A professor in Australia is taking a stand against the idea that we can’t write an interesting essay in a traditional format.
The New York Times has a video on its site that explains how to write an entertaining essay that people will actually read and share.
Professor Lisa Khalifa, the associate dean of the graduate school of education at University of Queensland, has written a new piece titled, “Why I don’t think you can write a good essay in traditional formats.”
It’s a simple argument: the Internet is a great place to make a quick buck, and if we can learn to do it more efficiently, the world would be a much happier place.
“We live in a world that is constantly growing and evolving and is increasingly more digital,” Khalifa said in a press release.
“We need to be able to take notes on what’s new, what’s happening and how to connect with that.”
Khalifa argues that the more digital we become, the more we need to use tools like Google Docs to organize our information.
“We have all the tools to organize and organize our lives, but we often don’t use them,” she said.
Khalifas research focuses on the ways in which students learn, and how they learn.
She argues that we need students to learn how to “understand the world,” rather than simply “know” it.
“Teachers and students need to get a broader perspective,” she wrote.
In an interview with the Times, Khalifa says that we often use the Internet to learn things that aren’t relevant to our lives.
We use Google Doc to organize what we know, and then we use Facebook to share that knowledge, and Twitter to post things that we’re interested in.
“What we’re really good at is just connecting with other people and connecting with their ideas and their world and learning about it,” she explained.
But Khalifa is also concerned that we are creating more work for ourselves.
She says that the “biggest problem” in the world today is that we don’t have enough time to get work done.
“It’s time for people to do more of what we are good at, and for us to take care of our own needs,” she argued.
So, how do you write an engaging essay that’s actually interesting?
Khalifa suggests that we create a story around our own experiences.
That could be through a TED talk or a book.
“In the TED Talks, you have to write about something you’ve experienced,” she says.
“If you write about the people you’re around, it’s going to be more interesting.”
In addition to the TED Talk, Khalifas piece is about her time at university.
She writes about what she learned, and why it matters.
Khanifas essay begins with a short overview of what happened to her as a student.
Then, she shares her story, including what it was like for her to be the only female in a small class of 100.
After that, she explains how her class became the “University of My Life,” a group of students who “became my family.”
Khalife says that she had a very tough time finding her voice and expressing herself, and that she wasn’t sure what to write next.
She eventually decided to write, in her own words, “a book about the process of coming to terms with your own identity.”
In the book, Khalife describes how she began to question who she was.
As a writer, she wanted to write something that reflected her experience.
But she found that the most interesting parts of her life were her personal life and the people she met.
In the end, Khaliftas essay is about finding your own voice and the experiences that come with it.
She ends by telling her students, “The most important thing is to be who you are, and not be defined by what other people think of you.”