por Ersun Warncke | Oct 15, 2024 | Uncategorized
William Zinsser, reissued 2016Key wordsWriting, nonfiction, writer’s craft, creative writing, narrative writing, interdisciplinary writing, writing teacher, practical writing advice, professional writing First published in 1976, On Writing Well is a book that would...
por Ersun Warncke | Oct 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
The I’s don’t have itAs a college application essay coach, my inbox is inundated with personal essays. All of them rife, riddled, replete with a construction that starts to feel like a hammer hitting a nail: I + verb.I think. I did. I was. I believe. I...
por Ersun Warncke | Oct 1, 2024 | Uncategorized
Ditch the he said/she saidThough ambivalently fond of Ernest Hemingway, one thing I can’t — won’t — argue with is the man’s approach to dialogue. As much as any 20th century writer, we have Papa H to thank for excising the clutter of he/she/they...
por Ersun Warncke | Sep 24, 2024 | Uncategorized
Coming to you from the writer’s desk, not the desk of the writer English is a magnificent language for many reasons. One of which is the mind-blowing innovation of the possessive apostrophe. In Spanish, one can’t say ‘Laura’s house’ — it has to be la casa de...
por Ersun Warncke | Sep 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
Just don’t do it.I have a brilliant student (like, brilliant; this kid says they’ll save the world, and they might just) but they have a punctuational Achilles heel: exclamation marks.Every time they send an essay I return it dotted comments that just read:...
