Posts about Writing

14 posts in Writing.

College Admissions
Why It's Never Too Early to Start Thinking About Your College Application Essays
Everyone has a compelling story to tell. When I say it’s never too early to begin thinking about your college application essays, what I really mean is: you should start thinking about how to tell a story out of your day-to-day life.
May 4, 2020Stephen P.
ACT Writing
How to Spot a Sentence Fragment
One of the first steps in mastering SAT and ACT grammar is understanding the difference between a complete sentence and a sentence fragment.
May 27, 2019Jon G.
College Application
5 Techniques for Brainstorming Your College Essay Topic in 15 Minutes
It’s the fall of your senior year of high school. Hopefully by now, you have settled—or are at least close to settling—on the list of colleges and universities you’ll be applying to. Now it’s time to sit down and start in on your college essays if you haven’t already.
November 6, 2018Stephen P.
College Admissions
7 Tips for Answering the University of California Personal Insight Questions
The UC admissions staff wants to know who you are, and they want to understand your background and life circumstances so that they can better interpret the rest of your application. Through the UC Personal Insight Questions, you have the opportunity to fill them in…
October 29, 2018Kiley A.
Writing
Logical Fallacies: The Uses and Abuses of Straw Men
I have a friend who likes to tell me about disagreements he has with others. When he tells me about his arguments with his friends, family, or coworkers, he likes to discredit the other side by ventriloquizing his opponents in a baritone and belligerent voice, his mouth drooping, his eyes wide so as
August 10, 2018
Writing
The Do’s and Don’ts of Emailing College Admissions Officers and Professors
As communication technologies change, so too does digital etiquette. There are ever-evolving, unspoken rules, for instance, to the art of liking or commenting on a friend’s Instagram post. Periods, exclamation points, and no punctuation at all can communicate a wide range of emotions and inflections
April 17, 2018Stephen P.
Writing
The Problem and Appeal of the Slippery Slope
For nearly as long as I can remember, I have heard media pundits, teachers, and peers mention the slippery slope by name—not as a logical fallacy, but as the basis for an argument. As it happens, the slippery slope is one of the best-known and least-understood logical fallacies. What follows is devo
March 29, 2018Stephen P.
Writing Grammar
Can I Use “I” and “Me” in an Academic Essay?
Typically, this question stems from a student’s experience with a high school or middle school teacher who advised, even commanded, students to never, ever use first-person pronouns in their essays. And so, when I get this question, I tend to hear a sub-question lying just beneath the surface: was m
March 12, 2018Stephen P.
Writing
The Terrible Twos: On the Power and Pitfalls of Dichotomies
Dichotomies place two terms in opposition. The problem is that they’re often false. Such terms are often not mutually exclusive or exhaustive. That is, these terms can sometimes overlap, or we’ll find there’s a third or fourth option that such dichotomies conceal...
January 6, 2018
Writing
Understanding Arguments: The Rule of Three
You may have encountered this writing principle in the Declaration of Independence, fairy tales, novels, or even Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Look closely, and you’ll find the Rule of Three is all around us. Here's how to use it to make your own writing even better.
December 4, 2017
SAT Writing
7 Ways to Boost Clarity and Upgrade Your SAT Essay
February 9, 2017Kiley A.
College Application
Two Spaces After a Period (And four other mistakes your making in you're college essay)
October 29, 2013Ethan Sawyer
Writing
Mistakes that spellcheck won't catch | Pt. 2
March 16, 2012
Writing
Mistakes that spellcheck won't catch | Pt. 1
March 13, 2012

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