On Cultural Cross-Pollination

Reading your way to better writingOne of the things that has been (is) vital to my success as a writer and educator is the fact that, from a freakishly young age, I’ve read everything.Nutritional information. Ancient magazines in waiting rooms. Bumper stickers....

Write Like a Pro: Wa Yang

How Wendy Yang Writes to Success at SAPWelcome to Write Like a Pro — where experts from diverse fields and industries discuss how writing supports their professional success.Professional: Wendy YangCompany: SAP (7+ years)Role: Global Program Management and Development...

Teach, Learn, Drink

Why every educator should be a student sometimesThe Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 3 Award in Wines is a big deal in wine land. It’s a course designed for wine makers, buyers, distributors, sommeliers, viticulturists, oenology students. Globally, it has...

Parents vs Social Media

How to win the warOne of my students is putting persuasive writing to real-world use — they’re trying to get their parents to let them use SnapChat.This emerged as an issue a few weeks ago, in a discussion of informative writing. Their pitch on that occasion bore no...

Teacher of a lifetime

A salute to Penn prof Paul HendricksonBack around the time Y2K and the Millennium bug were matters of concern (and when we could unironically Party Like It Was 1999) Washington Post journalist and author Paul Hendrickson stepped into a teaching post at University of...