Welcome!
This page provides an alphabetized list of previously posted material that might be helpful to anyone teaching writing or learning to write. They’ve been divided into categories for easy referencing.
This page is a work in progress and will be regularly updated as we publish more articles.
Brian’s Writing Tips
Business Writing
Fiction Writing
- Character: How to Create Interesting Characters
- Creative Writing: All Writing Is Creative
- The Heroic Journey 1: Every Story is the Same Old Story
- The Heroic Journey 2: The Journey
- The Heroic Journey 3: The Hero’s Goals
- The Heroic Journey 4: The Hero’s Traits
- The Heroic Journey 5: The Hero’s Inner Journey
- The Heroic Journey 6: The Nemesis
- The Heroic Journey 7: The Traits of the Nemesis
- The Heroic Journey 8: The Structure of Story
- The Heroic Journey 9: Heroes Change
- The Heroic Journey 10: The Premise
- The Heroic Journey 11: Finding the Premise
- The Heroic Journey 12: Story Telling and Shrek
- The Heroic Journey 13: Plot Structure
- The Heroic Journey 14: The Call to Adventure
- The Heroic Journey 15: The Shape of Your Hero
- The Heroic Journey 16: Stage Two
- The Heroic Journey 17: The First Reversal
- The Heroic Journey 18: Plot Stage Three
- The Heroic Journey 19: The Point of No Return
- The Heroic Journey 20: Outer Journey
- The Hook: How to Hook Your Reader
- In Medias Res: Start in the Middle
- Plot: The Plot Diagram
- Point of View
- Rules for Storytelling by Pixar
Figures of Speech
Grammar and Usage
- Adjectives: Funner and Funnest?
- Adjectives: Comparatives and Superlatives
- Adjectives: Compound Adj. and Hyphens
- Adjectives: Parallel Comparisons
- Adjectives: Proper Adjectives
- Adverbs: Conjunctive Adverbs
- Adverbs: It’s Okay To Use Them
- Adverb: Fast and Other Words with the Same Adjective and Adverb Form
- Articles: A, An, The
- But It Doesn’t Sound Right
- Can Grammar Be Bad?
- Complements, Sentence
- Conjunctive Adverbs and Why They Matter
- Conjunctions: A List of Subordinating Conjunctions
- Double Negatives
- English Grammar in One Lesson
- Equivocal Plurals
- Flat Adverbs
- Fragments and Run-ons: The Comma Splice
- Fragments and Run-ons
- Grammar Nazi Quiz
- Grammar Snobs
- Grammar: When Errors Become Standard
- Modifiers: Using Adjectives and Adverbs
- “More Than Me” or “More Than I?”
- “More Than Me” in the Bible
- Muphry’s Law
- Nouns: Abstract and Concrete
- Nouns: More on Abstract and Concrete
- Nouns: Definition (video)
- Nouns: Rules for Plural Nouns
- Parallelism
- Parts of Speech 101
- Parts of Speech 102
- Parts of Speech 103
- Phrases and Clauses
- Prepositions: Ending Sentences with
- Preposition or Adverb?
- Prepositions: Redundant
- Prepositions: Superfluous
- Prepositions: When Prepositions Aren’t Prepositions
- Prepositions: to Memorize or Not to Memorize?
- Pronouns: Can “They” or “Their” Be Singular?
- Pronouns: Gender and Sexism
- Pronouns: Mistakes to Avoid
- Pronoun Case: Than I or Thank Me?
- Pronouns: There, Their, and They’re
- Pronouns: When Not to Use “Myself”
- Pronouns: Who or Whom?
- Pronouns: Who’s and Whose
- Pronouns That Don’t Exist
- Subject-Verb Agreement, Part 1
- Subject-Verb Agreement, Part 2
- Subject-Verb Agreement, Part 3
- Top Ten Grammar Errors
- Verbals
- Verbal Phrases
- Verbs: Active and Passive Voice (video)
- Verbs: Can and May
- Verbs: The 5 Verb Forms
- Verbs: Memorizing Linking Verbs (video)
- Verbs: Phrasal Verbs
- Verbs: Reviewing the Tenses
- Verbs: Shifting Verb Tenses
- Verbs: Transitive Verbs and Why They Matter
Graphics
- 100 Ways to Say “Bad”
- 100 Ways to Say “Good”
- 100 Ways to Say “Great”
- 100 Ways to Say “Said”
- 200 Ways to Say “Went”
- 250 Ways to Say “Went”
- Animal Adjectives
- Animal Group Names
- Editing Redundancy
- End Marks
- Homophones, Homographs, Homonyms Venn Diagram
- Oxford Comma Debate
- Proofreading Checklist for Essays
- Pronoun Mistakes to Avoid
- Punctuation: Comma Rules
- Punctuation: Semicolon
- Weasel Words
- Words of the Year
- Writing and the Brain
- The Writing Process
Homeschooling
- Best Homeschooling Infographic
- Homeschool vs. Public School Infographic
- History of Homeschooling Infographic
- Jaden Smith on Education
- Merlin on Learning
- Our Homeschool Graduation Ceremony
- Why We Homeschool, Part 1
Idioms
- At the End of the Day
- A Whole Nuther Thing
- Bad Attitude, Bad Weather, Bad Language
- Baseball Idioms
- Basketball Idioms
- Body Parts Idioms
- Boot Idioms
- Boots on the Ground
- Close-Minded or Closed-Minded?
- Commonly Misexpressed Expressions
- Could or Couldn’t Care Less?
- Football Idioms
- Going Forward
- Hat Trick
- Have My Cake and Eat It Too
- Hoist with One’s Own Petard
- It’s Complicated
- Just Sayin’
- Kids Means Children
- Like
- Moot Point not Mute Point
- Muphry’s Law
- My Bad
- OK
- On Accident/By Accident
- Peaked or Piqued Interest?
- Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
- Why, That’s Why
- X-mas
Literary Analysis
- Avoid Puffery
- Avoid Weasel Words
- “God’s Grandeur”
- The Literary Present
- “When God Wants to Drill a Man”
Logic and Argumentation
- How Not To Argue: Begging the Question
- How Not To Argue: Bulverism
- How Not To Argue: Non Sequitur
- How Not To Argue: Straw Man
- How Not To Argue: Tu Quoque
Mechanics
- Camel Case
- Capitalization Rules
- Merry Christmas’s or Merry Christmases?
- Paragraphs: When to Start
- Paragraphs: How Many Sentences in a Paragraph?
- Spacing: One or Two Spaces after a Period?
- Titles: When to Punctuate
- Titles: When NOT to Punctuate
Memes:
- Crazy English Memes #1
- Crazy English Memes #2
- Crazy English Memes #3
- Crazy English Memes #4
- Dear February
- What Is a Meme?
Miscellaneous
- 3 Prewriting Techniques
- 3 Keys to Improved Writing
- 4 Tips for Better Proofreading
- 5 Things to Learn from Phil Robertson and Justine Sacco
- 77 Latin Terms You Should Know
- American vs. British English
- Animal Group Names
- Books: Print vs. Digital
- Creative Writing: All Writing Is Creative
- Cursive Writing?
- Description and Narration
- Denotation and Connotation
- Evaluating Online Information
- Freewriting
- Getting Started
- Heteronyms
- History’s Worst Typo
- How Americans Speak Differently from One Another
- How to Point out Errors Without Being Obnoxious
- Ignorant Grammar Cops
- Is There Such a Thing as a Grammar Error?
- It’s Good to Know Stuff, Part 1
- It’s Good to Know Stuff, Part 2
- It’s Good to Know Stuff, Part 3
- On Abstract and Concrete Nouns
- Orphan Negatives
- Overusing “Like”
- Portmanteau Words
- Prewriting Strategies
- Proofreading
- Proofreading Checklist for Essays
- Public School
- Purple Prose
- Reading and Writing Skills
- Redundant Expressions: Fatal Drowning, etc.
- Redundancy 1: Tautology
- Redundancy 2: Pleonasm
- Redundancy 3: When It’s Okay
- Redundancy 4: Scesis Onomaton
- Reduplication
- Rules are Made to Be Broken
- Symmetrical Words
- The Importance of Practice
- “Their Head” or “Their Heads”?
- Using “Of” after “Could,” “Would,” “Should”
- Words Commonly Mispronounced
- Words of the Year
- Word of the Year 2103
- Writer’s Block
- Writing and the Brain
- The Writing Process
- Verbing/Verbification
Myth Busters:
- 25 Words You Probably Don’t Really Misuse
- “Aggravate” Can’t Mean “Annoy”
- Avoid “Be” Verbs
- Avoid Adverbs
- How Many Sentences Must a Paragraph Have?
- Nauseous Only Means “Causing Nausea”
- Never End a Sentence with a Preposition
- Never Start a Sentence with “Hopefully”
- Never Start a Sentence with “And” or “But”
- Never Start a Sentence with “Because”
- Never Use Incomplete Sentences
- Never Use “Impact” as a Verb
- Passive Voice Is Always Wrong
Printable:
Punctuation
- Comma Rules: When to Use Commas
- Comma Rules: When Not to Use Commas
- End Marks
- Hyphens and Compound Adjectives
- Never Use a Comma Before “Be”?
- Quotation Marks: Punctuating Dialogue
- Semicolon: How to Use Semicolons
- Semicolon: Return of the Semicolon
- The Serial Comma (Oxford Comma)
- Titles: How to Punctuate
Quotes on Writing:
- Don’t Write Just Because You Have To
- Finish What You Write
- Great Things Writers Have Said
- Mark Twain on Writing
- More Writers on Writing
- Still More Writers on Writing
- Writerly Wisdom
- Writers on the Value of Fantasy
- Writers on Writing
- Writers on Writing Continued
- Writing Advice from Annie Dillard
- Writing Inspiration
- Inspiring Quotes for Writers
SAT Prep:
- 100 Words Every H.S. Graduate Should Know
- 20 SAT Vocabulary Words (with Quiz)
- 20 More SAT Vocabulary Words (with Quiz)
- Avoid Weasel Words
- How To Argue Like a Champ
- Illustrating
- SAT Essay Writing 1: 7 Basic Tips
- SAT Essay Writing 2: Time Management
- SAT Essay Writing 3: The Thesis
- SAT Essay Writing 4: Taking a Strong Position
- SAT Essay Writing 5: Supporting Your Position
- SAT Essay Writing 6: Your Introduction
- SAT Essay Writing 7: Transitions
- SAT Essay Writing 8: Your Conclusion
- Should I Care That the SAT Is Dropping the Essay?
Spelling
- “Breath” or “Breathe”?
- “Goodbye,” “Good-bye,” “Goodby,” or “Good-by”?
- Homophones: A
- Homophones: B
- Homophones: C
- Homophones: D
- Homophones: E
- Homophones: F
- Homophones: G
- Homophones: H
- Homophones: I and J
- Homophones: K and L
- Homophones: M
- Homophones: N and O
- Homophones: P1
- Homophones: P2
- Homophones: Q and R1
- Homophones: R2
- Homophones: S1
- Homophones: S2
- Homophones: T1
- Homophones: T2
- “Loose” or “Lose”?
Teaching Writing
- 10 Things We Believe About Teaching Writing
- 3 Rules for Creating Great Writing Assignments
- Copywork and Dictation
- Elaborating: Telescopic Text
- How DO You Teach Writing?
- Why you should never assign a 500-word essay.
Word Choice/Diction
- 10 Good Words for Bad Kids
- 10 Real Words You Will Probably Never Use
- 100 Most Used Words in English
- 100 Ways to Say “Bad”
- 100 Ways to Say “Good”
- 100 Ways to Say “Said“
- 200 Ways to Say “Went”
- 100 Words Every High School Freshman Should Know
- 100 Words Every High School Grad Should Know
- 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
- 100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
- Acronym or Abbreviation?
- Aesthetic or Ascetic?
- Affect or Effect? (video)
- All right or Alright?
- Alternate or Alternative?
- Amongst, Amidst, & Whilst
- Animal Adjectives
- Auld Lang Syne
- Avoid Weasel Words
- “Can” or “May”?
- “Capitulate” and “Recapitulate”
- “Censure” or “Censor”?
- “Compare” and “Contrast”
- “Complement” or “Compliment”?
- “Continual” or “Continuous”?
- Contronyms: Words That Are Their Own Opposites
- Couth
- “Creeped” or “Crept”?
- Denotation and Connotation
- “Decimate”
- “Disenfranchised” or “Disillusioned”
- “Ence” or “Ency” Suffixes
- “Esprit de Escalier”
- “Fart”
- “Forte” and “Forebearer”
- “Funner” or “Funnest”?
- “Hanged” or “Hung”?
- “Have Got” or “Have Gotten”?
- “Hoity-Toity” or “Hoi Polloi”?
- “Imply” or “Infer”
- “Irregardless”
- “Lay” or “Laid” in “Away in a Manger”
- “Latter” and “Former”
- “Leaped” or “Leapt”?
- “Less” or “Fewer”?
- “Lie” or “Lay”?
- “Lighted” or “Lit”?
- Memes
- Misusing “Like”
- “Nauseous,” “Nauseated,” and “Nauseating”
- “Octopuses” or “Octopi”?
- “One Less” or “One Fewer”?
- Orphan Negatives
- “Passed,” “Past,” “Pastime” and “Past Time”
- Portmanteau Words
- “Quote” or “Quotation”?
- “Rise” or “Raise”?
- “Seeing As How?”
- Sequester
- Shakespeare’s Best Word
- “Sneaked” or “Snuck”?
- “Than Me” or “Than I”?
- Ten Often Confused Words
- There, Their, or They’re?
- Thesaurus: How to Use
- Till, ‘Til, or Until?
- To, Too, or Two?
- Toward or Towards?
- Tragedy/Travesty
- “Turbid” or “Turgid”?
- Wake, Waken,or Awaken?
- Whose or Who’s”
Writing Prompts
- Descriptive: Alien Description
- Descriptive: A Busy Place
- Descriptive: A Close Observation
- Descriptive: Deserted Island
- Descriptive: A Face in the Crowd
- Descriptive: Guess Which Zoo Animal?
- Descriptive: No Adjectives or Adverbs
- Descriptive: Something Out of Place
- Descriptive: An Unexpected Guest
- Expository: Cartoon Eulogy
- Expository: An Extended Analogy
- Expository: Hometown Travel Guide
- Expository: Letters of Complaint or Commendation
- Expository: A Memorable Conversation
- Expository: Process Paper/How-to
- Expository: Tabloid Reporting
- Narrative: Best Excuse Note Ever
- Narrative: Half a Mystery
- Narrative: An Original Parable
- Narrative: Random Short Story
- Narrative: Rescue Story
- Narrative: Triumph or Defeat
- Narrative: Two Versions of Summer Adventure
- Narrative: An Unforgettable Dream
- Narrative: Unlikely Friends
- Narrative: What I Didn’t Do Over Summer Vacation
- Personal Narrative: My Blankest Moment
- Personal Narrative: The Soundtrack of My Life
- Persuasive: Best Unusual Pet
- Persuasive: Parent or Student of the Year
- Poetry Exercise: N+7
- Self-reflection Writing Prompts
Writing Style
- 6 Little Things to Improve Your Writing
- Active and Passive Voice Explained
- Adverbs, In Defense of
- Audience and Purpose
- Avoiding Cliches
- Avoid Puffery
- Caring: Write What You Care About
- Characters: 5 Tips for Creating Memorable Characters
- Clarity
- Clarity, Conciseness, and Coherence
- Comparison: Compare Equal Things
- Description: Details Should Matter
- Description: Specific Details
- Dialogue Tags
- Dialogue Tags: Alternatives to “Said”
- Figures of Speech: Overview for Writers
- Formula Writing
- Freewriting Advice
- Garden Path Sentences
- How to Argue Like a Champ
- How To Develop Style
- How To Hook Your Reader
- Illustrating
- Individualized Instruction
- In Medias Res
- Introductions: Just Tell Them
- Introductions: No Dictionary Definitions
- Pacing a Narrative
- Parallelism
- Plot
- Point of View
- Precision: Saying What You Mean
- Pronoun Errors to Avoid
- Purple Prose
- The Rule of Three
- Saving the Best for Last
- Self-Consciousness “In My Opinion”
- Sentence Rhythm and Variety
- “Since” Instead of “As”
- Six Tips to Improve Student Writing
- Showing and Telling
- Showing and Telling: Sleepless in Seattle
- Structure and Organization
- Transition: Conjunctive Adverbs
- Unity
- Verbs Are Better than Nouns
- Wordiness: Tips for Avoiding
- Write with Nouns and Verbs!
- Writing Modes: The Four Purposes
