What shapes us? What makes us who we are?

I love Thanksgiving, for I have much to be thankful for. Driving home to Virginia today, I kept thinking of how large a role Thanksgiving played in my early development. I was born in 1947. I grew up in the Deep South, the Gulf South. Each Thanksgiving, in the late 40s to early 50s, my family traveled [...]

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Reflecting on validation of research

Since men are born tabula rasa, both cognitively and morally, a rational man regards strangers as innocent until proven guilty, and grants them that initial good will in the name of their human potential. After that, he judges them according to the moral character they have actualized.                                                                                       — Ayn Rand Rand captures the way [...]

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What exactly do you want?

How many times a week does a teacher or employer hear this question? My colleagues and I in the Advertising/Public Relations Track at Towson University are hearing this question from students with increasing frequency. More and more students want exact instructions, step by step, on how to do assignments. This is true across a variety of advertising and [...]

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Word stir-fry

They just keep coming. Here is a memorable line from a PR Writing student’s critique of the chairman’s letter to shareholders from a company’s annual report: The rest of the letter reads as if the chairman is talking directly to whomever is reading it.

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Word stir-fry

Some writing simply defies explanation. Following is a sentence from a personality profile written by one of my public relations writing students. I’m thinking, Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. At first look, Stan looks like the average man he is.

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