Hypercrit

Michael Becker writes about journalism, new media and digital culture in general.

Month: September, 2006

Issues of Correctness

Joseph Williams’ essay resonated with me more than any of the others for a few reasons. First, I taught one of his books in my class this semester—a shortened edition of his Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. I first read Style six years ago, and I still believe the words that opened that […]

Interchangeable Students

USA Today contributor Patrick Welsh wrote recently on the plight of the “average student.” Welsh claims that these students, who fall between “gifted and talented” and “learning disabled,” are often ignored by schools because those schools can gain more prestige by dealing with students at the extremes. Welch criticizes this tracking system, and harkens back […]

Theory and Composition

Writing occupies a singularly difficult position. At its core, writing is communication. It moves information between people—moves it more reliably than speech because it freezes words and transmits them as the author wrote them. Writing should therefore be a tool of immense practical possibility. But writing also lives somewhere between thought and interpretation. While the […]

Annotations

I’ve read several books now where the author tells me in the introduction that he or she has spent the past several decades writing in the margins of books. This author then proceeds to tell me about looking around his or her library the other day and deciding that, by God, it was time to […]

Intertextuality

Through Google’s blog search for “hypertext theory,” I found this post by A White Bear on the subject. First of all, this person got together with other grad students in his/her master’s program to discuss HT. Why is no one in Bozeman interested in this enough to get together in our spare time and talk […]