Conventions in Writing: Usage
A series of video tutorials on ways to strengthen your writing style and content.
How to Write Well: What Makes Writing Good?
From great ideas to great execution, learn what makes writing 'good' and how to transform your writing from 'okay' to accomplished through the use of specific examples, great ideas, and organization.
How to Write with Good Diction to Develop Style, Tone, and Point-of-View
Developing a good writing style starts with developing good diction. You can't craft an essay or story the way you want without being able to choose the right words first. Here's how.
Active and Passive Voice
No one likes a passive person, so why should you write in the passive voice? You may have heard your teachers toss around the terms 'passive voice' and 'active voice.' You may have even been told not write in the former. But if you've never really understood what it means to write actively or passively, stick with us -- and learn how to turn to cludgy passive sentences into bright, active ones.
How to Write Logical Sentences and Avoid Faulty Comparisons
Your sentences may not always make as much sense as you think they do, especially if you're comparing two or more things. It's easy to let comparisons become illogical, incomplete, or ambiguous. Learn how to avoid making faulty comparisons on your way to writing a great essay.
Sentence Clarity: How to Write Clear Sentences
Just because you know a good sentence when you read one doesn't mean that you think it's easy to put one together. Learn how to write clear sentences and turn rough ones into gems.
Sentence Structure: Identify and Avoid Mixed Structure Sentences
A mixed structure sentence is a common error that occurs when a writer starts a sentence with one structure but switches to a different structure in the middle of the sentence. This video will teach you how to spot and avoid this type of error.
Conventions in Writing: Grammar
Short video tutorials on identifying and correcting common grammar mistakes.
How to Identify the Subject of a Sentence
Don't pass over this lesson! You may think you know how to find subjects and verbs in a sentence, but picking them out can be harder than you think. Identifying subjects and verbs is the first step to unlocking nearly everything else about English composition.
Verb Tense & Subject-Verb Agreement
Learn all about verb tense and subject-verb agreement in our first lesson on this tricky topic. We'll look at examples to help you understand this concept.
Subject-Verb Agreement: Using Uncommon Singular and Plural Nouns and Pronouns
Subject-verb agreement is a tricky beast. Learn which uncommon singular and plural nouns and pronouns are most likely to trip you up when trying to craft essays with good grammar.
Sentence Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-On Sentences
Sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences are grammatical and stylistic bugs that can seriously derail an otherwise polished academic paper. Learn how to identify and eliminate these errors in your own writing here.
Sentence Agreement: Avoiding Faulty Collective Ownership
A common error occurs whenever a writer uses wording that suggests that a lot of people own or use just one thing, when really they all own or use their own separate things. This video will explain how to identify and fix this type of error.
Independent and Dependent Clauses: Coordination and Subordination
This lesson is about independent and dependent clauses, and how they make up a sentence. Dependent clauses, like the name suggests, rely on other elements in a sentence. Independent clauses, on the other hand, can stand alone. Learn more in this lesson.
Commas: Correct Usage and Basic Rules
Think you know commas? You may be surprised. Even the most experienced writers have problems remembering all the rules. Learn the basics of comma usage in this first of two lessons on the comma.
Comma Usage: Avoid Confusion in Clauses and Contrasting Sentence Parts
Learn more about comma usage from the pros! There are just too many ways to use the comma (it's a basic punctuation mark, after all) to fit in one sentence. Watch here to learn about some of the more common traps students fall into when trying to put commas in the right place.
Punctuation: Using Colons, Semicolons, and Periods
Periods, colons, and semicolons all have the ability to stop a sentence in its tracks, but for very different purposes. In this lesson, learn how and why we use them in our writing.
What are Personal Pronouns?
Pronouns are great for making sure debaters don't have to keep repeating the other guy's name over and over again, but they have many other uses too! In fact, pronouns, you could say, make reading readable. In part one, we'll cover personal pronouns and how they're used before moving on to more esoteric varieties.
What are Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers?
Parallelism: How to Write and Identify Parallel Sentences
Sentences that aren't parallel sound funny, even if they look perfectly correct at first glance. Learn what makes a sentence parallel, how to revise a sentence to make it parallel, and how to write beautiful, balanced sentences of your own.
Parallelism: How to Write and Identify Parallel Sentences
Sentences that aren't parallel sound funny, even if they look perfectly correct at first glance. Learn what makes a sentence parallel, how to revise a sentence to make it parallel, and how to write beautiful, balanced sentences of your own.