Many think Bill Bryson is just a travel writer, but he is more than that. Bill Bryson spends much time on researching how America’s language became what it is today and why it is so different from the rest of the English speaking world. Bill Bryson researches how the solar system and earth formed like he researched who Shakespeare really was in his time. He uses a comic tone to his writing, as in telling a story. Why would so many pass his works up in an education setting? Many feel he does not fit in the academic world, while many are already teaching with his works both overseas and here in the United States. Bill Bryson grew up in Iowa; both of his parents worked in journalism, Bryson grew up with writing essentially in his blood. Starting as a journalist in England for the local papers, Bryson soon was introduced to travel writing. Bryson does not limit himself to just writing about travel; he has written many books on the English language, science, biographies and histories.
In 2005, Bryson became the 11th Chancellor at Durham’s University, and the formal head of the university where he stayed until 2011. Bryson is also involved with getting students into acting and performing, inviting Russell Crowe to host a workshop at the student theater at Durham. Bryson is very involed in promoting cultural, environmental and scientific issue and traveled to Kenya with CARE international to help with developmental programs for the poverty stricken. Bryson is best known for his travel books that have been written about North America, Britain, Europe and Australia.
Many scholars do not agree with Bryson’s techniques or styles of writing. In a way, they do have a point. The best part of writing is that everyone is ent...
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... creates discussions which in today’s age are disappearing with technology. The many different aspects of Bryson’s works can be a great educational set comprised of all travel, literature, general science and the English language.
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He served in WWII as a flight radar observer and navigator. After serving in the army he went to school at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He went there on the G. I. Bill. After graduating from Vanderbilt with a M. A. in English, he started to teach. He taught first at the Rice Institute in Houston, Texas. His time there was cut short because he was recalled to duty in Korea as flight training instructor. But as soon as he was discharged from the Corps he returned to teach again at Rice University. He taught at Rice until 1954 when he left to go to Europe on the Sewanee Review fellowship. After returning to the U.S. he joined the English Department at the University of Florida. He did not stay there long because he resigned after a dispute after he h...
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When he returned from the army he got enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He received M.A. degree and began to work on his Ph.D. at the same time he started teaching at University of Minnesota and later at MacAlester College. He received Ph.D. from University of Washington for study on Charles Dickens and he did public readings. He taught at Hunter College in New York City from 1966 to 1980. He also worked as translator. He completed some of his poems as he was teaching in the college he states that he didn’t feel any conflict between the duties of teaching and the labors of writing books which are non-academic.
I am more knowledgeable about invention, arrangement, style, and delivery, all in which create a masterful piece of text. A few examples, I have learned to organize and construct my thoughts and ideas clearer. I have been taught to use stronger transitions and focus more on the delivery and content of the body element of essays. Further, the instructions and advice I have received throughout this term have influenced my understanding of the purpose of writing. My outlook on writing has been modified by shifting my perception of writing from, writing to prove I am a good writer by perceiving it as using “fluffy” or BIG words to impress my audience. I grew to understanding that good writing’s purpose is to engage the writer by mind-striking ideas and arguments, which therefore will prove and title me as a “good writer”.
...Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 179-189. Print.
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Rose, Mike. “Blue-Collar Brilliance”. “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. 2nd ed. Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 243-54. Print.
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Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel K. Durst. "They Say/I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: With Readings. Vol. 2e. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. Print.
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...s, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
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