Charting a Course for our Professional Writing
BJ Armstrong encourages military personnel to write to move the military profession forward and to improve military service and our nation’s security.
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Tag: writing
Words for War: Common Mistakes in Writing About Human Conflict
Image courtesy of Vanity Fair; photo illustration by Stephen Doyle. By Major Matt Cavanaugh Words and war are connected deeply and in ways that have shaped human history. Land armies secured the Rosetta Stone, which enabled...
Read MoreReading Perception and Writing Intent
By Kenneth Upsall (Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Reserve)
In recent readings I’ve been re-hashing a common theme in written work; perception and intent. Authors are, by necessity, constantly placing their own emphasis on the subject matter they write and drawing their own conclusions. A great contemporary example is President Obama’s speech at the recent West Point Commencement. On Foreignpolicy.com alone there were several different takes on this address. Two examples are here and here. If you were researching this speech for future academic endeavors it would be possible to draw two completely different conclusions from each of these sources, located in the same place. On a website like Foreign Policy, much like War Council, the goal is to create and perpetuate debate. Contributors are prone to grenade throwing in order to spark discussion about a topic, and a presidential address is certainly excellent fodder for such an exercise.
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