Write On: Avenues for Your Writing
Are you the kind of student who has a bunch of notebooks or Word documents full of drafts of poems, fan fiction stories, or plays? Or do you keep a… Continue reading "Write On: Avenues for Your Writing"
To empower people towards purposeful lives
Are you the kind of student who has a bunch of notebooks or Word documents full of drafts of poems, fan fiction stories, or plays? Or do you keep a… Continue reading "Write On: Avenues for Your Writing"
In our previous posts, we talked about words like “fantastic” and “amazing.” If you want to say something is too good to be true, you might call it “fantastic.” If… Continue reading "The Etymologist: “That’s Big (and Scary)!”"
Annie Dillard is one of the great artisans of nonfiction writing; she’s perhaps best-known for her 1979 essay about witnessing an eclipse. Dillard is also the author of a short… Continue reading "Essay Writing Tips from Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life"
What do we mean when we call something “fantastic”, “amazing”, or “great”? As we explained in our previous post, “fantastic” suggests something is too good to be true. Calling something… Continue reading "The Etymologist: “That Blows My Mind!”"
In January, the Common Application announced that the essay prompts for the 2018-2019 admission year will remain unchanged. What does this mean for this fall’s applicants? The Common App continues to value… Continue reading "The Common App Prompts DON’T Matter (or Do They?)"
In last week’s post, we talked about the application essay as an episode of a TV show with distinct scenes that propel it forwards. Depending on the essay, this might… Continue reading "Writing a Great College Application Essay: Brainstorming with Structure in Mind"
Faithful readers of The Etymologist will remember that our previous post ended like this: I hope that, after a few posts, you’ll agree with me that etymology is pretty awesome!… Continue reading "The Etymologist: “You’re Making This Up!”"
There’s an old, old piece of writing advice that you may have heard: “show, don’t tell.” It’s fairly sound advice, by and large, but since it’s often simply repeated to… Continue reading "Writing a Great College Application Essay: Revising with Vivid Details"
Intersections is a weekly series dedicated to untangling the knotted ball of maddeningly similar literary devices. You’ve probably used the phrase “I’m starving!” to express a hunger that’s been building… Continue reading "Intersections: Hyperbole"
Words are a writer’s tools, and English-language writers have one of the biggest toolboxes in the world. Unfortunately, a big toolbox isn’t useful if you don’t know what all the… Continue reading "3 Reasons to Study Etymology"