by Scott Dreyer | Jun 8, 2015 | Writing
A few weeks ago, a student in Taiwan emailed me to introduce herself, saying she knew a couple of my students, was impressed with their English, and wanted to study English online with me as those two friends of hers were doing. To get started, I just asked her to...
by Scott Dreyer | May 20, 2015 | Writing
Sometimes, some things that seem normal and simple to us might be intriguing and profound to other people. There are some reasons to explain this. For example, people have different backgrounds and come from different families. In short, everyone is an individual....
by Scott Dreyer | May 20, 2015 | Writing
At the suggestion of an excellent student, and friend, I recently bought the “SAT Writing Workbook” and its companion guide for math, from Kaplan. In Practice Test A on p. 187, it gives this writing prompt: Consider carefully the following...
by Scott Dreyer | May 20, 2015 | Writing
Looking for ways to beef up your writing? Take a good look at the VERBS you employ. Verbs are to writing what jet fuel is to airplanes. One helpful way to boost your verb power is to take words that are usually nouns, but use them as verbs. Here are a few examples: 1....
by Scott Dreyer | May 20, 2015 | Writing
What’s a hook? Just as a physical hook lets you catch and keep a fish, a written hook helps you catch and “keep” a reader. Research shows the average reader will read something for about 5-6 SECONDS before deciding to drop it or keep reading. So,...
by Bellavia, Scot A | May 19, 2015 | Writing
Recently a friend send me this blog post about leadership: “Thoughts about Leadership” My friend also invited us to respond with one major “take-away” from the article. (A “take away” is the main idea or lesson you take from...