Image Credit: Sxc.Hu

Fascinating insight into writing persuasively:

I never had a single rejection as a fiction writer, but that was because I spent an eight-year apprenticeship as an advertising copywriter, learning to use words to persuade and convince (I nearly wrote corrupt), everything I wrote subjected to reading and noting tests, every word graded according to efficacy. I learned to identify with readers, the uses and abuses of typography, how one enthusiastic adjective makes three times the impression of two, how to fill a brief, how to write for the press, for the screen, for audio. I had the vague impression when I began that publishers published my early novels un-interfered with because I was a “natural” and grew very conceited, but actually it was because I was properly trained.

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And here’s the main bit where our half hour conversation is highlighted (there’s some other bits that I recognise from our conversation, but they are bits that most now see as “public information” as my thesis has permeated culture … I may not be rich, but who can say that, eh?)

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Abstract.

“Ultimately, if we cannot find a home for this material, it will finish up going through the shredder and being recycled. I think that would be a tragedy, but I cannot see an alternative,” David Heathcote, former Bunac national committee member, told Times Higher Education.

“The material traces the changes in attitude among young people to the US from the time of the Vietnam War to the present day. There must surely be a PhD thesis in the material, at least.

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In university teaching, he told Times Higher Education, “we need to move beyond rather insular profession-oriented courses and introduce courses that have breadth rather than depth, that deal with some of the big issues, that bring together teachers from a variety of different disciplines”.

Thus, courses on the Global South “cannot just rely on economists”, and programmes on climate change “need environmental scientists, biologists and human geographers”.

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First-year history students at my university take a course titled Making History that teaches them about historical research and writing.

It comprises 20 twice-weekly lectures, given by various colleagues, on broad topics such as historiography, periodisation, causation, primary sources and reading critically, and 10 weekly seminars applying those topics to particular historical subjects – the American Revolution in my case.

This year, though, one seminar required students to “prepare three things: a CV; a paragraph identifying its weaknesses; an action plan for how you are going to address these weaknesses”.

Seeing these instructions, it struck me how far the “employability agenda” has progressed – to the point that it is now claiming time on syllabi at the expense of academic subjects and inculcating market values at the expense of free and critical thinking.

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http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mhARSNe/history+lesson+3

A number of US arts and humanities departments are fighting back against calls that the liberal arts aren’t worth funding as they don’t lead directly to jobs…

In response, several associations of universities with four-year courses are fighting back. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is aggressively advocating the importance of imparting “broad knowledge and transferable skills”. And the Council of Independent Colleges has established a Campaign for the Liberal Arts that will provide research and data to dispel stereotypes about the discipline.

“There is a new and heightened perception driving this trend that associations and organisations need to help the public better understand the value of the liberal arts,” said Laura Wilcox, the council’s spokeswoman.

The organisations contend that what employers really want from universities is not job training but graduates who can think critically, write and speak well, and solve problems.

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http://www.sxc.hu/photo/500790

The importance of humanities – it’s not all about ‘science’:

Given the range and complexity of global challenges, the marginalisation of the humanities in educational systems seems perverse. After all, the humanities are devoted to the study of the human condition and the ways in which individual and collective subjectivities contribute to shaping and improving it. For centuries the humanities were at the heart of education, and the study of art, history, languages and literature played determining roles in shaping concepts of national identity. Yet in recent decades governments have shifted focus away from the humanities, slashing funding and, more importantly, diminishing their influence.

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trademark-legal-battle-stuart-manley-mark-coop-144401375.html

It was originally a Second World War rallying cry to all Britons, but 70 years later the ‘Keep Calm’ slogan is now the subject of a long-running legal copyright dispute.

The wartime message has in recent years become an iconic national slogan after the phrase appeared on posters, books, mugs and other merchandise.

But ‘Keep Calm’ – originally produced by the government’s Ministry of Information – has since been trademarked by an entrepreneur who has claimed a monopoly on the famous phrase – and prevented anyone else from repeating it.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2013/jan/02/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trademark-books-poster-copyright?INTCMP=SRCH

Just popped a little comment onto this Guardian article:

The issue may be simply resolved in the end, with evidence that former TV producer Mark Coop got his original copy from Barter Books and appears to have no evidence of original discovery; but the Keep Calm Campaign says that he has United States and Canadian applications pending and the potential may be growing for restrictive action. The slogan was originally Crown copyright but is now in the public domain because more than 50 years have elapsed since an unknown civil servant thought it up. Wouldn’t it be great if they or a relative came forward?

Its two predecessors ‘Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring us Victory’ and ‘Freedom in Peril’ were plastered across the UK. But ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ was stuck on only a few office walls and all but a handful of copies – most in the National Archive and the Imperial War Museum – escaped pulping.

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