Portfolio

Below are references to works written in a variety of styles, including:

  • educational content
  • technical writing
  • entertainment
  • consumer website content
  • accessible, popularised academic content
  • professional, academic-style essay.

The Essay: An introduction to non-fiction writing

This online course is designed for a range of non-fiction writing, including:

  • personal essays
  • persuasive essays
  • academic essays
  • reviews
  • whitepapers.

By design, the course takes a conversational tone and is a mixture of “lecture”, external readings, and a variety of hands-on, marked activities.

This and the Critical Thinking course (below), are meant to also demonstrate that I can use Moodle, specifically, or Content Management Systems / Learning Management Systems, in general.

Critical Thinking: An introduction to investigations and recommendations

In this course we develop a robust and versatile system for creating arguments to the best explanation. If you’re interested in policy-making, legal arguments, troubleshooting and diagnosis, or persuasive pursuits of any kind, this course will help improve your thinking and communication skills. (A version of this course was run online at University of Auckland in 2017. Parts of it remain in the curriculum.)

Switch to Linux

Just another WordPress site. Here I share some experiences with setting up Linux on laptops, primarily for business and educational purposes. I focus on three main areas: hardware, software, and troubleshooting. The target audience is the user who simply wants to get on with things, relatively free of fuss.

Recipes for Clarke

Unpretentious cooking with a humorous edge. Good food. No fuss.

Introduction to Numbers Game – Numberama

DaddingFullTime

The archives of the original DaddingFullTime.com, plus new material since 2015.

Cape Reinga and the Curvature of the Earth

An account of a journey to the tip of New Zealand, originally appearing in JAAM: Just Another Art Movement, vol. 32.

Thinking

A book that investigates the concepts of thinking, meaning, and philosophy, with an emphasis on the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Gilbert Ryle.

On Writing

A collection of remarks on writing that inspired the Essay course. Occasionally updated.

On Crafting Introductory Remarks: Developing a Synthetic Conception of Critical Thinking

This article argues that philosophy instructors in general, and critical thinking instructors in particular, profit from developing concise preparatory remarks for introductory classes. To this end, it argues for two simple, but effective, introductory descriptions of philosophy: (1) talking about how we do what we do and why we do what we do, and (2) critical thinking applied to writing.

Sorrell, B. (2015), On Crafting Introductory Remarks: Developing a Synthetic Conception of Critical Thinking. Metaphilosophy, 46: 127–140. doi:10.1111/meta.12117

Consciousness of an External World

An analysis of G.E. Moore’s “Proof of an External World”, arguing in favour of its success, and with an emphasis on its connection to Kant’s attempts to create his own proof.

Daily Plate of Crazy

Contributor to Parenting / Dads, including:

KiwiFamilies.co.nz

Essays on parenting as an expat in New Zealand.