Academic Advice
Writing for your Audience (Rhetoric)
Apr 3rd
Hi all! Today’s post will cover writing for your audience. To most–if not all–of you, this will seemingly be no big deal. “I’m a student. My professor has to read my paper. Who cares about writing specifically for him/her?” I bet your professor does, even if he or she doesn’t explicitly say so. You know when professors tell you not to summarize a book? Well, a small part of reason involves the fact that your professor knows the text and he/she is your audience. Hence, by not summarizing the text, you are writing to your audience. Today’s post will cover More >
“I have to Write HOW Many Pages?!” Or, Writing a Master’s Thesis
Oct 1st
Well, I’m in my final semester of my MA; I’ve completed all my coursework and am just working on my final thesis. Depending on your MA program (or in some cases, BA program), you will most likely need to write a final culminating essay to illustrate some sense of mastery in a specific area in your field. This may be from 20 pages (particularly if you are a BA) to 60-80+ pages. You may need to create your own study, conduct research, or–like me–check out many (MANY) books from your library and read. But what does writing a thesis actually More >
Close-Reading and How it Can Help You
Sep 6th
Since I’m now teaching a college composition course, I thought (well, really my husband thought) it would be a good idea to incorporate some of the methods and topics I am teaching to my students to (un)E. So today’s post will reflect the first thing I’ve been teaching to my students—close reading.
Close reading is when you slowly and deliberately take apart a text, word by word, sentence by sentence. This is especially helpful for things you may interpret—poetry, short fiction, etc. However, it is also helpful for essays in which you may struggle to understand the meaning. For my class, More >
How to Improve your Vocabulary
Oct 7th
How to Improve your Vocabulary
The phrase, “The pen is mightier than the sword” has many interpretations. The correct usage of words in communication can help you get your point across more effectively and improve your communication skills dramatically. In this article, I will discuss ways that you can improve your vocabulary and its affect on your every day communication, whether it be during friendly family debates or at your next big school presentation.
Key Points
- Reading novels, the news and using the dictionary can improve your vocabulary significantly
- A good vocabulary is essential in conversing with colleagues, friends and family
- Always keep on the More >
Plagiarism 101: Common Problems
Sep 1st
Since school is starting up again for so many of you, I had a suggestion to write a post about plagiarism. As technology advances, it’s becoming increasingly easy to plagiarize–and increasingly easy to get caught. Today I’m going to cover the basics of plagiarism so that YOU don’t accidentally do this!
What is plagiarism?
Essentially, plagiarism is when you take someone else’s words and pretend they are your own. If I said “I have a dream,” I would be plagiarizing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington speech. The way you avoid plagiarism is by attributing those words to the originator More >
Sonnet Forms
Aug 25th
I’m finally back from vacation and am recuperated enough to start posting regularly again. As I’m preparing to take my GREs (both the general and the subject test in literature), I’m brushing up on my literary terminology. Sonnets are a very important thing to know–whether for the GRE subject exam, poetry courses, basic English courses, or even high school classes. There are three prominent types of sonnets we will discuss today: Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and Spenserian.
What is a sonnet?
Before we delve into the types of sonnets, we should know what a sonnet is! A sonnet is a particular style of poetry More >
What is Middle English?
Jul 6th
It’s hard to find a concise yet definitive account of “Middle English” online. The Wikipedia entry has glaring gaps, omitting sections such as the Great Vowel Shift and not illustrating what the “thorn” is. This post will help you get a better grasp of your Chaucer through your Malory (whom I’ll be studying shortly), and hopefully you’ll think this stuff is as awesome as I think it is. If you’re taking a British Literature course or are studying The Canterbury Tales or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I highly suggest you keep reading. (more…)
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Thou, Thee, Thy, Thine & Ye: Shakespearean English
Jul 1st
Almost everyone reads at least one work of Shakespeare in his or her life. Heck, you might be even be studying one of his works now! Shakespeare used a form of archaic English in his works that can be at times confusing, irritating, and downright silly. The words that I will discuss today are the archaic forms of “you.” Because using the word “you” is very common, it is not surprising that Shakespeare also used it quite a bit in his works. (more…)
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MLA Paper Formatting
Jun 26th
Even if you’re not an English major, you’re going to need to take composition courses, humanities courses, and various other courses that require you to format your paper in a very specific way. While some professors have their own requirements and while other associations may have different formatting options, I have found MLA formatting to be one of the most popular. Read on to learn proper MLA formatting! (more…)
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How to Expand your Paper: Garbage and Fluff Excluded
Jun 14th
It’s happened to the best of us. You think you say every possible thing there is to say about a subject–yet you only have four pages for your five to seven page paper (or whatever page limit is imposed on you). You have a minimum, you’re not at that minimum, and so you’ll probably end up repeating yourself and using extra quotes until you meet that limit. Not cool. Keep reading to find a much better method of expanding your papers! (more…)
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