There are times when a poorly written essay feels like a literal "mind trap:" a labyrinth of poorly expressed, chosen, and inadequately organized ideas that requires what feels like an infinite number of re-reads so that I can effectively pinpoint on the rubric and articulate in my comments what wasn't working, and the more I read the essay, the ( Read more... )

Essay Writing Practice (Example Exercise):

Step one:
Listen to and read the lyrics for the following two songs:

1. "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie
2. "She's leaving home" by The Beatles

Step two:
- Write a brief summary of each song, describing, in your own words, what you think the topic(s) is/are of both songs and how the songs characterize their topic ( Read more... )