Kevin Brookhouser

Graphic designer, Maya Eilam posted an incredible infographic on Kurt Vonnegut's theories of archetypal stories. I'm using it in my classroom to teach students how to structure the one-act play they're writing. First, we discuss the different forms. Then, I ask students to think of their favorite stories and consider where they fit in this model. Finally, I have them fill out a form like this. Give it a try yourself, and see what submissions other readers have submitted  here . Loading...

I posted another Writing Felony over at grmr.me/who . This one deals with the notorious who / whom problem.

Over the weekend I launched the new and improved grmr.me , a site that allows English teachers to flip their grammar instruction. Rather than marking papers with common writing errors, teachers can now give them a link to a page that has a video that teaches students to identify and resolve the error. Students may also take a short quiz on the topic to earn a badge. The site will continue to grow throughout the year.

I am beginning a series of videos about writing called Writing Felonies . In these videos, I will cover some of the most egregious writing crimes and show how to avoid them or fix them. My first one is about comma splices.

If I can get my students to leave my class knowing how to write predictable, formulaic five-paragraph essays, I feel like I've done my job. I believe that before young writers can learn how to dance, they need to learn to be pedestrian, and I find that my students still have a hard time walking. I've offered handouts, lectures, activities, and group discussions about how to structure a five-paragraph essay, and when they turn in their work, still too many of their essays are disorganized messes. Then I created The Essay Machine. The Essay Machine is simply a Google Docs template using a table in a text document. The table has two columns with my instructions on the left column and a place for students to write their sentences in the right column. I have the rows divided into six different sections. One for each paragraph and a separate section for the title. Within each paragraph section, I have rows that explicitly instruct what kind of sentence goes where. Writing becom...