadmin2025-02-18T16:35:59-05:00

Tips for Public Speaking

admin2020-01-15T10:48:19-05:00

Tips for Public Speaking Connection, not perfection Beware the curse of knowledge Why do you care? Why should we? You are the message Keep things short Think conversation, not oration. Open strongly Reveal a purposeful enthusiasm Speak with your body Enunciate and project Don’t be afraid!

Tips for Public Speakingadmin2020-01-15T10:48:19-05:00

Book of the Month: Daily Rituals

Cate Mahoney2020-01-09T11:38:59-05:00

Book of the Month: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work edited by Mason Currey (2013) Critical Evaluation The Onion published an essay recently called "Find The Thing You're Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life." The piece was satire, but it's how many of us respond to the question Mason Currey raises in his entertaining new book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. "How do you do meaningful creative work," he wonders, "while also earning a living?" A product of the author's now-defunct blog, Daily Routines, Daily Rituals assembles the regimens of 161 assorted [...]

Book of the Month: Daily RitualsCate Mahoney2020-01-09T11:38:59-05:00

Book of the Month: Educated by Tara Westover (2018)

admin2020-05-12T12:52:12-04:00

Book of the Month: Educated by Tara Westover (2018) Critical Evaluation "This story, remarkable as it is, might be merely another entry in the subgenre of extreme American life, were it not for the uncommon perceptiveness of the person telling it. Westover examines her childhood with unsparing clarity, and, more startlingly, with curiosity and love, even for those who have seriously failed or wronged her. In part, this is a book about being a stranger in a strange land; Westover, adrift at university, can’t help but miss her mountain home. But her deeper subject is memory. Westover is careful to note [...]

Book of the Month: Educated by Tara Westover (2018)admin2020-05-12T12:52:12-04:00