Archive for the ‘Writing Tip’ Category
October 28th, 2009
By: Garin Kilpatrick
“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.” -Marianne Moore
There is a scene from the Academy Award Winning movie A River Runs Through it where a young boy brings his paper to his teacher, repeatedly, for review. Time after time, the burly teacher hands young Norman back his paper and demands “half as long!” Eventually, after several frustrating fails, Norman’s teacher is satisfied with Norman’s paper. Norman’s final paper is only a fraction of the original size, yet tells the same story, and Norman has received the editing lesson of his life. While we’re not Norman’s teacher, we do have a few tips to help you edit your own writing more effectively.
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October 26th, 2009
By: Julia H. Jackson
“I believe in putting the horror in the mind of the audience and not necessarily on the screen.” – Alfred Hitchcock, in an interview with BBC reporter Huw Wheldon, May 5, 1965.
In 1954, notable director Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter John Michael Hayes sat down to adapt the Cornell Woolrich short story “It Had to Be Murder” into Rear Window, what later became one of the most renowned films in American history. The original story featured only three characters: injured journalist L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries, his girlfriend Stella, and Lars Thorwald, Jeff’s neighbor, who he suspects has murdered his wife. Hitchcock and Hayes expanded Woolrich’s world to include a star-studded cast (featuring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly), a complete Greenwich-style apartment complex, and a minimal score by Franz Waxman. Somehow, Hitchcock and his team created a suspense-driven universe that played on themes of isolation, voyeurism, and romance. Just how did they do it? In today’s Write Like You Mean It, we’ll share some of Hitchcock’s own personal philosophies for creating a Window of your own.
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October 12th, 2009
By Julia H. Jackson
What do Jane Austen, sea monsters, high school girls, and zombies have in common? I’ll give you a hint: “bloodline” takes new meaning when classic books are re-envisioned.
In honor of Halloween, we at Eduify have decided to investigate a new phenomenon: the burgeoning popularity of dark humor in popular literature, television and film. And by dark, we are referring to the macabre, sinister, and surprisingly funny sides of human nature. Looking for a way to spruce up your latest English paper? Need a new hook for that short story you’ve always meant to submit? In our first installment of Write Like You Mean It, we offer a creative writing prompt that jumpstarts your approach to writing. Today’s concept: crafting fiction, vis-à-vis elements of humor and horror.
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August 4th, 2009
There’s no doubt about it: scholarship essays are a tricky matter to approach. Scholarship competitions often arrive at your doorstep during the last half of the school year, by far the most hectic time in the academic year when students are already bogged down with extracurriculars, final exams, looming end-of-year grades, not to mention stress-inducing standardized tests. More often than not, high-schoolers focus on their “real schoolwork” and procrastinate on the “optional schoolwork” of scholarship applications, to the point where they end up scrambling, up to the final hours, to turn in shoddy, half-hearted applications, essays, and personal statements to a host of scholarship competitions they actually would have had a good chance of winning, had they simply believed in themselves more and taken more time to do a job well done. Read the rest of this entry »
August 2nd, 2009
By: Garin Kilpatrick
Writing a paper can seem like a daunting task at times, but eduify is here to help! The following five tips give great advice about how to write a successful paper, and how to make sure it stays secure! Writing a strong thesis, and developing an effective outline, provide a solid base from which to build a well written paper.
With eduify you can check for plagiarism with ease, and develop a works cited page in a snap. The following five tips will help you on your way to writing a Paper worth an A.
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