It happens once a year or so. A student will suggest that we study something that is badly written. “I know,” she’ll say, “Let’s read Twilight!” While I recognize this as a ploy, a way to get credit ...

Forget peace on earth — there won’t even be peace among the bookshelves after the salvo against popular fiction launched in the pages of the Guardian newspaper this week by the British novelist Edward ...

*This is the harbinger of a dominant electronic vernacular language. "Bad" is the wrong word for a major transition of this kind. It's too big and powerful to be stigmatized. People are inputting and ...

Vice in America: The New Issue of NR Is Out The Health of American Democracy Isn’t Measured in ‘Free’ Stuff We Cannot Be Casual About Antisemitism Sneer and Grifting at the 2025 National Book Awards ...

For most of my editing career, I’ve worked in the lower rungs of the writing world, polishing the prose of inexperienced and, often, unskilled writers. I love it. Bad writing fascinates me. I obsess ...

We are living in the Golden Age of Bad Writing Instruction. Mind you, the teaching of writing has always been problematic in the K-12 world. If you are of a Certain Age (i.e. mine) you may have fond ...

When I got my first message from Jim Garland, it was in the form of fan mail about a column I’d written on how hard it is to write. I had no idea who he was, except for what his email conveyed — that ...

If you’ve got a story to tell, tell the story. No need to dress it up in a tutu. Many moons ago, my late friend John Van Doorn strolled ‘round the newsroom flashing a $5 bill, promising it to whoever ...

The process by which writing goes from bad to good--or even great--totally fascinates me. I think the main reason more people don't write is the sheer terror of ...