My reading today has been this article on brainpickings.org about E.B. White’s view on the role and responsibilities of the writer.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/04/17/e-b-white-paris-review-interview/
As academic writers this is an important aspect of our work, whether we are writing a thesis, a journal article, a blog or Tweeting. This 1969 quote from E.G. White is informative for all of us in the web age:
‘A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his [her] fancy, stirs his [her] heart, and unlimbers his [her] typewriter.
I feel no obligation to deal with politics. I do feel a responsibility to society because of going into print: a writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He [She] should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.
A question to ask ourselves are have I REALLY considered who I am writing for and why?
