“...after I published a paper showing that suicidal poets used pronouns differently from non-suicidal poets, a slightly inebriated poet threatened me with a butter knife at a party in my own home.” — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“Who, for example, would have ever predicted that the high school student who uses too many verbs in her college admissions essay is likely to make lower grades in college? Or that the poet who overuses the word I in… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
Over the next four days, I want you to write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the most upsetting experience in your life. Really let go and explore your feelings and thoughts about it. In your writing, you might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now or even… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share
One of the most interesting results was part of a study my students and I conducted dealing with status in email correspondence. Basically, we… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“Remember that this is the first of four days of writing. In today’s writing, your goal is to write about your deepest thoughts and feelings about the trauma or emotional upheaval that has been influencing your life the most. In your writing, really let go and explore this event and how it has affected you. Today, it may be beneficial… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share
“Younger people could dredge up an impressive number of dark words to express their pain. As writers got older and older, their negative emotion… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“Human relationships are not rocket science—they are far, far more complicated. We can get our top scientists together and send people to the moon.… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
Human relationships are not rocket science--the are far, far more complicated — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
The act of not discussing or confiding the event with another may be more damaging than having experienced the event per se. — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“A guy might find a woman attractive but she might find him repulsive. The two must tango together. And LSM is capturing the dance—whereas… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“early 1990s, Deborah Tannen, a linguist at Georgetown University, attracted international notice with her book You Just Don’t Understand. Her book, which was on… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“The reason we is such a fun word is that half of the time it is used as a way to bring the speaker… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“I’ve since learned that when someone changes the conversational direction, it serves as a powerful marker of what is on his or her mind.” — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
“Remember to write continuously the entire twenty minutes. And never forget that this writing is for you and you alone. At the conclusion of… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
