The Grey Lit Caf‪é‬ Anthony Haynes

One question we explore on this podcast is that of antecedents: what came before podcasts?

This episode tells the wonderfully rich history of chautauquas - an enterprising means of bringing entertainment and informal education to small-town America. Chautauquas can be thought of as a kind of predigital Spotify.

Reference

James R. Schultz, The romance of small-town chautauquas (Univ. of Missouri Press, 2002)

Further listening

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might particularly enjoy the following:


Where do podcasts come from? Letters as an antecedentHow to get blogging and stay bloggingCredits


Sound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the show
About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

We provide
consultancy mentoring editing and writing training and work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).

To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.

Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is the third of our series on the relationship between letters and grey literature. 

In the first, we made the case, using the case of the correspondence of communications theorist I.A. Richards, for considering letters as a form of grey literature. In the second, using the case of correspondence between George Lyttleton and Rupert Hart-Davis, we explore the idea of letters as an antecedent of podcasts.

Now we consider what implications the idea of counting letters as a genre of grey literature has for the way we define grey literature.

We discuss various definitions of #greylit, notably those related to publishers, genres, and distribution channels. We argue that such definitions are problematic and that consideration of letters helps to highlight several faultlines.

Overall, the most established definitions of grey literature need overhauling.

Further listening

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might particularly enjoy the following:


But what about letters: their scholarly use as grey literatureWhere do podcasts come from?Why we need to talk about silver literatureCredits


Sound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the show
About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

We provide
consultancy mentoring editing and writing training and work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).

To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.

Anthony Haynes writes: Cultural forms and communicative genres tend not to emerge from a vacuum: they tend to emerge from existing forms. In the case of podcasts, obvious candidates include lectures, essays, sermons, and radio interviews.

And, we suggest here, letters.

In this, the second of a series of three episodes devoted to the topics of letters,  we examine the resemblance between podcasting and letters.

Using as a case study the literary correspondence between George Lyttleton and Rupert Hart-Davis, we explore the significance of various aspects of content and form, ranging from voice and types of orality to friendship and disagreement.

Reference

The Lyttleton Hart-Davis letters were published in six volumes by John Murray (1978-84).


Further listening

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might particularly enjoy the following:


But what about letters: their scholarly use as grey literatureOnline lecturing, with Bart HallmarkCredits


Sound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the show
About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

We provide
consultancy mentoring editing and writing training and work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).

To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.

Grey literature covers a multitude of genres - for example, reports, white papers, preprints, and newsletters. But what about letters?

Letters are not usually listed amongst grey literature forms, but this episode puts the case for why letters should sometimes be considered as grey literature.

Reflecting on the letters of literary theorist I.A. Richards, the episode both examines the advantages of considering letters in this light and explores issues and implications that arise from this way of thinking.

References and links

GreyNet International's list of document types is here: https://thegreylitcafe.buzzsprout.com/1936705/13201726-understanding-preprints-with-jonny-coates.

Selected letters of I.A. Richards, edited by John Constable (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990).


Further listening

If you enjoyed listening to this episode , you might also enjoy the following episodes:
Consuming grey literature: a reader's perspectiveThe business of professional writingUnderstanding preprints, with Jonny Coates
Credits
Sound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the show
About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

We provide
consultancy mentoring editing and writing training and work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).

To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.

Overwriting - producing a draft that exceeds your word (or page) limit - is an extremely common problem amongst writers in science, research, and professional areas.

In this episode, Engy Moussa interviews Anthony Haynes. They examine why this problem arises, what harm it does, and, crucially, how to overcome the problem.

The discussion outlines practical solutions, with an emphasis on how to prevent the problem from arising. Topics include the psychology of writing and techniques for planning, reviewing, and editing.

Further listening

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. You might also enjoy:
Wasted words: our antidote to verbosityGrey literature workflows: the surprising role of pen & paperDon't fall in love with your work: Sabuhi Essa on creative processesCredits
Sound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the show
About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

We provide
consultancy mentoring editing and writing training and work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).

To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.

Anthony Haynes writes: On The Grey Lit Café we frequently explore grey literature by genre. Here we extend our coverage to the genre of case studies.

To guide us, we interview Dr Farrah Arif, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull. 

Farrah takes us on an expert, and enthusiastic, tour of the genre, taking in:
how case studies work and what they are used forthe attraction of case studies and their benefitswhat to do when writing cases - and what not to dohow to develop as an author of case studiesFurther listening

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might find the following of interest:
The art of pitching, with Dr Yuxia ZouOnline lecturing, with Dr Bart HallmarkHow meetings work, with Dr Carrie GoucherReferences and links

Shawn Callahan, Putting stories to work (Pepperberg Press), reviewed on our podcast here: https://thegreylitcafe.buzzsprout.com/1936705/13793500-review-putting-stories-to-work-by-shawn-callahan.

Ken Jones, Designing your own simulations (Methuen, 1985).

David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: experience as the source of learning and development (Prentice Hall, Inc., Pearson Education, 1983)
Credits
Sound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the show
Support the show
About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

We provide
consultancy mentoring editing and writing training and work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).

To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.