Hello everyone: Giving an online course introductory posting must be the bane of a college student’s existence, giving the desire to avoid them like the plague. Most online courses do require them, you know, so go ahead and write one. Let me tell you about a few different types. You tell me which is the most interesting. First, there is the non-introduction. Here is an...

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Hello everyone: Wow- I had a student lately who wrote sentences that went on for five lines. Or more. Rarely less. Not good. Sometimes folks have a lot to say, or think they do. Well, I’m happy for them but the train of thought school of writing only really works for Virginia Woolff and, the last I checked, she was dead. Before you submit a...

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Hello everyone: As I write this, I will be limiting myself to the ten most common writing mistakes and then I will show you what they should look like. The most popular mistake these days seems to be the difference between a possessive noun and a plural one. A noun that possesses something needs a possessive apostrophe. For example, “Cat’s meow” needs that possessive apostrophe,...

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Hello everyone: When students take a college class from me, they get two things for the price of one. They are in a communication class but I also teach them how to write, if they will only pay attention. I have students whose writing I correct over and over, only to have them ignore my suggestions. Of course, the thing to remember here is that...

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Hello everyone: Oh, my stars! The verbosity reigns in some students’ work…..They use the biggest words they can find, in the hopes of making an impression on their professor. They do, indeed, but not the way that you might imagine. Many years ago, I had a professor whose comments on a paper required that I get out the dictionary. By the time I had gotten...

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Hello everyone: There’s a new kid in town: the 7th edition of the APA Style Manual. Oh, goodie. Sorry folks, but it is my personal opinion that the APA folks come out with a new manual just to keep themselves in business. I mean, the sales for their books go up substantially every time they make an adjustment. Here’s the latest scope: In-text citations are...

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Hello everyone: There’s nothing like a good verb to really get a sentence going. Verbs like titillate, saunter, sizzle, clutch, ensnare, wither, or glisten are fun to write and enjoyable to read. The problem that some students have is when they write a sentence with the verb at a distance from their subject. For example, perhaps the sentence is “I, in spite of dangers, toils,...

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