1. I am loving Tradle (guess the country by its exports–this one took me 5 tries) 2. Clive Thompson’s writing advice: getting a first
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I’ve read a lot of personal statements for PhD applications. I sat on admissions at UChicago, Columbia, and Yale, mostly in economics, political science, and
What got missed in many of the media reports was that the research was incredibly limited. The study ran for only nine days, and involved
Work on one thing at a time until finished. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’ Don’t be nervous.
Judging from the average application I have seen (and their ugly cousin: the PhD application letter), more students could benefit from advice. I have six key pieces,
At a panel discussion in 2004, a professor of political philosophy, Caribbean-born with a doctorate from the University of Toronto, explains that he never understood
After writing on writing guides, more than one reader suggested I read Stephen King’s guide to the craft. I’m not a King fan, mainly because
“Glamour” and “Grammar” are essentially the same word. In classical Greek and Latin, “grammar” (from the Greek “grammatikos,” meaning “of letters”) covered the whole of
When writing is great, Mitchell told me of the books he loved as a reader, “your mind is nowhere else but in this world that
As an academic, I’m only as good as my writing. This year I decided to hone my skill. It’s just one of the rationales for
If you’ve enjoyed the posts, the links, and the advice columns over the years, I have a request. Those of you who have gotten my
1. Elton John singing Crocodile Rock on The Muppets (1972) and William Shatner performing a spoken word Rocketman 2. An excerpt from Deer Man,
The verdict is in: Russia invaded Ukraine for two reasons. One is Moscow’s obsessive pursuit of nationalist and imperial ambitions—unifying the two countries and eliminating
What follows is a summary of what I see as the key advice, with links to other resources that go into more depth or do
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Will a professor write you a letter of recommendation? My answer: Writing student recommendations comes with the faculty job, and I usually write if asked.
I’m asked about PhD admissions a lot. I’m going to give some advice and demystify the process of US admissions a bit. I also address the
