On the first day of A.P. Language and Composition (popularly known as “A.P. Lang”), I’ve taken to asking my classes a few simple questions: 1) Why did you enroll in this class? 2) What is A.P. Lang all about? and...
A solid two thirds of the students we serve suffering from anxiety are triggered by the practice of writing an essay. Many of them get really stuck in the initial phases of writing, overwhelmed by the prospect of the whole...
One of the questions that parents, fellow teachers, or administrators frequently ask an English teacher is… ‘how do you teach writing’? They ask with a bit of awe and wonder, likely still colored by their own 12th grade compositional struggles;...
“Passive Voice” was always one of those terms my English teachers chucked out there on my essays as if I knew what it meant already. As a result, I did what most students do: just pretended I understood what it...
The concept of flow might be the most single important element of style since cavemen picked up the chisel. I generally advise that your reader is like a dim-witted five year-old with a short attention span and little interest in...
I often see a shortcoming in the instruction involved in integrating evidence in analytical essay in high school teaching. There is this notion that you have to have a complete sentence followed by a colon to introduce text. This understanding...
