For four decades, an English professor at San Jose State University has run a fiction contest for a single opening sentence to "the worst of all possible novels." He has decided to retire the contest.

When you think about how you spend your day, a lot of it probably involves writing. You write emails, and text messages, and proposals, and memos. You spend time writing in ways you don’t even think ...

Finally, I can provide my graduate students with an impassioned defense of unclear academic writing. I give my students readings on how to produce clear academic writing. I show them how to make ...