the Blog

People sometimes ask me, "what makes a good college application essay?"  My answer: be yourself. College admissions officers are deluged with essays that probably sound very similar, all telling how wonderful the applicant is. But these officers want to see real...

Many students find writing the hardest language skill to master, and since writing is a major part of the TOEFL, many students look for extra help with it. One Chinese high school student of mine recently wrote on the topic of college choice, by size of student...

In one of my advanced-level writing classes I asked a student for a brief report on some surprising aspect from the 2016 US elections. Below you can find his first draft then the revised version we discussed and edited in class. (This is how we teach writing online...

In a recent SAT-level online writing class, my students wrote on the topic: "I couldn't believe it..." They only had about 15-20 minutes to write, in class, from their homes in Hsinchu, Taiwan. They wrote so well, I thought you would like to see their masterpieces!...

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 speak, or...