Explore the captivating world of fantasy book reviews, writing tips, and Bookstagram advice on our blog. Join L.T. Ellis on a journey through enchanted realms, where imagination knows no bounds. Discover hidden gems, sharpen your writing skills, and create stunning bookish content with L.T. Ellis Blog Posts.
Plotting by J.L. Bell
If you would like to nominate Incidental Comics as a "Best Webcomic of 2011," you can go here to voice your support. No pressure! Thanks to all my high school English teachers for providing the deeply ingrained knowledge behind this comic. And a very special thanks to my proofreaders at the Kansas City Star, who put up with my three consecutive misspellings of "Onomatopoeia." And finally: English teachers and students, past and current - you can get a poster of this comic for your classroom or reading nook here.
This month, the Reading Crew is celebrating spring! It's a fun link-up featuring a variety of mentor texts related to spring and a gr...
Bonus: Grammar lessons in authentic context. Materials needed are 2 colored pencils or markers, and writing samples. Prep time: minimal Ratiocination is the process of exact, thorough, logical thinking. It is powerful for all writers because it focuses on the language usage instead of the content. Why I like it for struggling writers and English language learners? Many struggling writers do not want to go back and edit because the thought overwhelms them. For English language learners, they do not know language forms to self-edit accurately. Ratiocination is a systematic, step-by-step process that makes language usage visual. As a teacher, I love it because I can have my students focus on specific elements. As a writer, I love it because it is not a demand to change anything, simply calling attention to it so that I can think about its effect in my writing. Sample Ratiocination Steps: Circle all of the “to be” verbs – I later extend this to all helping verbs Make a wavy line under repeated words Underline each sentence (alternate colors) Bracket the first word in each sentence Draw an arrow from subject to predicate Put “it” in a triangle X through vague words: very, got, get, nice, bad, good, stuff, thing, awesome, wonderful, so, etc. Typically, when I start with my English language learners I have them underline every sentence in alternating colors first. This just helps them visual sentence length. I have had 12th graders come up to me in the past with an essay written with only a period at the end. They never realized they did it until we did this step and they never changed colors. While this is a little extreme, it helps with cases that are more moderate too. Then it leads to the discussion about the effects of short and long sentences. This also helps writers hone in on fragments and run-ons. For a struggling reader/writer, you can discuss sentence length with low linguistic demand because they can see the colors. The second thing I typically start with English learners is drawing arrows from subject to verbs. Subject verb agreement is one of those things that can be tricky for language learners, revising for it is just conscious practice. When I modeled this for my high school students, there was always an initial frustration at its openness. All their lives someone had told them what to write, and how to revise and edit, and they never had to think about it. They wanted me to do all the work. I would mark something and they would say, well that means you have to change it. Sometimes I would, sometimes I would say, no, I really like what that does here. To illustrate this further, when we read something, if there was an excellent example of writer’s craft, we would ratiocinate their writing. Once again, this helped them read as writers. When we would come across repetition, anaphora and epistrophe in writing and I asked why the writer did it, I would get generic and thoughtless responses of the author wanted to emphasize that. While yes, that is true, there is no thinking involved. When we looked at Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, we ratiocinated and students discovered anaphora in phrases like “I have a dream,” “Now is the time,” “Let freedom ring,” “free at last,” “we can never be satisfied.” Students revised the speech in groups to remove the anaphora and compared it to the original. When we voted on which sounded better read aloud we almost always chose the original, because of the flow and the rhythm created. I had my students interview adults around the school and in their lives about what they remembered from the speech, hearing it or studying it in school. After collecting results - outside of the arguably most famous part that my children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of the skin but of the content of their character – people unanimously remembered the repeated phrases and few other specifics. This just helped illustrate the purpose of a rather abstract idea. It also got them to think beyond just standard thoughtless responses.
What are recruiters, design managers, and companies actually looking for in a UXer during the hiring process? Troy Parke has five suggestions on how you can stand out when applying for a UX job.
"50 Gifts for Writers (That They Actually Need) 2024" is an IBR resource for friends and family of writers to give the perfect gift.
Every day you see the hours passing without you being productive? Here I will reveal the daily writing routines that have brought the great writers to...
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Daydreaming was traditionally thought of as wasting time, but according to a study at Georgia Tech, those who daydream regularly test smarter—like writers
A Comic Lesson on Verbs presents the concept of verbs in a fun and entertaining way as a supplement to grammar instruction. The three-page comic can be used to introduce the concept or as a simple review before in-depth study. Included is both a black and white and color version, as well as an editable PowerPoint of the comic that you can use to teach the concept to the whole class. The comic format is perfect for ESL students and reluctant learners and may teachers supplement the lesson by having students create their own comics. Additional review activities are included. If you like this resource, you might be interested in these: Parts of Speech: Grammar Bundle Sentence Problems (Common Writing Mistakes) Middle School Language Arts Bundle Vocabulary Cartoons: Roots and Affixes Poetry Comics Bundle Hamlet: Comic Summaries and Activities A Midsummer Night's Dream: Comic Summaries and Activities Macbeth: Comic Summaries and Activities Romeo and Juliet: Comic Summaries and Activities Romeo and Juliet: Comic Summaries and Activities Intro to Shakespeare Activity Bundle
#3 in non-fiction. The first book is done at 200 parts and thanks to you it was pretty successful so I decided to go for another part to continue with the random tips, quotes and advices. hopefully, this will reach more and more writers and help many aspiring authors to improve their writing skills. ENJOY :)) **I DO NOT OWN THE COPYRIGHT TO THE MATERIALS PUBLISHED IN THIS BOOK. A big THANK YOU to @martaxSofia for making the pretty covers for the books. :)
Our notebooks are an excellent way to showcase your custom designs. Make your customers CustomHappy™ by sending these custom notebooks to them. Your message will be full-color UV printed on a faux vegan leather journal. This is a high-quality leatherette piece that offers the look and feel of genuine leather at a fraction of the price. Product details: - Comes with 112 lined pages - Features a soft cover and a black satin ribbon bookmark - Water-resistant cover - Easy to clean (you can use a damp cloth and mild soap or rubbing alcohol) - Durable enough to use every day - Dimensions: 5 1/4" W x 8 1/4" H x 3/4" thick. A great gift for your coworker leaving gifts for men, coworker leaving gifts for women.
We need to live in order to have something to write about. How do writers live a life worth writing about?
In a world where storytelling bridges cultures and epochs, the art of crafting short stories holds a special place. Enter “Story Weaver”, an avant-garde Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)…
Explore the captivating world of fantasy book reviews, writing tips, and Bookstagram advice on our blog. Join L.T. Ellis on a journey through enchanted realms, where imagination knows no bounds. Discover hidden gems, sharpen your writing skills, and create stunning bookish content with L.T. Ellis Blog Posts.
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Creative Writer Worksheet – Writing Study Guide (PDF) This week marks the end of our year of creative writer worksheets. From a multitude of possible topics I had to choose one last worksheet, and here it is! I hope this worksheet will serve as a reminder to keep studying and improving yourself as a writer. There’s always more to…
