January 2025 – Princeton Writes

Writing at Its Best

John Weeren2025-01-18T13:49:44-05:00

Writing at Its Best By Eliza Browning Whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, or personal narrative, especially lyrical and well-crafted prose can resonate with you long after you’ve finished reading. Memorable writing often shares several qualities: the vivid and striking use of language, moments that illuminate wider messages or themes in the text, the connection of a character’s personal experience to bigger ideas underlying the narrative, and an exploration of the human condition that causes you to look at the world in a new way. Passages from three novels, The Great Gatsby, The Idiot, and Greek Lessons, especially resonate with me because of [...]

Writing at Its BestJohn Weeren2025-01-18T13:49:44-05:00

Capital Letters

John Weeren2025-01-18T13:46:26-05:00

Capital Letters By John Weeren The conventions of our language are not immutable. Grammar and usage are ever-changing, and what was true of the 18th century is no longer true of ours. Capitalization is a case in point. When, in 1726, Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels, it was customary to capitalize common nouns, yielding a sentence like this: "Having therefore consulted with my Wife, and some of my Acquaintance, I determined to go again to Sea." By the 19th century, capital letters were being used more sparingly, as Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, published in 1818, attests: "Her tranquility was not improved [...]

Capital LettersJohn Weeren2025-01-18T13:46:26-05:00

pukka (PŬK-ə)

Stephanie Whetstone2024-11-20T13:48:01-05:00

Definition (Adjective) Originally South Asian or in South Asian context: sure, certain, reliable; genuine, bona fide, correct. Hence more generally: real, not sham; (of information) factually correct; (of persons) authentic, not pretended; proper or correct in behaviour, socially acceptable. In Context "He was a pukka gentleman, a really good Englishman." Zareer Masani, Indian Tales of the Raj, 1987.

pukka (PŬK-ə)Stephanie Whetstone2024-11-20T13:48:01-05:00

A Poem for You: A Phosphorescence by James Cervantes

admin2024-12-04T13:16:50-05:00

A Phosphorescence James Cervantes I discovered phosphorescence one day clearing pine needles from an acre plot in the mountains. I raked and scratched large piles, then became obsessed with the base of one tree, raking harder and deeper until black, matted clumps of needles came up to reveal a glow. Fire, I thought, afraid for the forest. But no smoke, no burn smells. There could be light without fire, like that moment of warmth I mistook for fire, a gentle touch on your arm that was light and would be no more than that. Copyright © 2024 by James Cervantes. Originally [...]

A Poem for You: A Phosphorescence by James Cervantesadmin2024-12-04T13:16:50-05:00

Word of the Week: bon mot (bôn MŌ)

admin2025-01-08T13:30:18-05:00

Word of the Week: bon mot (bôn MŌ) Definition (Noun) A clever or witty saying; a witticism, repartee. In Context “Her [Sarah Bernhardt’s] last bon mot, uttered in 1923 as she lay dying, was to observe of the waiting journalists, ‘They’ve tortured me all my life, now I’ll torture them.’” Emma Brockes, “Mystery Diva,” The New York Times, September 17, 2010.

Word of the Week: bon mot (bôn MŌ)admin2025-01-08T13:30:18-05:00