Tools and Insights – 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

Verbs Add Power!

admin2024-09-25T13:40:39-04:00

Verbs Add Power! by Stephanie Whetstone As writers, we want to sound smart and savvy on the page, to fit into the lofty academic world at places like Princeton, or simply to stand out in our communities. Many writers go about this by adding excessive adverbs and adjectives or obscure language to their prose. The theory might be, "If it's difficult to understand, it must sound intelligent!" I wholeheartedly disagree. The best writing is clear, concise, and logically structured. It conveys ideas in a way that invites thought and collaboration, not exclusivity. It educates, enlivens, and elucidates. It does not rely [...]

Verbs Add Power!admin2024-09-25T13:40:39-04:00

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

On the Merits of Raisin Bread by Stephanie Whetstone

admin2023-09-26T07:29:43-04:00

On the Merits of Raisin Bread by Stephanie Whetstone At Princeton Writes, we are often called upon to help scientists, mathematicians, and writers in other highly technical fields translate their work for the general public—to take complex ideas that people have been working on in labs or on advanced computers for years and bring them into the world in context, not by watering them down, but by making them more accessible to non-specialists. After all, if you can explain your work to funders to continue your research on the human brain or generate interest in things like the impacts of climate [...]

On the Merits of Raisin Bread by Stephanie Whetstoneadmin2023-09-26T07:29:43-04:00

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

Applying for a Position? Check Out These Resources.

admin2022-12-13T11:35:04-05:00

Applying for a Position? Check Out These Resources. Cover Letters Guidance: Broad Institute (https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/broad/commkit/cover-letter-for-a-faculty-position/) Examples: Harvard University (beginning on page 20) (https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ocs/files/gsas-cvs-and-cover-letters.pdf) Curricula Vitae Guidance: Indiana University Bloomington (https://education.indiana.edu/students/careers/docs/CV%20Guide.pdf) Examples: University of Toronto (https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/Creating-Your-Academic-CV.pdf) Resumes Guidance: Georgetown University (https://careercenter.georgetown.edu/major-career-guides/resumes-cover-letters/resume-formatting-tips/) Examples: University of California, Davis (https://icc.ucdavis.edu/materials/resume/samples) Research Statements Guidance: University of Pennsylvania (https://careerservices.upenn.edu/application-materials-for-the-faculty-job-search/research-statements-for-faculty-job-applications/) Examples: Boston University (https://www.bu.edu/econ/files/2017/10/research_statements1.pdf) Teaching Statements Guidance: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/teaching-statements/) Examples: University of Michigan (https://crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tstpum) Diversity Statements Guidance: Vanderbilt University (https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/developing-and-writing-a-diversity-statement/) Examples: University of California San Diego (https://physicalsciences.ucsd.edu/_files/examples-submitted-diversity-statements.pdf)

Applying for a Position? Check Out These Resources.admin2022-12-13T11:35:04-05:00

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