Shakespeare is one of those authors who is hard to escape if you’re in any English or literature program long enough. While Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays, they fall roughly into two categories: comedies and tragedies. And when he wrote tragedies, he went all out. Spoiler alert: Most, if not all, of the characters …
On a magical Saturday afternoon in the mid ’90s, my family and I made a trip to the nearest Circuit City to buy our first home computer. I remember it well. The salesman in his red polo shirt saw my corn-fed parents and thought he might feed them a few lines of malarkey to go …
“Short” is a relative term. Your English prof might assign a “short essay” that’s 3,500 words, while your history instructor might assign a “short essay” that’s only 500 words. Big difference. A longer paper has its advantages. Sure, you’ll have to write a lot, but a 3,500-word essay means you have more chances to write …
It’s the bottom of the ninth, a.k.a. you’re running out of time to start writing your Catcher in the Rye essay, but you still have a chance to make it amazing. The bases are loaded—you’ve read the book and annotated, highlighted, or taken notes about all the important parts. Plus, your coach (that’s me) is …
I’m proud of you! You’ve done your homework. You’ve read up on how to write a position paper. You’ve thought about how you’ll write the outline. You’ve even brushed up on proper essay format. The next major hurdle: what to write about? Finding an original topic can sometimes throw you way off schedule, taking up …
Edward Lorenz was a mathematician and meteorologist at MIT who created a complex mathematical model nearly 60 years ago to study weather and air patterns. His hope was that the research would lead to accurate long-term weather forecasts. However, in 1961, the idea of a predictable universe fell into chaos. Lorenz entered some previously used …
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is one of those books that has the power to really captivate readers. Even if you don’t like the promiscuity or John’s undoing, you have to admit that there’s something really enthralling about the whole thing. Unfortunately, being enthralled in a story doesn’t make you prepared to write an essay …
“Wow! That stinks!” If you’re walking by a smelly factory, this might be an appropriate response. If you’re walking by a farm on a sweltering summer afternoon, this might be exactly what you’d expect to hear. This is not, however, what you want to hear from your prof when she reads your essay. So if …
The explanatory essay (sometimes called an expository essay) is one of those standard essays that you’ve probably written at least a few times in your academic career. The explanatory essay often takes the form of a cause and effect essay, a definition essay, a how-to essay, or a compare/contrast essay. Perhaps you’ve written this type of essay before. …
SURPRISE! You have to write another essay. You were hoping for a surprise party, weren’t you? Sorry, I can’t help you there. But if you think writing a comparative essay is one heck of a good time, then this party is for you! Okay, the fact that you have to write another essay isn’t really …
Compare the feeling you get when you earn an A on a paper to how you feel when you get a D on a paper. There’s really no comparison, is there? My goal in writing this post is for you learn more about compare and contrast essays, so you can skip that wretched feeling of …
Travel. Adventure. Exploration. There’s so much to learn out there for those who go looking for it. André Gide once wrote: “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Of course, nowadays it’s a little less romantic. We “lose sight of the shore” after putting our seat …
Ever been nervous on a first date or freak out the moment you’re supposed to start a new job? Most people have. Why? Because you want to start on the right foot. You don’t want to call your date “Kay” when her name is actually “Kali.” And you don’t want to trip over a chair …
How many times have you watched a movie, bought a new phone, or bought a new anything based on an ad? If you’re anything like me, I bet you’ve done it at least a few times. After all, those ads can be pretty convincing. Ask your parents. I bet they’ve bought at least one knife, …
Classification: It sounds like one of those terms a mobster might use in a 1940s film noir. “Hey, Mac! Get that dame over here. This place could use some classification. Someone needs to class up this joint!” Okay, classification doesn’t mean “to class up a joint.” To understand the meaning of the word, think about …
“Hey, you’ll never guess what happened to me last night!” “Dude! You gotta hear this!” If a friend approaches you with one of these lines, chances are she has a story to tell. And judging by the sounds of it, the story is a good one! We all know those people who tell great stories …
“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” —Thomas Edison Edison was right. It takes a lot of hard work to be a genius. I’m here to tell you that it takes a lot of hard work to be a good writer too. One of the first steps you can take to be a good writer, …
It’s pretty easy to look at a poorly written piece of writing and say, “Here’s what you shouldn’t do.” After all, most of us can recognize bad writing when we see it. We can recognize good writing too. But it’s not always that easy to identify what makes good writing good. It can be even …
You’ve just been assigned to write an opinion essay. “Opinions?!” You think, “I’ve got plenty of those!” But slow down, cowboy, you’re going to have to narrow it down to a single opinion. More than that, you must be able to support that opinion with facts, figures, or examples from the real world. “You are …
What’s your first reaction to these opening lines? The Egyptians lived a long time ago. Back in the day, kids worked in factories. If your reaction is a big yawn, I understand. Who wants to read lifeless writing like this? You might as well start your paper with, “Attention: this essay will bore you to …
Gun control is a hot button issue, especially in the wake of so many recent, tragic mass shootings. It is also a polarizing issue, which means that it tends to divide people. When you’re writing an argumentative essay, it generally doesn’t matter what side of an issue you take. What matters is that you take …