the Blog

As part of our online writing class, I asked my students to write a "cause & effect" paper. The longer I live, the more I realize the importance to both remind myself and tell others: each choice we make takes us somewhere and gives us some consequences, many of...

The "compare and contrast essay" is a favorite of writing teachers. I recently assigned it to my Thursday online writing class, and here are some of their papers. The students had total freedom to pick their topic. I think the students do a particularly strong job...

Today I was working with a writing student in Hsinchu, Taiwan, helping him get ready for his ACT. And a big part of the ACT writing section--or any writing for that matter--is strong word choice. Excellent word choice can help you cut wordiness and clutter. As I told...

As part of our online writing classes, my students have been writing on different kinds of tasks. Recently they wrote a Description paper, where they were to describe a person, place, or thing, as well as a How-To paper, where they give cookbook-like instructions....

In a recent online writing class, my students have been studying about definition papers and how to write one. In this writing task, one seeks to define a word, idea, or person. Below are two samples my students wrote. Take a look! Life: Does its Definition Work? What...