Whenever I teach a writing course, many students tell me that they have trouble getting started on academic papers or creative writing. That first blank page can seem so intimidating. We want our words on the page to be perfect—words that grab the attention of our teachers or our peers who will read it. We want to get that A+ on the assignment. We want to pass the course. Writing longer academic papers (or creative writing projects) can seem a bit overwhelming at times, espec

Types of paragraphs:   Chronological/Narrative: the writer is telling a story and the details/events are in chronological order as events happened. Descriptive: you are giving the readers information about what something or someone looks like/sounds like/smells like—the details still need to be organized in a logical flow. Instructional: you are telling about a process or describing how something works. You should follow the correct sequence in your paragraph so the reader co

Writing a Literature Paper   Having trouble getting started with a paper for your literature class. When you are writing a literature paper, you begin by creating a thesis statement that offers insight into one aspect of the book. Your paper uses literary criticism to back up that thesis. Every aspect of the paper must relate back to the thesis. Thesis statements can revolve around: The characters in a work and how those characters develop; The religious or political symbols

Persuasive writing encourages the reader to do something (support an organization, donate money, buy a product, vote for a candidate, etc.). The language persuades someone to take action. Descriptive writing, however, uses words to paint a picture or relay a thought or feeling to someone. In descriptive writing, you may choose to use more adjectives or more emotions to tell your story.

Everything you write should start with a first draft. That means any creative or academic writing you work on will have to be read through before you turn it in. If you are hoping for an A+ paper, you should write a first draft, revise, edit, and proofread in that order.   Revising   This first step is different from editing. Revising involves writing and re-writing your content. As the author of your work, you are often adding, rearranging, or removing and replacing content

Tips for Writing a College Admissions/Scholarship Essay If you are a junior or senior in high school and plan to attend college, have some sample paragraphs ready that you can cut and paste (or easily edit) for various applications. Colleges will ask you a variety of questions depending upon the university. For scholarships, each application will require different answers depending upon the organization granting the scholarship. Some scholarships are based on academics, faith

The semicolon is one of the most misunderstood forms of punctuation even though the rules for use are fairly simple. Beware, students—ACT creators loves to test on this punctation mark. When do you use a semicolon? When there are two independent clauses (can stand alone as sentences) on either side. The two clauses are not joined by FANBOYS (coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). The semicolon is only correct if it could be replaced by a period. A semic

The hyphen, the em dash, and the en dash are all easy to confuse. They are all lines used for punctuation, but they vary in length. Many writers mistakenly think they are interchangeable. They serve different purposes, however. The hyphen is the shortest of the three. It primarily serves to separate numbers (account numbers, phone numbers, etc.) and to combine words. For example, two words can be joined by a hyphen to make a compound descriptive word such as brother-in-law o

Nothing gets us in trouble more as a writer than misusing punctuation. A misplaced comma can often change the meaning of what we are saying and confuse our readers. To help you understand the basic rules, I am going to keep the sample sentences very basic.   First rule:  Any part of a sentence that can be deleted without changing the basic meaning of the sentence should have commas before and after that word, clause, or phrase.   Example: Oslo, who is my smallest dog, is lear

Dialogue writing is very challenging. When I edit books or consult on manuscripts, it’s one of the first things that I usually have to go through and change.   Biggest mistakes I see:   The dialogue is too formal. The chapters contain pages of too much uninterrupted dialogue without any comments that help use “see” the characters as they speak. The dialogue is too “canned” or predictable and reads like a spoof.   Let’s look at how to resolve each one of these. First, though,

As I’m writing this blog post, I’m in the process of assessing my writing goals for myself and my students. I think writing goals are...

I love being a writing consultant and coach for both teen writers and adults. I believe that we all need encouragement and guidance through the writing process. When I work with teens or adults, I challenge them with writing prompts that are both creative and academic in nature. Why do I use both creative and academic exercises when I am coaching someone? I am asked this question from time to time, and my answer always remains the same: creative writing strengthens our nonfic

When I speak to writing groups, I am often asked why I choose to write both nonfiction and fiction books. Writing for me is a way to...

Do you ever ask yourself who you are? We are used to asking children who they want to be when they grow up, but when we are past a...