When looking at the state of writing on war and the military, I’ve noticed positive blips, but oftentimes in ways that lie in contrast to what we’ve stood for in MWG: conversations that lessen one or more forms of writing, monologues instead of conversations, and didacticism that turns people away from understanding these subjects which occupy an increasing space on your evening cable news broadcast.
MWG is proud to partner with Small Wars Journal on a writing contest focused on tactical and operational lessons encountered in small wars and counterinsurgency efforts.
The reality is there are a number of things military authors do which are sort of embarrassing from an editor’s perspective. Military personnel hold themselves up as professionals, but occasionally behave like inexperienced freshman undergraduates when it comes time to submit an article for publication.
One of the most intimidating things about publishing a professional contribution is fear the author will get something wrong, or embarrass themselves through small mistakes. The reality is a typo, an improperly used italics formatting, or a misspelled name is not something most editors care about. If the problems are repeated and glaring, that is different, but a couple of small mistakes are not very important.
Our educational policies focus on engineering and technical study, and rarely encourage us to learn how to communicate in writing beyond a bare minimum. In our staff positions we use briefing slides and other communication methods which inspire partial thoughts, quick hits, and incomplete sentences and no concept of paragraph structure or style.
In this episode of the Pen and the Sword, Adin is joined by John DeRosa of George Mason University and MSG Shaikh of the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group.
Today, MWG was awarded the Carlton Sherwood Media Award by Blinded American Veterans Foundation at the U.S. House of Representatives.
Today, Adin Dobkin, MWG Communications Director, recalled some of the lessons learned from MWG’s recent workshop that took place at Defense Entrepreneurs Forum’s DEF[x]DC conference for the Atlantic Council.
Poetry, I recognize, isn’t every soldier’s three cups of tea. Ever since I entertained my platoon mates with Prince Harry’s inspiring St. Crispin’s Day speech, however, I’ve enjoyed sneaking poetry into the conversation. Perhaps more soldiers would appreciate poetry, were they to realize the inherent poetics of military life.
In this episode of The Pen and the Sword, Adin is joined by Nathan Finney, a US Army Officer, and Angry Staff Officer, an Army historian.