writing

Suicide Hill

As of the year 2000, I had promised myself to live the rest of my life by myself. Then I met my wife Megan, and I had to rethink all those promises. Because I believe writing is a tool for knowing, I mentally drafted “Suicide Hill” while proctoring 8th grade students taking state tests in North [...]

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Are You Talking to Me? Dad Starts Off The Mushroom Hunter

“Tell me about this trail,” I said to my dad. We were at France Park, just outside Logansport, Indiana. I’d driven 700 miles over Easter Weekend 2012 to film Dad while he hunted morel mushrooms. The park used to be a rock quarry, and now it’s filled with water and used for fishing, swimming, and [...]

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Watch the Video & Take the Quiz: An Experiment in Multitasking

I used an activity similar to the one described below as a discussion starter for the writing courses I teach at St. John’s University:   Is there a wrong time to multitask? Description: I told students we were going to watch a video and take a quiz. Each student was to decide if they were [...]

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Mad Experiments with Seating Arrangements

The students in my composition courses probably think I’m crazy. Today, I came to class twenty minutes early so I could re-arrange the tables. At the D’Angelo Center (DAC) at St. John’s University, we have these tables with wheels on them. My vision for the seating arrangement is that we’ll be in small groups of [...]

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Not a How-To Post on Documentary Filmmaking

In order to spark conversation, I thought I’d take a quick run through my process of making the documentary film, For the Love of Books. I invite questions, requests for more of an explanation, and most of all suggestions for improvement. As a longtime fan of documentary films and a writer of scripts, the catalyst [...]

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To the Students: An Invitation to Twitter

Dear Writer, Twitter can be used for much more than publishing to the world what you are having for dinner. There’s a metaphor gifted to me from a former professor that goes like this: writing floats on a sea of conversation. Twitter is often about conversation. It’s great for making professional connections, accessing information published [...]

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Not Published Yet: A Viking on the Subway

Last week my writer friend Greg Lilly wrote about a work in progress (WIP) and invited me to do the same this week. I did, and for next week, I’m passing the WIP baton to my friend Jane Roper. I read and enjoyed Jane’s camp-themed novel Eden Lake, and I’m touched by the regular writing [...]

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Feedback and Revision are the Problem

Responding to student writing can be the toughest part of teaching First Year Writing / College Composition. This semester I spent a lot of time writing comments on paper-based texts. I got most of the students to hang on to my comments so they could turn them in with revisions. I do what I can [...]

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The latest:

Thumbnail image for The latest:

For the Love of Books This documentary film is about Kathy Patrick, and the Pulpwood Queens Book Club. Featuring the work of musician Jeremy Vogt and photographer Natalie Brasington, you can watch the trailer here.  If you’d like to order the film, it’s $10 and you can write to me at <William.Torgerson@gmail.com>. Love on the [...]

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Who Will the Students Follow on Twitter?

The idea is that my students will follow tweeters within a topic that interests them. This worries me in that I’m sure I’ll have lots of Yankee fans who will automatically want to follow the team’s outfielder and frequent tweeter, Nick Swisher. I don’t object to students following Swisher, but as far as the class [...]

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