From the Experts « The Twisted Pencil

Posts from From the Experts category

no comments add yours

12 years ago

Pushing Through Your College Career: Why You Need To Consider Graduate School

Not everyone is lucky enough to have parents who can provide for them financially while they’re in college. This means that the longer you’re in school, the more financially independent you can become – shouldering the cost of tuition, books, and housing at least

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

What to do With ‘Kids Stuff’ After High School

Storage Bins are Stackable

Separate and organize the goods and put them in large stackable bins. Trophies can be put together in this small space, balls, collectible dolls or whatever other goodies you collected over the years. Clothes that are outgrown or stained can be donated to

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

5 Things I Wish I Did Differently in College

Hindsight is 20-20, right? Well, for me, hindsight is 20–5,000,000 when it comes to college and the college search. Now that I’ve graduated and work with CollegeXpress, a college and scholarship search website, I’ve truly learned the ideal way to embark on the college search

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

Learning to Save in College

For many young adults, the college years are the beginning of the “real world”. A time when you need to begin thinking about which bank accounts will help you best control your finances and manage a budget. If you learn to save money while you’re still in college, you will have

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

Preparing for Your Study Session

The age-old wisdom still applies: Do not study harder, study smarter. However, now that paper, pencils and black-and-white composition books have become relics in the Smithsonian, “smarter” translates “fire-up all the machines and dial-in the best apps.”

Back in the day,

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

How to Find the Best Online College for You

Getting an online degree is becoming more and more attractive to people living in our busy society; no one has any time anymore! It is much easier to get a degree from the comfort of your home rather than commuting to school, sitting through a class in an uncomfortable seat, and then

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

College Adventures: The Benefits of Studying Abroad

What are the benefits of studying abroad? When you’re in college, they are numerous.

And this is aside from the fact that — hello! – you’ll be studying abroad. As in another country! Far from home. Experiencing new cultures and new ways of doing things. Meeting new

→ read full post

no comments add yours

12 years ago

5 Ways to Stay Focused on Future Goals in College

Every college student regularly faces the temptation: whether to go out or to study. This is not very different from the temptations face by everyone, whether to work or to play. However, college students have a greater temptation to party than most people. They live with their

→ read full post

no comments add yours

13 years ago

Writing Wrongs #1: Chasing Squirrels

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who has a bad case of ADD? There you are, sobbing out your life story and describing how Gomez was so mean to you when suddenly–Squirrel! The subject is changed to that clever little squirrel raiding the bird feeder, and

→ read full post

no comments add yours

13 years ago

Writing Wrongs #2: Forgetting the Fireworks

One of the greatest writing sins is forgetting the fireworks. By this I mean forgetting to make the writing memorable, punchy, and filled with strong verbs.

For example:

The company Board of Directors decided to reorganize. The Vice President of Sales is now in charge of Marketing.

→ read full post

2 comments add yours

13 years ago

Writing Wrongs #3: Being a Wuss

Buy now! Act today! Pick up the phone and call! The first 10 (or 50 or 100 or 1000) callers get a free (low cost or high value) special offer. So give us your credit card today and your very own LIVE YAK BUTTER MAKER will arrive on your doorstep. We’ll even upgrade

→ read full post

1 comment add yours

13 years ago

Wicked Writing Wrongs #4: A Foolish Consistency

What? You thought because last time I said you should be consistent that I meant all the time??

Come on. You know me better by now, don’t you?

Think of Emerson: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” You don’t want to be foolish, do

→ read full post

no comments add yours

13 years ago

Wicked Writing Wrongs #5: Inconsistency

Have you ever seen a bullet list of, say, favorite hobbies, that looks something like this:

Going to movies
I like to read music books
With friends I play online games

Most often when you see this problem, it’s not as a bullet list, but a list within a sentence:

My favorite

→ read full post

1 comment add yours

13 years ago

Writing Wrongs #6: Who Did What to Whom?

When you’re writing, sooner or later you’re going to use a pronoun: he or she, him or her, we or they, and so on. A pronoun must always have an antecedent (from “ante”—to participate in a poker game, and “see dent,” to park your car in a crowded lot, thus, “ante see

→ read full post

2 comments add yours

13 years ago

Writing Wrongs #7: Being Passive-Aggressive

Did you ever have a friend who refused to argue about anything? You suggest going out for Indian food, and instead of telling you that he hates Indian, he says nothing at all, then sits in the restaurant looking miserable and picking at his food while making snide comments about

→ read full post

no comments add yours

13 years ago

More Wicked Writing Wrongs

We’re reviewing some of the common screw-ups that make any teacher cringe–or at least a teacher who knows his or her grammar and punctuation. Yes, unfortunately, I see far too many of these mistakes in the assignments handed out to students. But you know…you

→ read full post

no comments add yours

13 years ago

10 Wicked Writing Wrongs: The Beginning

Everybody tells you what to do, right? Well, I’m different. Over the next few posts, I’m going to tell you what not to do. It’ll be kind of like that TV show, “What Not to Wear,” which features fashion faux pas, but this will be more fun. Shall we count down the

→ read full post

1 comment add yours

13 years ago

Ideas, ideas, ideas…

Anyone who’s ever published a book on anything is bound to have been asked one question:

Where do you get your ideas?

What do they think? That there’s a global idea shortage? (Hey, folks, that’s a global smarts shortage, not a global idea shortage!) Or do they

→ read full post

2 comments add yours

13 years ago

Be careful what you write

You know, it’s pretty easy to not exactly mean what you say when you write something. And if you’re writing under deadline sometimes strange things happen.

Need proof? See these actual headlines that someone probably regretted as soon as the newspaper hit the street:

Man

→ read full post