Books
Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective
By exploring and explaining the perceptive patterns that readers of English follow in their interpretive process, this 400-page rhetoric approaches the task of teaching writing from the perspective of readers. As a result, everyone can learn how to write with conscious knowledge of the reader’s expectations. Despite its subtitle, which refers to teaching this approach, this book is by no means for teachers only. Any adult for whom writing is a personal or professional necessity will find their understanding of how English functions permanently transformed.
By exploring and explaining the perceptive patterns that readers of English follow in their interpretive process, this 400-page rhetoric approaches the task of teaching writing from the perspective of readers. As a result, everyone can learn how to write with conscious knowledge of the reader’s expectations. Despite its subtitle, which refers to teaching this approach, this book is by no means for teachers only. Any adult for whom writing is a personal or professional necessity will find their understanding of how English functions permanently transformed.
The Sense of Structure
This book transforms the information of the longer book into a 280-page textbook. But, in addition, there is a long chapter that — perhaps for the first time ever — deals with punctuation not from the demands of Society but from the actual practice of readers. Consult Dr. Gopen for a teacher's manual, especially helpful for dealing with his rather unusual exercises.
This book transforms the information of the longer book into a 280-page textbook. But, in addition, there is a long chapter that — perhaps for the first time ever — deals with punctuation not from the demands of Society but from the actual practice of readers. Consult Dr. Gopen for a teacher's manual, especially helpful for dealing with his rather unusual exercises.
Gopen’s Reader Expectation Approach to the English Language: A New Tweetment
For those already familiar with Gopen's new Approach, this book offers 140 proverb-like distillations of many of his major insights. The publisher of this volume publishes books exclusively made up of 140 tweets, each of 140 characters. This book is therefore a good way of recalling quickly that which you have previously read at much greater length.
For those already familiar with Gopen's new Approach, this book offers 140 proverb-like distillations of many of his major insights. The publisher of this volume publishes books exclusively made up of 140 tweets, each of 140 characters. This book is therefore a good way of recalling quickly that which you have previously read at much greater length.
Writing from a Legal Perspective
Dr. Gopen’s first book (1980), written as a text for an advanced undergraduate writing course for pre-Law students. Published two years before he began decades of work on his Reader Expectation Approach, it includes seeds of his future thoughts - and a few thoughts he would gladly at this point retract.
Dr. Gopen’s first book (1980), written as a text for an advanced undergraduate writing course for pre-Law students. Published two years before he began decades of work on his Reader Expectation Approach, it includes seeds of his future thoughts - and a few thoughts he would gladly at this point retract.
Robert Henryson's Moral Fables of Aesop (translated from 15th century Middle Scots)
George Gopen has created a critical edition and prose translation of the wonderful Moral Fables of Aesop, originally written in Middle Scots by legally trained English teacher Robert Henryson circa 1500. Full of humor and biting attacks on the moral failings of Scotland’s power classes, this Henryson work is still a delight to read. In the introduction, Dr. Gopen uncovers a stunning significance to the structure of the work, based on hidden symmetries and the Fibonacci Series. Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, in the acknowledgments of his poetic translation of Henryson, thanks esteemed poet Dennis O’Driscoll “for providing me with George D. Gopen’s helpful prose translations of Moral Fables at a moment when I might have been inclined to give up on the job.”
George Gopen has created a critical edition and prose translation of the wonderful Moral Fables of Aesop, originally written in Middle Scots by legally trained English teacher Robert Henryson circa 1500. Full of humor and biting attacks on the moral failings of Scotland’s power classes, this Henryson work is still a delight to read. In the introduction, Dr. Gopen uncovers a stunning significance to the structure of the work, based on hidden symmetries and the Fibonacci Series. Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, in the acknowledgments of his poetic translation of Henryson, thanks esteemed poet Dennis O’Driscoll “for providing me with George D. Gopen’s helpful prose translations of Moral Fables at a moment when I might have been inclined to give up on the job.”
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Audiobook: George Gopen narrating Peter Sterling's What is Health?: Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design
In 2023, Dr. Gopen was asked by the eminent and brilliant neuroscientist Peter Sterling to produce narration for his stunning 400-million-year history of the development of the brain. It offers an entirely new perspective on the concepts of health and illness. The following paragraphs are the description of the book, written by its publishers. Homo sapiens emerged as a species about 200,000 years ago and soon—with fire, simple tools, and an egalitarian social system — we inhabited every continent. But now our infinitely elaborated tools and our highly non-egalitarian social system threaten sustainability. Many at the bottom lose the desire to live, committing suicide or succumbing to drugs, alcohol, and obesity. As women gain education and contraception, they lose the desire to reproduce, and our species' total fertility plummets toward levels far below replacement. What is Health? explains from the bottom up — molecules to society — how we reached this point. The individual organism was designed by natural selection to maximize performance for a given energy cost. Our brain predicts what will be needed and controls metabolism, physiology, and behavior to deliver just enough, just in time (allostasis). By preventing errors, rather than correcting them, energy is saved. Predictive regulation requires learning governed by an optimal rule that rewards each positive surprise with a pulse of dopamine (experienced as a pulse of satisfaction) that encourages the behavior. But now obtaining food and comfort without surprise, we are deprived of the small rewards upon which rest the whole edifice of behavioral regulation and mood. Lacking frequent pulses, we grow restless and seek new sources via consumption: more food and more drugs that produce great surges of dopamine. But the next surprise must be more — to which our systems adapt by reducing their sensitivities — which drives us into spiraling addictions. Standard medicine treats addictions by blocking reward circuits. But this strategy prevents satisfaction and deepens despair. Standard economics promotes “growth” for more “jobs”. But “jobs” devoid of challenge and social rewards drive despair. To restore health, we must re-expand opportunities for small satisfactions and thereby rescue the reward system from its pathological regime. |
