Newsletter December 2021
Hello, Fellow Freundin der Kastanie!
December – a time to pause, recharge your batteries, review the year. What have you achieved this year? Where do you still want to go? Which big and small dreams have you realized? What do you need for this? How exhausting will it be? What will it cost you?
This month we want to share the following lovely chestnuts with you:
1. The Little Book of Research Writing (Varanya Chaubey, 2013)
Struggling with structuring your research paper? Don’t know how to start? If you love design and simplicity as much as we do, this book might be of great help to you. On 178 pages this book helps you overcome the first challenge of scientific writing: how to structure a mass of complex information into one coherent whole. The author presents a three layer approach to tackle the writing process of a research paper by applying Barbara Minto’s pyramid principle: First, make your point and formulate your argument, then accumulate information to buttress your argument and finally, organize your findings into paragraphs. For many, Varanya Chaubey’s book has transformed the daunting experience of writing a research paper into a clear, rewarding and even fun process.
2. Rigo und Rosa (Lorenz Pauli und Kathrin Schärer, 2016)
http://www.atlantisverlag.ch/lorenz-pauli-und-kathrin-schaerer-rigo-und-rosa/
Rigo is a Persian leopard, that really existed. He lived in the Bern Zoo from 1997 to 2010. Rosa is a tiny, often scared mouse. Rigo and Rosa are both animal philosophers and slowly become friends in this book. In 28 stories Rigo and Rosa develop ideas about trust, boredom, truth and their unusual friendship. Asking questions, telling stories, listening, empathizing, reflecting, learning, looking at things differently, opening up. Expanding your horizons by just sending your mind on a journey. That’s what this wonderfully witty book is all about. You can also read it to your kids at bedtime. Or let your husband read it to you.
3. What is the Bechdel test? (Allison Bechdel, 1985)
In the 1980s cartoonist Allison Bechdel observed a frustrating trend in movies: most films only have one female character in them and even if there were multiple women in a film, their storylines almost always revolved around men. She came up with three basic questions to measure the representation of women in popular culture: 1. Are there at least two women in the film? 2. Do they talk to each other? 3. Do they talk about something else beside a man?
The Bechdel test seeks to call attention to the underrepresentation and gender inequality of women in films. Even though Bechdel’s idea is almost 30 years old, it is still timely and highly relevant. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that in 2020 only 36% percent of speaking roles were filled by women in Top Grossing U.S. Films.
Want to receive our newsletter via email? Sign up at the bottom of this page (it is free).
Recommended Posts
