My 1979 edition of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style reigns over my workspace from its place of honor on my bookshelf. It’s a slim volume because, like all good writing, the needless words have been omitted. The original, …[Continue]
Halloween Writing Prompts
Raise your hand if you love writing prompts! Halloween is a perennial favorite, and can be a great source of writing inspiration. These hand-picked sites offer dozens of ghoulishly-fun writing prompts….[Continue]
Test-Taking Tips
Test taking is a skill that can be learned, and test-taking anxiety can be overcome. Here are some tips from high school and college counselors that can help students of all ages….[Continue]
Study Skills
Achieving success in school isn’t always easy, but it is doable if you put your mind to it. Step one is improving your study skills. Although many of this week’s study-skill sites are written by university counselors, their sound advice …[Continue]
Kids’ Jokes
In honor of April’s appointment as National Humor Month, today’s topic is clean, funny jokes. National Humor Month was founded in 1976 by author Larry Wilde, who chose April because of its frequently bleak weather, the fact that it begins …[Continue]
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875) was a Danish author whose enchanting fairy tales are among the most widely read stories in the world. “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Princess and the Pea” are three of …[Continue]
Comma Rules
The poor overused comma is a frequently misunderstood punctuation mark. This week’s website picks explain comma usage in as few as five rules, or as many as thirty….[Continue]
Homophones
A homophone is a group of words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings, such as “to, too, and two.” Homophones are a special kind of a homonym, which in addition to words that are …[Continue]
Back-to-School Quotes
The exciting back-to-school season is upon us, and what better way to get ourselves in the mood than with wisdom and humor. Whether you are looking for something for a school report, a bulletin board, or dinner table discussion, you’ll …[Continue]
Independence Day Quotes
To inspire you this 4th of July, here’s a collection of quotations about freedom, independence and patriotism. Some of these collections specifically address America’s independence, while others explore the concepts more broadly….[Continue]
