by 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...
by 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:...
by Ersun Warncke | Sep 10, 2024 | Uncategorized
Why ‘I did it myself’ won’t doDelete thisAs promised, this week begins a series of five posts that will improve your writing without you writing a word.Ctrl+f Delete: The secret to better writingMy favorite literary gibe of all time is Truman Capote...
by Ersun Warncke | Sep 3, 2024 | Uncategorized
What’s new with Write To SuccessThe Write To Success Substack is closing in on its first anniversary.Thank you for being here, and diving into its sea of think pieces, interviews, rants, etc. In the coming year, Write To Success will focus on delivering...
by Ersun Warncke | Aug 27, 2024 | Uncategorized
How circumstances shape life chancesWhile I cherish the idea of autonomy, life experience and research argue persuasively that my choices (while still choices) are rooted in the soil of where I was born, to whom, how I was raised and what it took to get...
by Ersun Warncke | Aug 20, 2024 | Uncategorized
Why self-awareness never comes too late“I wish I could do it over again.”My husband looked askance: “You wish you weren’t here?”That wasn’t — isn’t — what I wish at all. But helping high school students craft college application essays had me wishing that someone had...
by Ersun Warncke | Aug 13, 2024 | Uncategorized
Or, Why it’s hard to be heardI’ve been preparing course materials for an A-level English Language course and, among a slew of handouts left over from previous teachers, found this assessment of Robin Lakoff’s ‘Language and Woman’s Place’:“As you can see, [hers...
by Ersun Warncke | Aug 6, 2024 | Uncategorized
Writing insights from the Editwright Publishing Consultancy founder Welcome to Write Like a Pro — where experts from diverse fields and industries discuss how writing supports their professional success. In this interview Andrew Doty, founder of boutique publishing...
by Ersun Warncke | Jul 30, 2024 | Uncategorized
Teaching the courage to be uniqueAnglo-Irish literary aesthete, prodigy and queer icon Oscar Wilde advised: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”Like so much of his language, the words flit quicksilver from the tongue, they practically trail champagne...
by Ersun Warncke | Jul 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
Revisiting authorial advice I wrote this article some years ago, after interviewing three authors. It is worth revisiting._______________________“It is impossible to become a writer without reading,” says Paul Hendrickson, writing professor at the University of...
