Pico Iyer wrote a playful and eloquent article for the Los Angeles Times about his decision to write long sentences as a form of protest against our world’s obsession with speed. He explained that as a young journalist he had succumbed to the need for speed and crunched his writing into short soundbites, but as he…
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People often think sentence fragments are bad, but they are actually a writer’s best friend when used properly. This article explores sentence structure in depth, and acquaints the reader with the seven types of sentence fragments. You will learn how to write beautiful, strong sentences that are varied and complex. This lesson is for beginner…
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Reading this amazing book by Joseph Campbell, the classic, The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the first sentence just about blew me away. Not only is it extremely beautiful, it’s also incredibly long! It’s 538 characters:
Hi, I'm Shalon and I'm a writer and educator. I use this site to share what I learn on my journeys in creative writing, education, English, science, and psychology.
Each article you read here is a labour of love grounded in research, with plenty of references to professional, academic, or peer websites, books and articles. I aim to connect my writing to a larger knowledge community while offering my own unique perspective or contribution, which often comes in the form of free downloadable templates, worksheets and study guides.
Welcome. I hope you find something useful here.
You might enjoy reading the top post on my site, The 7 Types of Sentence Fragments and How to Use Them.
This post is used every day by teachers and students around the world to teach and learn the art of building beautiful, advanced sentences in English.
The free pdf download of the lesson in shortened form is free to copy, alter and distribute for non-commercial purposes.
If you are using this lesson, please let me know how you have used it and how it has helped you. I’m curious!
Below you’ll find works of art that I lovingly crafted just for you!
FEAR & HORROR IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
In this essay, I discuss why children’s literature is often scary, and why that’s awesome!
In this essay I discuss how to use comics to teach Language Arts, and how diversity in comics can help students enrich both their literacy and their life.
In this essay I discuss my personal journey with anxiety and some of the ways I’ve learned to manage my anxiety.
PLOT YOUR NOVEL WITH M.I.C.E. QUOTIENT
In this post I share what I learned at a writing conference about plotting with Orson Scott Card’s M.I.C.E. Quotient, and Mary Robinette Kowal’s adaptations to this technique, including nesting codes and try/fails. All of these techniques help you evaluate whether your plot keeps the promises you made to your readers.
