Whether putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, writing clarifies and improves ideas while also allowing those thoughts to be shared with others. But the idea of publishing one’s thoughts can be intimidating. Why does it seem so hard to get thoughts down on paper? And how do you approach an editor? How do you even get started? Zach Griffiths and Theo Lipsky are in the studio to explain why you absolutely should share your ideas more widely. They join our Editor-in-Chief, JP Clark, to discuss publishing for professional purposes and the Chief of Staff of the Army’s (CSA) Harding Project an effort to renew professional publications, strengthen the profession, and ultimately enhance the warfighting capability of the U.S. Army.
The design of social media platforms is such that don’t induce quality thought…they’re meant to retain user attention. There are certain emotions that best sustain user attention and they’re not the emotions that one associates with meaningful dialogue. They are anger, and they’re shock and they are betrayal and it perverts dialogue.
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Zachary Griffiths directs the Harding Project to renew professional military writing. A career Special Forces officer, Zach has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, served on the National Security Council as a White House Fellow, and taught American Politics in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point.
Theo Lipsky is a U.S. Army Captain. He has served in Stryker and airborne units in Washington State and Germany. He currently studies at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs ahead of a teaching assignment in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. While a student he has assisted with the Harding Project.
JP Clark is an associate professor of military strategy teaching in the Basic Strategic Art Program. He served in the army for twenty-six years as an armor officer and strategist. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in history from Duke University, an M.S.S. from the Army War College, and a B.S. in Russian and German from West Point. He is the author of Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917 (Harvard, 2017). He is currently working on a history of U.S. military strategy in the Pacific from 1898 to 1941 that is under contract with the University Press of Kansas. He is the 3rd Editor-in-Chief of War Room. Follow him on Twitter @JPClark97.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
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