Archive
Tag: Mark Pennington
Reading Incentive Ideas
As an M.A. reading specialist, I have served in elementary, middle school, high school, and community college settings. Getting kids and adults to put down their…
Avoid Attention-Getting Alliteration
Avoid using poetic devices, such as alliteration, in essays. Poetic devices focus the reader’s attention on the writing itself, while essays are designed to argue a…
Three Types of Conjunctions
“Conjunction junction, what’s your function?” A clever rhyme, but the rest of the lyric provides little help to answer the question. Here’s the answer with some memory…
Coordinating Conjunctions | Writing Style
Frequently, teachers will tell their students not to begin their sentences with coordinating conjunctions. Teachers give this advice because many students who use these sentence beginnings…
Similes | Essay Writing Rules
Don’t use similes or other figures of speech in formal writing, such as essays. If comparisons are used to provide better understanding or analysis, the objects…
Split Infinitives
Splitting infinitives is fine in casual conversation and in informal writing; however, avoid adding more than one word between the to and the base form of…
Prepositions | Writing Style Rules
Writers often misuse prepositions, modifying the wrong words, or dangling them at the ends of sentences.
Useless Adjectives and Adverbs
Instead of useless adjectives, writers should use specific and concrete nouns. Instead of useless adverbs, writers should use vivid verbs.