Swann in love
A devastating simile: For the moment, by overwhelming her with presents, by doing her favors, he could rely upon advantages extrinsic to his...
Proust: "one phrase rising"
Excerpt from Swann's Way, first description of Vinteuil's violin and piano sonata
Proust again
On reading, an excerpt from Swann's Way
Gilbert Sorrentino (1929-2006)
Comment on Aberration of Starlight and Sorrentino's poetry
Phrasing similarities, phrasing similarities
On plagiarism in fiction
Five websites for student-writers
Or four websites and a modest joke
How to improve writing (no. 12 in a series)
From 28 syllables to 16
Writing for thinking
Excerpt from an essay on the problems of writing with a computer -- from 1988, and still relevant
Writing by hand
For students, on the benefits of handwriting
John Henry's pencil
Human v. machine
Homework-eating dogs
Advice for students: How to avoid problems when writing with a computer
Writing by hand
I was excited to read Shari Wilson's essay "The Surprising Process of Writing" in Inside Higher Ed. Wilson (a pseudonym) finds that for many...
Commas and colons, chickens and caulk
Looking at the first lines of the Odyssey in Greek, a student (I’ll call him “Joe”) asked a great question in class: Are there really comma...
And, but, for, nor, or, so, yet
Starting a sentence with a conjunction is a literary device that can be overused. And it can be annoying. But there's nothing inherently evi...
Business writing
i need help i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills hI KAT...
How to improve writing (no. 1 in a series)
From a bureaucratic e-mail
How to e-mail a professor
[By a professor, for students. As of July 2023, this post has been visited by more than 800,000 readers from at least 145 countries and terr...
How to improve writing (no. 2 in a series)
From an invitation to an evening of financial aid information
How to improve writing (no. 3 in a series)
A newspaper headline
How to improve writing (no. 4 in a series)
Add that apostrophe.
How to improve writing (no. 5 in a series)
From 8 words to 4
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
Recommended to all college writers: The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing , by Michael Harvey. A mere 100-odd pages, it's the clearest, most...
How to improve writing (no. 6 in a series)
Omit legalisms
Q and A
Marianne Moore
How to improve writing (no. 7 in a series)
Look up unfamiliar words
How to improve writing (no 8. in a series)
Making "due"?
Writing and index cards
Elaine Fine (my wife), who like me has been carrying around a Hipster PDA , showed me this passage yesterday: I have index cards and pens a...
New links
Under "fiction," I've added a link for John Steinbeck, to a Paris Review compilation of his thoughts on writing (a free download). Under "p...
On Microsoft's grammar checker
From "Microsoft Word Grammar Checker Are No Good, Scholar Conclude," in the Chronicle of Higher Education : If you've ever used Microsoft Wo...
How to improve writing (no. 9 in a series)
Omit "entire"