John Weeren – Princeton Writes

In Praise of Poetry

John Weeren2025-05-01T07:43:53-04:00

In Praise of Poetry By Eliza Browning As we wrap up National Poetry Month, an annual celebration of poetry held every April, I’ve been thinking about the power of poetry to resonate with readers in both universal and unexpected ways: how a single impactful poem can capture a specific emotion or experience and stay with you for a lifetime. What makes a poem impactful is often far more specific and less straightforward than prose, making reading poetry a deeply personal experience. I’m often drawn to poetry that features a vivid, striking, and unexpected use of language, articulates or conveys something universal [...]

In Praise of PoetryJohn Weeren2025-05-01T07:43:53-04:00

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

Fear Not: Managing Our Public Speaking Butterflies

John Weeren2024-08-28T22:53:09-04:00

Fear Not: Managing Our Public Speaking Butterflies By John Weeren According to a Gallup poll, Americans fear only one thing more than public speaking, namely, snakes. Forty percent of respondents were afraid to address an audience, outnumbering those who dreaded heights, small spaces, needles, mice, thunder and lightning, crowds, or doctors’ appointments. There’s even a word for the fear inspired by public speaking: glossophobia, which the Mayo Clinic describes as “a common form of anxiety” ranging “from slight nervousness to paralyzing fear and panic.” Many otherwise hardy souls dodge every opportunity to speak in public, denying themselves the rewards – and [...]

Fear Not: Managing Our Public Speaking ButterfliesJohn Weeren2024-08-28T22:53:09-04:00

Unintended Wordplay

John Weeren2024-01-15T15:46:04-05:00

Unintended Wordplay By John Weeren To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that even the most experienced wordsmith must be in want of an editor. For how else are we to explain the errors that creep into documents and publications of every kind? Many of these mistakes are pedestrian—a missing comma here; an incorrect spelling there—but some are more consequential. As The New York Times noted in a correction published last fall, "an article on Thursday about a growing number of working Americans who earn too little to afford rent and have turned their cars into a form [...]

Unintended WordplayJohn Weeren2024-01-15T15:46:04-05:00

Saying “No”

John Weeren2023-10-03T16:10:36-04:00

Saying "No" By John Weeren For many on our campus and beyond there is nothing easy about saying “no,” a word that can sometimes end a conversation, fracture a friendship, or raise a ruckus. To quote the writer Kristin Wong, “Humans are social animals who thrive on reciprocity. It’s in our nature to be socially obliging, and the word no feels like a confrontation that threatens a potential bond.” Unfortunately, saying “no” is often inescapable, thanks to a host of intangible and practical considerations that preclude a positive response. Nothing, however, prevents us from conveying this monosyllable in a way that [...]

Saying “No”John Weeren2023-10-03T16:10:36-04:00

Philes and Phobes

John Weeren2023-01-14T21:27:31-05:00

Philes and Phobes We owe a great deal to Greece, and I’m not referring to moussaka, delicious though it is, or even to concepts of democratic governance, momentous though they are. I have something more fundamental in mind, for insofar as language underpins human society, the linguistic impact of Greek on English is far-reaching. The Greek alphabet influenced the Latin alphabet, which many countries use today, and thousands of English words in both general and specialized circulation derive from Greek, including “alphabet,” which, fittingly, embodies the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: “alpha” and “beta.” Xenophon Zolotas, a onetime prime [...]

Philes and PhobesJohn Weeren2023-01-14T21:27:31-05:00

Writing Less, Not More

John Weeren2021-09-30T13:37:39-04:00

Writing Less, Not More A question that faces all wordsmiths is how much to write about a subject. In the absence of a fixed word count, or at least a template, and without the spatial constraints imposed by paper-based communications, we are left to draw our own boundaries. And more often than not, they are too generous. Yes, we sometime write less than circumstances warrant, but most writers generate too many words for the comfort of their readers, not too few. There are several reasons why writing with restraint is more challenging than writing with abandon, reasons that must be [...]

Writing Less, Not MoreJohn Weeren2021-09-30T13:37:39-04:00

Dispatches from Quarantine: Notes from an Unknown Island by Elizabeth Durham

John Weeren2020-08-07T08:22:58-04:00

Dispatches from Quarantine Notes from an Unknown Island by Elizabeth Durham In the early days of the pandemic, I was inundated with messages about writing. Some of them were directly addressed to me, like invitations from various sectors of the University to join writing groups, or emails from academic journals calling for real-time analysis of the events unfolding so rapidly around us, all of us, around the world. Other messages were indirect, floating in our cultural midst, like a vague sense I should be keeping a diary of this moment or emailing far-flung family and friends, just to check in, or [...]

Dispatches from Quarantine: Notes from an Unknown Island by Elizabeth DurhamJohn Weeren2020-08-07T08:22:58-04:00

Writing at Its Best by Katherine Clifton

John Weeren2020-03-20T12:07:07-04:00

Writing at Its Best by Katherine Clifton In this, the latest post in our series of reflections on the nature of "good writing," Katherine Clifton captures the cheer and comfort to be found in the utterance and performance of even simple words, especially in times of trial. Katherine, a member of the Class of 2015, coordinates the Religion and Forced Migration Initiative in the Office of Religious Life. Thumped and bumped Groaned and moaned Thrashed and crashed What do these words have in common? They rhyme. Dr. Seuss features them in Big Dog Little Dog. Two of Princeton’s newcomers [...]

Writing at Its Best by Katherine CliftonJohn Weeren2020-03-20T12:07:07-04:00

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