From ancient Greece to Broadway, music has played a critical role in theater

The remnants of a Greek theater in Sicily. Fausto Riolo/Getty Images

Timothy J. Moore, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

Though anxiety about the fate of live theater performances still lingers, Broadway is celebrating its third season since reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic, with a lineup dominated once again by musicals.

The new season includes long-running hits like “Hamilton,” revivals of classics like “Merrily We Roll Along,” new musical adaptations of nonmusical works like “Days of Wine and Roses,” and even “Here We Are,” the last musical by Stephen Sondheim.

Despite its centrality to today’s theater, musicals are often thought of as second class to what is considered legitimate theater, such as William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” or Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” In both of those works, music plays little or no role.

Broadway musical theater billboards in Times Square in New York City. Ozgur Donmaz/Getty Images

But musicals have been the dominant form of theater across cultures and throughout most of history, including in ancient Greece, the birthplace of theater.

Music, words and songs

My research focuses on the tragedies and comedies of ancient Greece and Rome. Though no scores from these original plays exist, a remarkable number of clues about the sound of ancient theater can be found in the surviving texts of the plays and other sources.

Evidence reveals that the plays of ancient Greece and Rome were decidedly musical affairs.

For example, in a conspicuous place during the performance stood an elaborately dressed player of the “aulos,” a loud and strident woodwind instrument consisting of two pipes played simultaneously. Both actors and choruses sang during their performances to the accompaniment of this instrument.

An illustration of a man playing the ‘aulos,’ or double pipe, in ancient Greece.

Just as in modern musicals, the important components of what made the plays work were the actors’ use of words both spoken and sung.

Oedipus’ woeful song

Consider Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King,” thought by many to be the quintessential Greek tragedy, and often taught and performed as a drama without music. The plot and message of the tragedy are profound and disturbing.

Though Oedipus rises to the heights of human success and becomes an admired ruler of the city of Thebes, he is unaware that he had murdered his father and married his mother. When he learns the truth, he blinds himself and begs to be driven from the city.

Music does much of the work in making this powerful play effective.

Clues in the text of “Oedipus the King” suggest that when it was first performed in about 430 B.C., just under a fifth of the verses were sung or chanted to the accompaniment of the aulos.

Most of the play’s passages accompanied by music are sung by the chorus. Far from mere interludes, the chorus’s songs expressed key themes in both their words and their music.

When the chorus first enters, for example, they sing stately prayers like the one in which they address the oracle of Apollo:

Sweet voiced oracle, Zeus-sent, tell me, what is your message?

But later in the song, their rhythm becomes less self-assured when they turn from prayer to despair at the plague that afflicts their city:

O dear, I’m bearing countless toils!

In conspicuous contrast to the chorus’s emotional songs, Oedipus does not sing through most of the play in his attempt to maintain control in the face of ever more threatening revelations.

The contrast becomes most pointed when the chorus, singing, defends Oedipus’ brother-in-law against a charge that he is plotting to gain the throne:

Don’t strike down in dishonor, on an unclear charge, a dear one who has sworn an oath.

Then Oedipus replies, speaking and not singing:

Know well that when you seek this you are seeking death or exile from this land for me.

Oedipus later yields to the chorus’s wish, but his refusal to participate in their musical performance reflects both his reluctance and his determination to remain in charge.

A marble bust of the playwright Sophocles. DeAgostini/Getty Images

But when Oedipus has met disaster and enters from his palace after blinding himself, he sings in his distress, and he calls attention to the change in his performance mode by addressing his now uncontrolled voice:

Oh, Oh, how miserable I am. Where on earth am I going? Where does my voice fly out uncontrollably? Oh, my fortune, where have you leapt to?

In contrast to the earlier scenes, it is now the chorus who speaks, distancing themselves from their fallen king:

To someplace dreadful, unbearable to listen to or to see.

Recent productions of Greek drama have followed the textual clues to music provided in the texts, with chorus and actors alternating unaccompanied spoken performance with sung verses, accompanied by the aulos or other instruments.

Notable are performances in ancient Greek at Columbia/Barnard and in English translation at the University of Vermont. These performances indicate how much Greek theater has in common with modern musical theater on Broadway and around the world today.

Timothy J. Moore, John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

How to Support Student Mental Health This Academic Year

by Leah Jackson

The student mental health crisis is a key area for higher education leaders to address, and it is an issue that requires collaboration from the entire campus community, not just the counseling center, cautions a new report from the American Council on Education (ACE) entitledSix Considerations for Student Mental Health in Higher Education for the 2023-24 Academic Year.

"It is a campus-wide issue, and higher education cannot hire its way out of it -- there are not enough counselors and not enough funds," reads the report.

Thankfully, though, ACE has identified six actions in this report that institutions can take to support students before they need therapy, including:

1. Realize the impact of counseling center staffing and address turnover.

ACE says counseling centers have been overworked. Even prior to the pandemic, caseloads were growing as campuses worked to expand mental health services. With the pandemic and great resignation that followed, the situation has only worsened. As a result of staff burnout and greater opportunities elsewhere, many counseling centers have seen turnover. The report recommends that leaders re-evaluate how to best serve students without overburdening staff in these centers.

2. Cultivate degree pathways for aspiring mental health professionals, especially for students of color and LGBTQ+ students.

The report also points out that colleges and universities can play a pivotal role in addressing the counselor shortage that exists across industries (not just in higher education). Recommendations include encouraging students to explore this career option and incentivizing them with scholarships and grants, among others.

3. Build upon positive movement at the federal and state levels that supports student mental health.

"With all the attention that mental health is receiving at the federal and state levels, college and university leaders are well positioned to build upon these efforts," the report reads. It outlines several recent federal actions that higher education has benefited from and highlights how some states are addressing the mental health crisis, which may inspire other ideas.

4. Implement evidence-based practices on campus, and document and assess their impact.

ACE warns that while there are many solutions, interventions, and programs used to address mental health, not all of them are proven to be effective. The report shares a few resources that can help institutional leaders identify strategies that really work, such as American Council on Education's brief What Works for Improving Mental Health in Higher Education, an "open-access brief shares various strategies for addressing college student mental health -- those with proven effectiveness, promising evidence, and proven ineffectiveness."

5. Focus on public health- and trauma-informed approaches to address the mental health crisis.

The report advises against the traditional, reactive approach to mental health of the past, saying that it is important to examine root causes of issues. So, rather than helping students only after a crisis has occurred, colleges and universities should focus on implementing public health-informed approaches that "promote healthy lifestyles as well as ways to identify, prevent, and respond to concerns through prevention, intervention, and postvention," the report says. However, recognizing that many students come to college with trauma from the past, ACE also recommends considering a trauma-informed approach. Faculty, staff, and leaders should be trained to provide safe places for students, empower them, and empathize with them.

6. Anticipate that incoming traditional-aged students and their parents will ask about and expect there to be mental health support on campus.

Current and future incoming college freshmen are students who were in the K-12 education system during the pandemic and dealt with "tremendous disruption" the report says. To support students, many middle and high schools boosted their mental health resources, so these students will be accustomed to having those resources at their fingertips and expect that same option in college. Likely, their parents will expect it as well. The report recommends institutional leaders "begin outreach efforts and partnerships with K-12 institutions and counseling units to understand the unique challenges and new variables that come with this incoming generation of students."

For more in-depth information on each of these recommendations to better support your students' mental health, read the full brief from ACE.

Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don't imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.

This article is republished from HigherEdJobs^® under a Creative Commons license. 

Don’t be fooled by Biden and Xi talks − China and the US are enduring rivals rather than engaged partners

Rolling out the red carpet for presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP

Michael Beckley, Tufts University

There were smiles for the camera, handshakes, warm words and the unveiling of a couple of agreements.

But beyond the optics of the first meeting in over a year between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies, not an awful lot had changed: There was nothing to suggest a “reset” in U.S. and China relations that in recent years have been rooted in suspicion and competition.

President Joe Biden hinted as much just hours after the face-to-face talks, confirming that he still considered his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, a “dictator.” Beijing hit back, with foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning telling reporters Biden’s remark was “extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation.”

As a scholar of U.S.-China relations, I believe the relationship between the two countries can be best described as an “enduring rivalry” – a term used by political scientists to denote two powers that have singled each other out for intense security competition. Examples from history include India and Pakistan, France and England, and the West and the Soviet Union. Over the past two centuries, such rivals have accounted for only 1% of the world’s international relationships but 80% of its wars. History suggest these rivalries last around 40 years and end only when one side loses the ability to compete – or when the two sides ally against a common enemy. Neither scenario looks likely any time soon in regards to China and the U.S.

How enduring rivalries end

China “is a communist country … based on a form of government totally different than ours,” Biden said after his meeting with Xi.

That comment gets to the heart of why diplomacy alone cannot reset the U.S.-China relationship. Washington and Beijing are not rivals due to any misunderstanding that can be sorted out through talks alone. Rather, they are rivals because of the opposite reason: They understand each other only too well and have come to the conclusion that their respective world outlooks cannot be reconciled.

The same is true for many of the issues that divide the two countries – they are framed as binary win-lose scenarios. Taiwan can be governed from Taipei or Beijing, but not both. Similarly, the East China and South China seas can be international waters or Chinese territory; Russia can be crippled or supported.

For the United States, its Asian alliances are a force for stability; for China, they’re hostile encirclement. And both countries are right in their respective assessments.

Diplomacy alone is insufficient to resolve a rivalry. At best, it can help manage it.

When the US calls, who picks up?

Part of this management of the U.S-China rivalry involves finding areas of agreement that can be committed to.

And on Nov. 15, Biden and Xi announced deals over curbing China’s production of the deadly drug fentanyl and the restoring of high-level, military-to-military dialogue between the two countries.

But the fentanyl announcement is very similar to the one Xi gave to then-President Donald Trump in 2019. The U.S. administration later accused China of reneging on the agreement.

Similarly, committing to restarting high-level dialogue is one thing; following up on it is another. History is dotted with occasions when having an open line between Beijing and Washington hasn’t meant a whole lot in times of crisis. In 2001, when a U.S. surveillance aircraft collided with a Chinese jet over Hainan Island, Beijing didn’t pick up the phone. Likewise, during the Tiananmen Square massacre, then-President George H.W. Bush urgently tried to call his counterpart Deng Xiaoping but was unable to get through.

Moreover, focusing on what was agreed to in talks also highlights what wasn’t – and is unlikely to ever be – agreed to without a substantial shift in power that forces one side to concede to the other.

For example, China wants the U.S. to stop selling arms to Taiwan. But Washington has no intention of doing this, as it knows that this will make the disputed island more vulnerable to Beijing. Washington would like China to end its military displays of strength over the Taiwan Strait; Beijing knows doing so risks seeing Taiwan drift toward independence.

American policymakers have long said what they want is China to “change” – by which it means to liberalize its system of governance. But the Chinese Communist Party knows that doing so means self-liquidation – every communist regime that has allowed space for alternative political parties has unraveled. Which is why American attempts to engage China are often met with suspicion in China. As former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin commented, engagement and containment policies have the same aim: to end China’s socialist system.

For similar reasons, Xi has shunned attempts by the U.S. to bring China further into the rules-based international order. The Chinese leader saw what happened when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to integrate the Soviet Union into the Western order in the late 1980s – it only hastened the demise of the socialist entity.

Instead, Xi calls for a massive military buildup, the reassertion of Chinese Communist Party control and an economic policy based on self-reliance.

Actions speak louder …

The encouraging words and limited agreements hammered out in the latest meeting between Xi and Biden should also not distract from the actions that continue to push the U.S. and China further apart.

China’s show of force in the Taiwan Strait has been sustained for three years now and shows no sign of abating. Meanwhile, Beijing’s navy continues to harass other nations in the South China Sea.

Similarly, Biden has continued the U.S. path toward military alliances aimed at countering China’s threat. It recently entered a trilateral agreement between the U.S., Japan and South Korea. And that came two years after the establishment of AUKUS, a security partnership between the the U.S., Australia and the U.K. that has similar aims.

Meanwhile, the U.S. administration will continue to tighten the screws on China’s economy through investment restrictions. Biden is well aware that easy flowing money from Wall Street is helping China weather choppier economic waters of late and is keen to turn off the tap.

The point of diplomacy

This isn’t to say that diplomacy and face-to-face talks are pointless. They do, in fact, serve a number of interests.

For both men involved, there is a domestic upside. For Biden, playing nice with China projects the image of a statesman – especially at a time when, due to U.S. positions on Ukraine and the Middle East, he is facing accusations from the political left of being a “warmonger.” And encouraging Beijing to tread softly during the U.S. election year may blunt a potential line of attack from Republicans that the administration’s China policy is not working.

Meanwhile, Xi is able to showcase his own diplomatic skills and present China as an alternative superpower to the U.S. and to potentially cleave the Western business community – and perhaps even major European nations – from what he would see as the U.S. anti-China coalition.

Moreover, summits like the one in San Francisco signal that both the U.S. and China are jointly committed to at least keep talking, helping ensure that a rocky relationship doesn’t descend into anything more belligerent – even it that doesn’t make them any friendlier.

Michael Beckley, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Addressing Difficult Topics in an Interview

by Leah Jackson

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Beautrium/Shutterstock

All job seekers have circumstances that make them unique. That's part of being human. Whether you have non-negotiables, an employment gap, or another special circumstance, everyone has topics that will be difficult to discuss in an interview. These can feel like landmines ready to destroy your chances at the job, but the reality is that these issues are often larger in our own minds, says Deborah J. Cohan, Ph.D., professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina Beaufort and the author of the forthcoming book, "The Big Book of College: A Professor Tells You Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in and Out of the Classroom" (New World Library, May 2024).

"Whatever it is can feel like the proverbial elephant in the room," she continues. "The other reality is that most everyone is bringing an elephant to an interview in addition to their legal pad, pen, and water bottle. Even search committee members are aware of either their own elephants, the departmental elephants, and the institutional ones."

With some strategic planning and what Cohan calls "a moment of 'it's not what you say but how you say it,'" you can confidently navigate these touchy topics. Consider these tips:

Own Your Story

You may have a unique situation (such as an employment gap due to a lack of fit in your last position, job searching with a medical condition, a need for remote work, etc.), but you don't have to play victim to those circumstances. Instead, take ownership of your career story -- the good and bad.

"Try to flip the script and say something positive about a previous negative experience," cautions Luke Ritter, Ph.D., an assistant professor of American history at New Mexico Highlands University. "For example, say your interviewer asks why you want to switch jobs. The real reason you want to leave that job is because your department chair is intolerable. Instead, say, 'I have learned that I best thrive around colleagues with strong, effective communication, and I noticed that your department promotes such collegiality.' Flipping the script is not being inauthentic; it's showing your future employer that you know how to learn from and rise above bad experiences."

Owning your story also means being confident in your choices. If you're interviewing for a position for which you may be perceived as overqualified, be prepared to answer persuasively why it's the right choice for you. If you have non-negotiables, be ready to defend your needs.

Be Upfront

Don't let fear keep you from being honest and timely with employers.

Cohan shares a personal example of how being upfront helped her obtain a tenure-track position at her current institution (where she is now a full professor) after turning down a position in the same department only a year earlier.

"I said this in the very first paragraph [of my cover letter]," she says. "I can appreciate the various ways in which it might be an unusual and challenging experience for a search committee to re-consider a candidate who did not accept a previous offer. Understandably, a situation like this raises questions. I felt very lucky to cultivate a rich rapport with a number of you, so please know and trust that it was for various personal reasons that I was unable to accept the offer to work at USCB in 2010; those issues have since been resolved and, consequently, I hope to have another chance to be considered for this position. Please also know my willingness to answer any of your questions and my openness in discussing this further should we have the opportunity to do so."

When asked very frankly why she didn't take the job the last time, Cohan was honest. "[I told them] I had realized I first needed to get a divorce and then move across the country. And when I wrote that second letter, I was prepared to do just that."

Whatever your circumstances are, addressing them confidently, tactfully, and in a timely manner is important. If you have an employment gap due to caregiving, moving for a partner's job opportunity, or other reasons, explain this clearly so that employers aren't left to draw their own (possibly negative) conclusions. Similarly, if you are asked about your current position and why you are job searching, be honest yet respectful and positive. What did you learn about yourself or what you need from a work environment or position? How does that relate to the position you're interviewing for?

Medical situations can be the most complex of all. You are not obligated to disclose any medical conditions that might require accommodations. Deciding when and how to disclose these things really is a personal choice. It's not a one-size-fits-all process, said a recent guest on the HigherEdJobs Podcast. However, waiting to discuss these needs until receiving an offer may cause you more stress due to the unknowns about leave or accommodations offered and whether the institution will be supportive of your needs. If you have truly found a good fit, navigating these issues should be a joint effort with respect and willingness from both parties.

Manage the Conversation

Rehearsing for these conversations can be helpful. Yet, there are limitations. You can't control how the conversation goes, but you can manage it. Be prepared to improvise. Know what you are willing to share and work to divert the conversation back to your career story and your value as a candidate. Don't get caught up in rehashing your past experience. Stay focused on the job at hand and how those past experiences uniquely qualify you for it. Storytelling is an important interview skill that can help you showcase your circumstances in a positive light. To learn more about telling action-based stories to support your candidacy, read this article.

Remember

There will always be difficult topics in a job interview -- for candidates and employers. You're not alone, but you should prepare to navigate these conversations.

"There is a clear advantage for the job seeker in being able to [do this] because how that information is received and discussed is likely to reveal a lot about what it would be like to work somewhere," Cohan says. "Most of us need and want colleagues and bosses who are mindful of the whole of ourselves and the whole of themselves. The more authentically that people show up to interviews -- on both sides -- the more informative and productive the process is for everyone. This doesn't mean that we should approach and engage with no sense of boundaries or awareness of what's appropriate, legal, and ethical to ask, but it means that openness, directness, honesty, and compassion go a long way."

Citing the many challenges of today's world (campus threats, systemic racism, lingering pandemic effects), she reminds us that "it's very reasonable to think that both candidates and employers come to the table with a great deal on their minds and in their hearts, and it behooves all players to negotiate these conversations with empathy and curiosity."

Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don't imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.

This article is republished from HigherEdJobs^® under a Creative Commons license. 

Solving Higher Education’s Newest Challenge: Employee Retention

by Rich Goodman

Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

As colleges have their eyes fixed on strategies to overcome upcoming obstacles of matriculation, economic challenges, and competition for relevance in the modern professional world, one problem has been growing quietly to present a new challenge: employee retention. With the broader workforce continuing to shift to offer increased accommodation to employees with the appeal of remote work, flexible schedules, and greater compensation, how are college leaders working to keep up? The reality is that every year, many higher education professionals say goodbye to colleagues for new positions or even to leave the field. In a Fall 2023 report, CUPA-HR noted that the 2022-2023 academic year was the highest on record for employee turnover since their tracking began in 2017, and 33% of remaining employees in higher ed shared that they are likely to search for a new job within the year. For those who stay despite challenges, colleges may also see less appealing results with the trend of "quiet quitting." Leaders may feel trapped by limitations in their capacity to make change, especially with the all-powerful budget cut, but here are a few ways in which colleges can work to celebrate, invest in, and hopefully retain their talented faculty and staff.

Step 1: Talk to your people. And listen.

The talented professionals who support your institution each have a voice, and asking for input does not go unnoticed. Your colleagues have insights, concerns, and experience that should be sought broadly, but especially regarding institutional decisions. Communication starts with accessible opportunities. Lead by offering frequent, open, transparent communication to help to build trust. Ensure that employees have multiple options to give feedback without being filtered by their direct supervisor. Easy first steps include actively promoting an anonymous feedback portal, allocating time for open office hours with decision-makers, and facilitating open forums where voices can build with support. Employees should also have elected representation, which have standing meetings with college leadership to amplify collective voices. Managers should also receive appropriate training to learn how best to communicate and support their team. Without emotionally intelligent leadership and clear direction, it's easy for a team to feel lost or undervalued.

Step 2: Balance the numbers.

Higher education has long faced a compensation problem. In a 2022 report from Pew Research Center, low compensation and opportunity for advancement were tied for the most common reasons for employee resignation. According to CUPA-HR, 53% of higher ed employees ranked salary as their top reason for searching, and 86% ranked it in their top three reasons. The cost of recruiting and training new employees is often higher than a pay increase or promotion after the cost of sourcing, interviewing, hiring, training, failed searches, and the hit to productivity with the loss of an employee. Underpaid positions can attract underperforming candidates, which could take another toll on employee morale, cascading turnover, or even student matriculation and success. If the aphorism "time is money" holds wisdom, when one side of the equation is unbalanced and can't be corrected, it's time to fix the other side. Since you're reading this article, I hope you have already run through countless options to pay folks a fair market value for their work, so let's focus on time. If your team's compensation cannot be competitive, focus on benefits within your control. Flexible schedules can make a significant impact on work/life balance, offer a gesture of trust and autonomy, and are more inclusive for employees who have time-sensitive responsibilities outside of work. Other opportunities to return an employee's time could be implementing "Summer Fridays" or other reduced workweek plans. At a minimum, always avoid scheduling "staff bonding" outside of work hours.

Step 3: Lean into flexibility (and away from outdated expectations).

In addition to time, institution leaders can also consider other opportunities to offer flexibility and autonomy, leading to improved staff morale. CUPA-HR coined a "two-thirds rule" when representing work-from-home preferences: two-thirds of higher ed employees would prefer to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule and believe that most of their job can be done remotely, but two-thirds of higher ed employees are required to work mostly or entirely on campus. Revisit policies or procedures that offer arbitrary rationale, and instead focus on the impact of innovative practice on the support of your team. This also includes flexibility on credentials -- if you have an entry-level role listed for under the ideal salary, maybe it's time to remove "Master's preferred."

Step 4: Work on inclusion, minimize inequity.

Employees from underrepresented backgrounds often face unique challenges to feel valued and included, often leading to low morale and low retention. The steps mentioned above can help by creating flexibility to accommodate varying needs, but there are always more ways to support diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Supplemental supports: Developing Employee Resource Groups (with meetings held during business hours) can provide an opportunity for community-building, and bias training can help workplace dynamics when introduced with inclusion practices.
• Policy & benefits adjustments: Floating holidays and flexible lunch breaks can be helpful to celebrate cultural days of importance and dietary needs such as fasting. Flexible sick and parental leave schedules allow employees to reserve appropriate time for the care of themselves and their families. Salary transparency in job postings can help respond to the gender pay gap.

Step 5: Lead with respect.

A 2022 report by Pew Research Center reported the heartbreaking statistic that feeling disrespected was the third most reported reason for employee resignation. Respect comes in many forms. Respect is when a leader asks someone on their campus for their opinion, especially for something within their area of expertise -- that is respect. Respect is knowing and following the boundaries set by a colleague for their work hours so as not to encroach upon their time with family. For more on respect's impact on retention, Nicole Butler, employee relations & leave specialist at the University of Baltimore, offered this wisdom:

"Despite the significance of official acknowledgments, the heart of staff retention often lies in simple gestures, such as asking about a colleague's weekend or offering a heartfelt 'good morning.' If organizations are looking for low-cost ways to boost their staff morale and retention, it's these everyday acts of genuine engagement that should be emphasized, taught, and practiced." And please remember -- if you find yourself in need of more ideas, return to step 1.

Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don't imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.

This article is republished from HigherEdJobs^® under a Creative Commons license. 

How to Make Your Non-Academic Writing Easier to Read

by Justin Zackal

Hard writing means easy reading. Higher education professionals can get this adage wrong when it comes to writing for audiences outside their academic discipline or functional area. You might think that describing work that is complicated shouldn't be simplified into short, punchy writing that is understood without much effort. Readers will think your work is too easy.

Resist this temptation to make your writing difficult to read.

Your goal for non-academic writing should be to make information accessible and useful to more people. Half of U.S. adults read at a ninth-grade level or below. Even if you're writing for an audience with an above-average reading level, people have come to expect writing that can be skimmed. Remember, no one has ever complained that something is too easy to understand.

Public communication, or writing for a lay audience, includes presentations, external reports, news articles, messages on your department website, or the daunting task of turning your 20-page CV into a 500-word biography.

The most effective writing will always be hard, but here are some tips to help make your academic or work-related writing more clear, concise, memorable, and easy for outside audiences to read:

Be Audience-Focused

First, put your audience's needs ahead of your own. The iron imperative of writing, according to Josh Bernoff, author of "Writing Without Bullsh*t," is to "treat the reader's time as more valuable than your own." This audience-focused approach can be applied in many ways in your writing, but a good start is to ask yourself these questions: 1.) What does the audience care about?, 2.) What do they want from you?, 3.) What do you want them to think about?, and, if applicable, 4.) What do you want them to do (also known as the call to action)?

There's no such thing as a "general audience," even if you're writing for social media, a news website, or other forms of public communication.

"Don't try to visualize the great mass audience," wrote William Zinsser, author of "On Writing Well." "There is no such audience -- every reader is a different person."

But you can focus on what readers have in common, and that is their shared expectation from the platform you are using (e.g., department webpage) and that you, the writer, can provide knowledge or information.

Instead of a "general audience," a better way to think of an audience might be non-academic, external, or outside your area of expertise. Then ask yourself what a reasonable, uninitiated reader would want to know, and write for that person. You'll find your audience is often a version of yourself before you came to know what you're about to share.

Now that you are mindful of your reader's interest, the next step is to value their time. You can do this by eliminating unnecessary words and phrases and also by adding value to their reading experience to make it more enjoyable and effortless.

Remove Weasel Words

Academics are prone to hedge in their writing, especially when it comes to pointing out the limits of their research. They add words to lessen the certainty in their claims to account for outliers or variables. Bernoff calls them "weasel words." These are adjectives, adverbs, or nouns that indicate quantity or intensity but lack precision: "most," "many," "few," or "rarely."

Omit weasel words when addressing non-academic audiences who are not going to test your claims with a randomized controlled trial. Be bold. Write something like "Our graduates get jobs."

This doesn't mean you should avoid caveats. Studies show that cautionary statements, such as "further research is needed to validate the results," still capture readers' interest. Acknowledging complexity helps the reader keep an open mind and improves the perceived credibility of the writer.

But if exceptions to your claims are not worth considering, Bernoff recommends making a direct statement. If exceptions are worth it, say so specifically, like "We have a 95% job placement rate."

Remove Windups

You might feel the need to set your reader up with introductory phrases or sentences before getting to your point. Some of these windups are needless intensifiers, such as "The fact of the matter is…," and some provide unnecessary context, like "In today's economy where families are living paycheck to paycheck…" Instead, deliver your message using short, declarative sentences.

Remove Jargon

Higher education professionals love using jargon to signal their expertise and sophistication. Jargon can be useful to insider audiences for communicating complex ideas in fewer words. But for external or non-academic audiences, jargon can alienate them as ignorant. It also violates the iron imperative of wasting the reader's time by leaving it up to them to look up acronyms or the meaning of fancy words like "pedagogy."

And don't just spell out acronyms for readers. Use simpler terms. "Extravehicular activity" is not an improvement on "EVA," but a "spacewalk" is.

Remove Excessive Details

You can go too far in avoiding jargon by explaining too much. This will bog down your message with excessive details. Don't be too concerned about whether or not an outsider audience "gets it." You also run the risk of being too preachy.

Andrew Le Peau, author of "Write Better," suggests a less is more approach that means trusting the reader.

"If we leave room for them to fill in the blanks we have left, they internalize our story or message more deeply," Le Peau wrote. "As a result, what we write sticks better."

Le Peau is quick to point out that summarizing is not the same as overdoing details. Writers should signal to readers where they are taking them.

And, fittingly, that takes us to what you should add.

Add Narrative Tension

Academic writing is difficult to read because it lacks narrative tension, which is the suspense that keeps the reader wanting to learn more. It's easy to read something when the writer is stoking curiosity by providing information in a sequential manner that anticipates what the reader wants to know next.

Typical research papers have sequence, but it's broken up into sections with clear boundaries that have different objectives: introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

You can add narrative tension with adequate transitions, pacing, and stories.

Add Transitions

Non-academic readers expect easy transitions and thread that takes them from one idea to the next. Storytellers refer to these transitions as "beats," which are the cause-and-effect rising actions within a story that create narrative tension. Academic writing uses transitions such as "moreover" and "furthermore" to thread claims together the way a storyteller would repeatedly say "and then."

Narrative tension is built through contrast and starting sentences with the word "but." You can occasionally use "however," "therefore," or "instead." But there's no stronger word than "but."

"I can't overstate how much easier it is for readers to process a sentence if you start with 'but' when you're shifting direction," Zinsser wrote. "It announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change."

Add Pacing

Another way to build narrative tension is changing the pace with the length of your sentences. Non-academic writing should have shorter sentences than academic writing. Reading comprehension decreases after just eight words. Since readers can be lulled to sleep with consecutive compound sentences, try following a long sentence with a short one. Here's one.

Narrative tension can also be achieved with a long sentence or paragraph that ends with a word or two that is emphasized by every writer's favorite punctuation mark: the colon.

Add Stories

Non-academic writing allows for more opportunities to tell stories. Don't be afraid to mention people by name or provide an interesting anecdote. Logic and the use of statistics are not as powerful as an emotional appeal through stories.

But storytelling isn't opinions, data, facts, or assertions, according to Miri Rodriguez, senior storyteller at Microsoft. It's the emotional transfer of information through character, plot, and conclusion. "When it's done right, dopamine fires and it prompts action," she said. And that's the ultimate goal of an audience-focused approach.

In Conclusion

The writing process is hard. There's more to it than adding four things and removing four others. But if you're writing in the service of your reader, everyone's time will be well spent.

Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don't imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.

This article is republished from HigherEdJobs^® under a Creative Commons license. 

In the face of death, destruction and displacement, beauty plays a vital role in Gaza

A Palestinian boy climbs on a painted wall in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City in 2015. AP Photo/Hatem Moussa

Stephanie Acker, Clark University

A small group of children in Gaza sit on a lavender and white blanket around a small tray of beverages, singing “Happy Birthday” to a young girl. Like kids her age around the world, she wears a sweatshirt with prints of Elsa and Anna, characters from “Frozen”; unlike most kids, she’s celebrating against a backdrop of a war that, according to United Nations estimates as of Nov. 10, 2023, has already killed more than 4,500 Palestinian children.

Celebrating anything might seem odd or even inappropriate in the face of so much devastation – and in the middle of what many are calling genocide.

However, in the research of refugees that I’ve conducted with interdisciplinary artist and scholar Devora Neumark, we’ve found that the urge to beautify one’s surroundings is widespread and profoundly beneficial – particularly so in the harrowing circumstances of loss, displacement and danger.

When people find themselves displaced from their homes, finding or creating beauty can be just as vital as food, water and shelter.

Gaza today

In the first six weeks of the Israel-Hamas war, 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have had to leave or have lost their homes.

Over half crowd into some type of emergency shelter, while others squeeze into relatives’ and neighbors’ homes. Food is scarce and increasingly expensive. According to the U.N., people are getting only 3% of the water they need each day. Much of the water they do have is polluted.

The rubble of the Yassin mosque, at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. Hatem Moussa/AP Photo

Crops are dying. Moms are not producing breast milk. People are getting sick. There are severe shortages of baby formula, as well as anesthesia for those needing surgery. The lack of space and overwhelming stress and fear add sleep to the list of things that are hard to come by.

These needs are urgent and essential. Without them people will die. Too many already have, while the conditions for those who live are horrific. They make it hard to see much else.

But the endless images of bombs and blood hide the story of the life, color and creativity that existed in Gaza. And they hide the beauty that persists despite war.

Beauty is often viewed as a luxury. But this isn’t the case. It’s the opposite.

A human impulse

Beauty has been a hallmark of every human civilization. Art philosopher Arthur Danto wrote that beauty, while optional for art, is not an option for life. Neuroscientists have shown that our brains are biologically wired for beauty: The neural mechanisms that influence attention and perception have adapted to notice color, form, proportion and pattern.

We’ve found that refugees worldwide, often with limited or no legal rights, still invest considerable effort in beautifying their surroundings. Whether they’re staying in shelters or makeshift apartments, they paint walls, hang pictures, add wallpaper and carpet the floors. They transform plain and seemingly temporary accommodations into personalized spaces – into semblances of home.

A decorative tarp added to a shelter at the Jeddah camp in Iraq. Sami Abdulla

Refugees rearrange spaces to share meals, celebrate holidays and host parties – to greet friends, hold dances and say goodbyes. They burn incense, serve tea in decorative porcelain and recite prayers on ornate mats. These simple acts carry profound significance, even amid challenges.

Urban studies scholars Layla Zibar, Nurhan Abujidi and Bruno de Meulder have told the story of Um Ibrahim, a Syrian refugee. When she was pregnant, she and her husband transformed the tent they were issued at a refugee camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq into home. They built brick walls. She planned paint colors and furniture. Around her, neighbors potted plants and set up chairs to create front porches on their temporary shelters to be able to gather with friends. They turned roads into places for celebrating special occasions. They painted a flag at the entrance of the camp.

They made a new home, but they also made it feel like it “used to in Syria.”

Creating hope in a hopeless place

The benefits of beauty are both practical and transformative, especially for refugees.

Many refugees experience trauma. All experience loss. Beautifying is a way to exert agency, grieve and heal.

Simple acts – rearranging a home, sweeping the floor or intentionally placing an object – allow refugees to infuse an area with their own identity and taste. They provide a way to cope when one has little control over anything else. Often, once someone is labeled a refugee, all their other identities are overshadowed or disappear.

Devora Neumark’s study of over 200 individuals who experienced forced displacement found that beautifying the home helped heal intergenerational trauma caused by forced displacement.

Neumark observed that as children participated in efforts to beautify their home, it seemed to positively influence their own coping mechanisms and well-being.

Furthermore, if children could imagine their homes prior to displacement through the stories and images shared with them – what scholar Marianne Hirsch calls “postmemories” – then the actions taken to beautify their present-day homes could be transformative. They served as a bridge connecting the past with the present and facilitated the ongoing process of healing and preserving identity.

Ultimately, making a space feel more comfortable, secure and personalized is a tangible expression of hope for a future.

Cultivating love and life

Even prior to the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Palestinians lived in the face of immense injustice and violence.

Our Palestinian research partner, who must remain anonymous for security reasons, described that their home in the refugee camp feels like living in jail, but that they still make it a beautiful place to live.

Prior to the start of the latest war, neighborhoods featured striking murals and embellished walls. Intricate mosaics adorned buildings, and paint livened the facades of homes. Neighbors would gather to pray, putting on new clothes, spraying perfume and burning incense to prepare for the rituals. As Christmas approached, Palestinian Christians, along with some Muslims, would decorate their homes. Both faiths would gather for annual tree lightings.

Palestinians sit down for a meal of quail meat in a home at a refugee camp in Gaza in November 2020. Mohammed Talatene/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

Geographer David Marshall described how youth living in a Palestinian refugee camp used beauty to focus on the positives in their environment and dream about a future beyond their camp – and the walls that constrained their lives.

In our community-based storytelling project in a Palestinian refugee camp this past summer, we witnessed the commitment to making homes beautiful in the thriving gardens that were created within very crowded quarters. Neighbors shared how their gardens calm them, provide a place to gather with friends and serve as a reminder of fields they once tended.

In her 2021 research, Corinne Van Emmerick, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, described Fatena, a Palestinian who was living in a refugee camp. She had flowers on everything – the roof, walls and windowsills. They were expensive and needed “lots of love.” But, Fatena added, they gave her “love back.”

A form of resistance and resilience

One Guinean refugee interviewed as part of Neumark’s study said, “As refugees we lose our sense of beauty, and when that happens, we lose our sense of everything, of life itself.”

If the opposite of this is true, then clearly beauty cannot be thought of as superficial or an afterthought. One study of Bosnian refugees found that their ability to notice beauty was a sign of improved mental health.

Creating, witnessing and experiencing beauty offers a connection to the familiar, works to preserve cultural identity and fosters belonging.

It’s what ensures that a little girl in Gaza not only has her birthday celebrated, but that it is also made as beautiful as possible.

A Palestinian girl celebrates in front of a house destroyed by Israeli shelling during the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Devora Neumark, an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose trauma-informed work explores the intersections between a home beautification and the human experience in the context of displacement, contributed to writing this article.

Stephanie Acker, Visiting Scholar of International Development, Community and Environment, Clark University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Sweeten the Holiday Season with Deliciously Creamy Desserts

Once the table is cleared and gifts are put away, it’s often time for one of the favorite moments of holiday gatherings. The taste (and smell) of those divine desserts you may only make once a year is enough to keep guests hungry even after the main course.

Put a new staple on holiday menus for years to come with this Cran-Raspberry Quinoa Pudding Trifle that combines fresh raspberries, vibrant cranberry sauce, orange juice and orange zest for a unique dessert. Ready in 30 minutes, it can be an easy way to impress everyone at the table with a creamy pudding base inspired by favorite winter flavors.

As a tasty treat that’s ideal for just about any occasion, this take on rice pudding is made using Success Boil-in-Bag Tri-Color Quinoa, which offers a heat-safe, BPA-free and FDA-approved bag and is easily prepared in just 10 minutes. Its light, nutty flavor and versatility creates a pudding that’s perfect for a wide range of pairings, from satisfying chocoholics or pumpkin-spice fanatics to whipping up a sweet, simple dessert.

For a comforting dish full of familiar cold-weather flavors, serve Pumpkin Pecan Rice Pudding Bars. Pumpkin-spice fanatics can enjoy their favorite ingredient mixed into a rice pudding base sweetened with coconut milk, brown sugar, vanilla extract, whipping cream and maple syrup.

This holiday-inspired dessert relies on the fluffiness of Success Boil-in-Bag White Rice as a high-quality, precooked solution. The boil-in-bag rice is quick and easy with no measuring and no mess, and it’s ready in 10 minutes to make seasonal recipes a cinch.

Find more sweet holiday recipe inspiration at SuccessRice.com.

Cran-Raspberry Quinoa Pudding Truffle

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Servings: 6

Quinoa Pudding:

• 2 bags Success Tri-Color Quinoa
• 4 cups almond milk
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Creamy Yogurt Layer:

• 2 cups plain Greek yogurt
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Cran-Raspberry Layer:

• 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 cups fresh raspberries

• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 2 cups gluten-free vanilla cookies, chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries

1. To make quinoa pudding: Prepare quinoa according to package directions, substituting almond milk for water. Drain, reserving almond milk.
2. Remove quinoa from bags and stir into almond milk in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in honey, vanilla and cinnamon. Bring to simmer. Cook, stirring constantly, 5-8 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Refrigerate 45-60 minutes, or until well chilled.
3. To make creamy yogurt layer: In large bowl, stir yogurt, honey and vanilla. In separate bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Stir whipped cream into yogurt mixture until blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.
4. To make cran-raspberry layer: In medium bowl, stir cranberry sauce, orange juice and orange zest. Gently fold in raspberries.
5. To assemble: In 10-cup trifle dish, layer 1/3 quinoa mixture, 2 tablespoons almonds, 1/3 cran-raspberry mixture, 1/3 vanilla cookies and 1/3 yogurt mixture. Repeat layers twice. Garnish with remaining raspberries and almonds.

Pumpkin Pecan Rice Pudding Bars

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Servings: 4-6

• 1 bag Success White Rice
• 1 cup pecans
• 4 cups coconut milk
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Prepare rice according to package directions. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread pecans on baking sheet and toast 8-10 minutes. Cool then chop.
2. In large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Slowly add about 1/2 cup hot liquid to eggs and beat well. Stir egg mixture back into saucepan and cook over medium-high heat 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cooked rice, vanilla and pecans.
3. Pour mixture into greased 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes, or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.
4. Whip heavy cream to soft peaks then add maple syrup and continue beating until peaks form. Serve with warm pudding.

Tip: For sweeter pudding, increase brown sugar to 1 1/2 cups.

 

SOURCE:
Success Rice

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Trendy Takes on Kitchen and Bath Design

Designing a new home, remodeling your own or simply rethinking aesthetics and decor all require a little imagination and a lot of inspiration. A quick online search brings up hundreds if not thousands of thoughtful ways to make your kitchen or bathroom match your desired style from modern to traditional or anything in between.

All those results can be slightly overwhelming, however. Rather than having a go at it alone, rely on the professionals to guide you toward looks that are all the rage and fit a variety of budgets. Consider these on-trend design ideas from the kitchen and bathroom experts at Wellborn Cabinet, whose whole-home solutions double as functional and beautiful.

Kitchen Trends

Let it Flow: Open concepts have become quite common as it allows the kitchen to feel like one large room where loved ones and guests can intermingle as opposed to an enclosed space. This flowing openness lends continuous visibility to the area ranging from the (seemingly) always active kitchen to gathering spaces in the dining and living rooms. An open floor plan also helps connect design aesthetics from each room to the next.

Opt for Concealed Storage: Pots, pans, knives and all your favorite kitchen gadgets need hidden somewhere. Rather than taking up valuable pantry space, turn to a stylish storage solution from Wellborn Cabinet’s line of pullout cabinets that give you the room you need. With options ranging from pullout peg boards to sleek tray dividers, these clever contraptions can help you stay organized while making functionality beautiful.

Incorporate Smart Tech: Trends aren’t exclusively about aesthetics – practicality via technology is equally important for those looking to update their kitchens to the 21st century. Devices like smart refrigerators that allow you to take inventory from an app, smart lighting that brightens and dims to save on electricity and voice assistants that help you keep track of recipes are all trendy paths toward a top-of-the-line kitchen.

Bring in Organic Touches: Organic modern is in, which means adding organic touches using natural materials like stone and wood in your cabinets, countertops, flooring and more. Achieve a warm vibe with these organic elements paired with a neutral color palette (soft whites and earthy tones) and natural light.

Bathroom Trends

Add Accents that Pop: Obvious accents like bold pops of color and unique patterns come to mind, but you can also make your bathroom stand out by experimenting with materials, accessories and shapes. Think eye-catching cabinet hardware, fun mirror shapes and open-shelf decor that grabs attention without overdoing it.

Show Off Wood Vanities: As an important area you’ll use to get ready for each day, vanities should be purposeful and practical but can also brandish your personal style. Types and sizes may vary but one look seeing an upward trend, according to Wellborn Cabinet’s design experts, is the use of natural tones and textures like woodgrain to complement the rise in popularity of warm colors in recent years.

Go for Decorative Lighting: The same tired light fixtures in bathrooms can feel drab and dreary. Evaluate the amount of natural light available (often at a premium in bathrooms) and decide if you can go more subdued or need to effectively and efficiently illuminate the area. Bell-shaped, wall-mounted sconces next to mirrors are in vogue, as are glass globes to complement ample natural light. For a true touch of modern flair, consider dramatic accent lighting like underlights on a floating vanity that do double duty as a convenient nightlight.

Make it Spa-Like: Lavish luxury is the goal with a spa-like bathroom in the comfort of home. Organic materials, natural light, traditional decor and, maybe most importantly, an oversized soaking tub are at the core of this look. While it may sound counterintuitive, you can actually create your own oasis with some simple, budget-friendly aesthetics. The first step for many is to incorporate more storage using sleek cabinets, shelves and wall-mounted hooks to achieve a decluttered look. Next, simply replace your old showerhead and faucet with spa lookalikes and stock up on plush, fluffy towels for that luxurious appearance without a complete remodel.

Find more design inspiration by visiting Wellborn.com.

4 Alternative Uses for Kitchen Cabinets

If you love the look of beautiful kitchen cabinets and appreciate their functionality, try incorporating them throughout the house with these ideas.

• Home Office – As working from home continues to rise in popularity, you might need that extra storage space around or above your desk whether it’s in a full-blown office or a nook in the den.
• Laundry Room – Uppers and lowers alike can help you stow away detergents, cleaning products, laundry baskets and even last season’s wardrobe.
• Mud Room – All those shoes and jackets need space somewhere, and kitchen cabinets in the mudroom can help you contain the mess.
• Garage – Whether your garage serves as a secondary entertainment area, home gym or simply storage for outdoor tools and toys, cabinets allow you to organize (and hide) that equipment.

 

SOURCE:
Wellborn Cabinet