On Episode 583 of Teaching in Higher Ed, I welcome back James M. Lang, Professor of Practice at the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Notre Dame and acclaimed author of several influential books, including Small Teaching, Distracted, and his latest, Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience. Jim joins me to explore how educators can leverage their classroom strengths—curiosity, clarity, and care—in their writing to reach broader audiences beyond academia.

We discuss how great nonfiction writing, like great teaching, is driven by asking deep questions, being good company for your readers, and drawing on personal stories. Jim shares stories from his own journey and influences such as Edith Hamilton, who transitioned from teaching to bestselling writing, and explores the evolving role of AI as a generative tool for research and editing (while drawing clear boundaries for its use). We also talk about the challenges of building a platform as an academic writer, the power of community in collaborative writing and editing, and effective strategies for the often daunting process of revision. Throughout, Jim invites us to write (and teach) in ways that are human, accessible, and transformative for learners and readers alike.

Resources from the episode:

• Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience by James M. Lang
• Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It by James M. Lang
• Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning by James M. Lang
• Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty by James M. Lang
• The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
• The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
• How Can Educators Teach Critical Thinking? by Daniel T. Willingham (American Educator)
• James M. Lang’s official website
• Susan Orlean’s official website
• Scrivener, a popular writing and revision tool for long-form projects
• The Opposite of Cheating from the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Series (University of Oklahoma Press)
• University of Oklahoma Press – Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed series
• Christine Tulley
• The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, by Chris Hayes
• Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, by Maryanne Wolf

Episode topics:

• Write Like You Teach: Bridging Teaching and Writing
• Edith Hamilton and the Teacher-to-Author Journey
• Centering Questions in Teaching and Writing
• Sparking Curiosity Over Transmitting Answers
• Being Good Company for Readers and Students
• Authenticity and Storytelling in Nonfiction
• Leveraging Generative AI in the Writing Process
• Demystifying Platform Building for Educators
• Community and Collaboration in Publishing
• Revision Strategies: Letting Go and Rearranging

Discussion questions:

1. Jim mentions the concept of being "good company" for your reader, drawing upon storytelling, humor, and personal revelation. Why do you think this is important for nonfiction writers or educators, and can you think of an example where this made a difference for you as a reader or student?
2. The discussion touches on the evolving role of AI in the writing process. What are your thoughts on using AI tools in generating ideas, conducting research, or editing? Where do you see the limits and possibilities?
3. James Lang offers advice about "building a platform" to share educational work. If someone was new to this, what small steps do you think would be manageable for getting started, and why might those be valuable?
4. The episode highlights the importance of supporting others through commenting, sharing resources, or collaborating. How does engaging with others’ work or contributing to a scholarly community shape your own identity as a writer or teacher?
5. Revision emerges as a key theme, including letting go of beloved phrases or reorganizing an essay’s structure. How do you approach revision in your work, and what strategies have worked or not worked for you?

Related Episodes

Browse all the past times that James Lang has been a guest on Teaching in Higher Ed, including when he shared an essay he had written and about his recovery from a stroke, the time he spoke about the second edition of Small Teaching, his discussion of why students are distracted today and what we might do about it, and finally the time he interviewed Ken Bain for the podcast.

Recommended

We recently revised the way we ask students for feedback about their experiences of teaching at my university. I’ve also been reminding faculty that student input is just one lens we might use in our attempts to improve our teaching effectiveness. Stephen Brookfield’s Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher has been great to revisit during this season.

He invites us to consider the following:

1. Our own experience (what we bring as a learner and teacher)
2. Students’ perceptions (what they experience)
3. Colleagues’ views (what peers notice in our teaching)
4. Scholarly literature (what research offers as context and evidence)

Together, these lenses help uncover assumptions and patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Quotable Words

In revisiting Episode 146 when James Lang interviewed Ken Bain, I came across these powerful words from Bain:

Teach less better.

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Read

My book: The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide, provides approaches to help you turn your intentions into action. I also write an advice column for EdSurge: Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak

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Disclosures

Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

Notice: Portions of these weekly updates are produced using CastMagic.io, which uses AI to produce a draft of the transcript, identify key quotes, highlight themes, etc.