For whom is student evaluation of teaching necessary?
What we euphemistically call student evaluation of teaching is, in fact, a “Customers Satisfaction Survey.”
2w ago
So, ChatGPT can write? Ahem!
The correlation between writing and technology is as old as writing, for writing IS technology. Technological advances such as papyrus, the printing press, the mechanical pencil, the fountain pen, and the typewriter have complemented writing.
11m ago
ChatGPT and Writing: A Deadly Combination!
When it comes to writing, ChatGPT is a BIG nothing
1y ago
Some Writing Instruction Re-considered
Writing is not an art suddenly discovered. It’s a craft gradually developed. Writing–both creative and critical– is formulaic, the way math is.
3y ago
2020 in Retrospect: Reinventing the university in a post-pandemic world
Why does the year 2020 still linger around? The Covid-19 pandemic has brought our civilisation to its knees this year. We’re already tired, scared, and hopeless.
3y ago
Covid-19 pandemic and the paradoxes of universities
We are almost at the tail-end of the year 2020. What a year this has been! We haven’t lived it.
3y ago
On Vocabulary in Writing
Back in the mid-90s when I was majoring in English literature at a public university in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was a cricket buff. For the Bangladeshis, cricket was a transnational love affair in the 90s.
3y ago
Covid-19 pandemic and the economics of higher education
Money can’t buy knowledge, but the knowledge industry of the modern world, centred in our universities, runs on money. Universities worldwide are money-strapped now.
3y ago
August 8, 2020
Diary of Pandemic Days
It’s already been several months since we’ve been hurled into the vortex of the coronavirus. The virus lives among us, silent and invisible.
July 5, 2020
Professor, who do you profess to now?
I always wanted to be a professor in English. When the pandemic hit and lockdown began, I ended up being a professor in pandemic.
June 20, 2020
Poetics of Pandemic
Any pandemic is crushing. COVID-19 is no exception. It strains cognition and emotion. It tanks economies. It disrupts communication. It alters psychology. It breeds panic and paranoia.
April 25, 2020
Viral Miseries
I always knew that life is unpredictable. But between February and April this year, I started to discover what it truly means to live an unpredictable life.
March 29, 2020
Coronavirus pandemic: Are we (mis)managing it?
I’m panicked, as is everyone around the world now. We’re faced with an existential threat. A death sentence hovers over us as it has hovered over Wuhan, China, since December 2019.
February 29, 2020
What Makes Good Writing Good?
To answer this question, let me hazard an analogy -- good writing is much like good food. Good writing tickles our senses the way good food does.
January 11, 2020
On Writer’s Block
Fairly recently, I was working with two of my colleagues here in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to propose a panel for a conference in North America.
October 12, 2019
Is Writing a Gift?
If it is, where is this gift coming from? God? Ahem! As off-putting as it might sound, biographies and autobiographies of writers reveal that most so-called gifted writers are scoundrels.
August 24, 2019
Why Is Writing So Difficult to Accomplish?
Writing is a struggle for everyone. If it seems easy, a writer is not doing it right. Because writing is mired in myths and misunderstanding, most writers – aspiring writers, in particular – consider the essential difficulty in writing as a pathology. They feel
July 27, 2019
On Writing in a Second Language
Writing entices me. But every time I get down to writing something, I feel like a bumbling idiot. Nothing emerges. Ideas evaporate. Thoughts tangle. Language languishes. My frustration mounts.
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