Archive for May, 2009
May 28th, 2009
Creative writing is often thought to mean fiction or poetry writing, specifically the kind of creative writing taught in workshops at liberal arts colleges where people sit around and ask each other questions about character motivation, symbolism, and whether you’ve earned your cliche.
Actually, creative writing is so much more than that. You can approach any writing creatively, be it a research paper, an essay, a journalistic article, or even a blog entry. I like to think that I’m approaching this blog, even now, from my own creative angle. All ‘creative writing’ means is that you are infusing your writing with your personal creative spirit. That the creative energy of your writing comes from you and you alone. Not only is creative often confused with ‘fiction,’ but it’s also confused with the false idea that in order to be creative, what you are doing has to be a completely isolated work that lives on its own, outside of what anyone else has ever done. That’s simply not true. Writers are often influenced by other writers, and part of being creative is letting yourself be inspired by the work of others. There are many myths to being creative, and the purpose of this post is to encourage students to find their own routes to creativity. We are all endowed with the creative aspect; it’s just up to us to access it!
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May 27th, 2009
We are so happy Eduify has added more users this week to its beta than ever before. And, that you’re using our product! Welcome, new students and avid writers! We hope that with us, you can write better, smarter, and more efficiently.
The first rule about Eduify is that you don’t talk about Eduify. Just kidding, we want you to tell everyone you know! By doing so, you’ll win points which you can convert to coins, which you can use to purchase services on the site. So the first real rule of Eduify is that you should share our services with your friends. Eduify is a social platform that enables students to interact with and help one another in writing assignments, so the more friends you have on Eduify, the better it works for you!
In honor of this weeks “more users than ever” added to beta, we want to tell you the top 10 reasons to use Eduify.
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May 22nd, 2009
Congratulations! The school year is done (or almost done) for most of you. For all you college bound seniors excited for the next stage of life, this is your last real high school summer. You probably want to spend your summer hanging out with your friends at that one 18-and-over club within driving distance (Eduify does not endorse illegal activities), but you should know two things. First, try not to get arrested. Second, try to read something at some point in the next three months.
I know it’s seriously cramping your style to have to do any sort of mind exercise after you finished your whirlwind year of APs, SATs, and college applications, but college is an entirely different game than high school, and it’s important to keep your minds sharp and fresh. Contrary to popular belief, you won’t melt like the Wicked Witch if you walk into a library. To ease the process of reading, here are some great summer reading (i.e. not too heavy, nothing Pynchonian or Foster-Wallacesque) books ABOUT college life. Some are optimistic, some are pessimistic, and in some, people actually die. All are great books set in a realistic collegiate atmosphere – perfect for those incoming college freshmen looking for hints of what is to come. Not to be ominous or anything.
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May 20th, 2009
I wish there were some sort of organic chocolate-flavored laxative for writer’s block, but unfortunately for writers, there isn’t. Most writers, at some point or another, complain about not being able to write. The writers who claim they don’t ever have writer’s block are usually laughable lazy terrible less critical writers. Prolific writers like Danielle Steele might come out with several books a year, but no one could ever, with a straight face, compare her to someone like Dorris Lessing.
Some writers, notably famous authors and those who have the option of writing leisurely, can afford to suffer from short bouts of writer’s block. Others, like you students, don’t. For you, deadlines exist, regardless of whether anything exists in your empty document. And, seriously, I get your pain. As a student, whenever I had writer’s block, my grade was docked for turning in assignments late, despite the fact that I came up with some pretty demented explanations for my lateness, which included everything from fictionary dead relatives to hospital trips for imaginary kidney stones to every type of disgusting indigestion/food poisoning imaginable (I assumed that if I grossed my teachers out enough, they wouldn’t pry too far into my reasons for needing an extension). Weirdly, I had the imagination to invent whole scenarios explaining why my paper wasn’t done, yet no mental capacity to actually sit down and write it. And, no surprise, my teachers never bought my excuse. In fact, I probably offended their intelligence by even assuming that they would.
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May 17th, 2009
Continuing our list of the 50 words most commonly confused, here are 25 more, and examples for each on proper usage.
25. whole/ hole: I ate the whole bag of chips to fill the hole in my stomach.
26. incidence/ incidents: This situation was not a singular incidence, as there have been many similar incidents.
27. instants/ instance: In an instance, the rocket took off. The rocket did not take off in an “instants,” which is an odd word that simply mean the plural of “instant”.
28. insight/ incite: The article gave some people insight into the phenomenon of religious dogmatism, but for others, it merely incited anger and offense.
29. its/ it’s: It’s hard to find a shag carpet, as its texture has not been in vogue for some time.
30. later/ latter: I’ll either see you sooner or later, though my guess is the latter.
31. lay/ lie: I try not to lie, but I lay down whenever I get the chance.
32. peace/ piece: Peace will never happen as long as everyone wants a piece of the Middle East.
33. plain/ plane: The size of the plane is plain to see.
34. pore/ pour: Pour some of this medication onto your skin to shrink your pores.
35. precedence/ precedent: Our policies set the precedent, as we always give precedence to the oldest member.
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