On a gray November morning, stacks of essays sat on an admissions counselor’s desk at a New England liberal arts college. She ...

In the high-stakes world of college admissions, your application essay is your superpower. While grades and test scores show your accomplishments, your essay is the one place you can speak directly to ...

The introduction and conclusion are essential to a speech. The audience will remember the main ideas even If the middle of the speech is a mess or nerves overtake the speaker. So if nothing else, get ...

The thinking seemed to be that the more fancy words and complex sentence structures they could shoehorn into an essay, the greater their likelihood of getting an A. Much of my job consisted of ...

We might earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of the links. The McClatchy Commerce Content team, which is independent from our newsroom, oversees this content. This article has ...

This Q&A first appeared in Write at the Edge, a newsletter from Mallary Tenore Tarpley featuring tips and best practices for seasoned and amateur writers who want to hone their craft. Subscribe to ...

Writing is recursive. A good writer constantly reconsiders the main ideas, organization, details, and style—while revising throughout the entire writing process. To make the writing process simple ...