How to Define America in 30 Objects

Egypt’s King Mentuhotep II reunited his country’s upper and lower regions at the turn of the 20th century—B.C.E. Were the ...

America’s greatest piece of writing

Thomas Jefferson was tasked with drafting a wartime document declaring independence. How did it become one of history’s most enduring symbols?
The New Yorker

Can A.I. Produce Writing That We Actually Want to Read?

This is part of a series of columns about the viability of the American university system. In the previous installment of this series on the future of higher education, I talked with professors about ...
Townhall

Why We Write

We’re all in this fight together for the next 250 years of American exceptionalism. During the Korean War, General Matt Ridgway prepared materials for his soldiers to explain why the US was fighting ...
Psychology Today

Why We Write Poems After Heartbreak

Across cultures and centuries, heartbreak has consistently produced art. After death, people write elegies. After betrayal, we write songs. After war, exile, divorce ...
New Scientist

A lost ancient script reveals how writing as we know it really began

Early writing is a tale of two scripts. Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform both emerged independently about 5300 years ago. The political powers of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia ...
Medical Xpress

The language of helplessness: How we write about ourselves reveals symptoms of depression

People struggling with symptoms of depression are less likely to perceive themselves as active initiators of their activities, which is directly reflected in the way they express themselves. Analyzing ...
The Chronicle of Higher Education

AI Can Improve Scholarly Writing — If We Use It Right

T ell a roomful of academics that you use AI in your writing and watch what happens. A few will nod. Most will go quiet in that particular way that means they’re embarrassed on your behalf. Someone ...
The Michigan Daily

Teach the kids why to write, not how to write ‘right’

Themes of academic dread or nerdiness often crop up when writing comes to mind. Until college, I never truly considered the bigger picture: Why do we write, or more aptly, why should we? Even still, ...
EdSurge

I Tell My Students Writing Is Hard. I Still Ask Them to Do It Anyway.

My life has changed so much since my time as a Voices of Change fellow during the 2023 school year. As I wrote in my final essay of the fellowship, the beautiful, imperfect school I loved and helped ...
Quanta Magazine

Can the Most Abstract Math Make the World a Better Place?

“I’ve spent a long time exploring the crystalline beauty of traditional mathematics, but now I’m feeling an urge to study something slightly more earthy,” John Baez wrote on his blog in 2011. An ...