A University of Michigan writing instructor is featured in The New Yorker this week after writing a guest column on how he uses the caption contest in his writing classes at U-M.
Cody Walker, U-M writing instructor and guest essayist for The New Yorker.
From: The University of Michigan
Cody Walker won The New Yorker's caption contest one week early in 2010, when he also wrote an essay about how winning was "the thing I most want."
Robert Mankuff, cartoon editor and writer of the magazine's Cartoon Bureau column, recently checked back with Walker.
"I thought Cody might have more to say about the intersection of good caption writing and writing in general, so I’ve asked him to say more," wrote Mankuff.
Here's a portion of what Walker had to say:
As I’ve now preached to countless students (first in Seattle and, more recently, in Ann Arbor), working on captions will make you a better writer.
Inexperienced writers sometimes imagine that good writing comes from good ideas. But that’s not right: good writing comes from good sentences.
Readers of The New Yorker are responding to the column: On Friday, it was the 2nd most-read story on the magazine's website and the 3rd most-emailed.