2022 - January
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Making sense of nonsense: writing advice from Lewis Carroll and the "Jabberwocky"
by Philip Yaffe
January 2022Each "Communication Corner" essay is self-contained; however, they build on each other. For best results, before reading this essay and doing the exercise, go to the first essay "How an Ugly Duckling Became a Swan," then read each succeeding essay.
Lewis Carroll is justifiably world-renowned for his whimsical and sometime apparently ridiculously incongruous works of fiction, e.g. Alice in Wonderland. However, underneath the charming facade, there is very good advice which, once uncovered, can help expository (non-fiction) writers significantly improve their work.
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Workings of science: The paradoxical faces of science
by Peter Denning
January 2022Science has two faces: One sees settled science and all its laws; the other sees only the unsettlement of hypotheses yet to be verified and the uncertainty of whether they can be verified. Both faces are integral to the healthy workings of science.