Know Your Audience

Know Your Audience

by | Nov 11, 2016 | Writing

One of the biggest issues any writer or speaker (and thus teacher) faces when preparing an essay, speech, or class, is: What does my audience already know? In other words, what “background knowledge” do they bring them, when they read my essay, hear me...
Use the Five Senses in your writing

Use the Five Senses in your writing

by | Oct 13, 2016 | Writing

I recently asked my students to write, and try to include the five senses–sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing–in their essay. These high school students wrote these passages. Watch for how they involve the five senses in their writing. But first,...
My Hometown — Student Writing

My Hometown — Student Writing

by | Oct 10, 2016 | Writing

A high school student from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, recently took an online 1 on 1 English class with me. We focused on his writing skills. He wrote to introduce his hometown to me; he read it out loud in class; then I made some suggestions to improve the...
Juice Up Your Verbs

Juice Up Your Verbs

by | Oct 6, 2016 | Writing

Verbs propel your sentences.  Strong ones drive you along.Weak ones? You run out of gas.  Recently in one of our online writing classes, we discussed verbs and ways to power them up. In short, try to avoid “be” verbs. Those are verbs like: am,...
My Summer Vacation

My Summer Vacation

by | Oct 6, 2016 | Writing

This is a common topic for back-to-school writing in September: “My Summer Vacation.”   This is from Tim, a student in Hsinchu, Taiwan, who went to Singapore with his family. His essay is a part of a larger paper on the whole week there, but here is...