#TutoringTuesday Levels of Diction

This week in one of my classes, I’m discussing the three main levels of diction with my student. Basically, there’s informal, Standard American English, and formal. For the sake of this freshman composition course, we don’t delve into the many variations of informal English diction, but I do plan to touch on those dialects here. Obviously Standard American English (known…

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#MondayMemories Chasing the Ice Cream Truck

Last year in April I took my family to see my old neighborhoods in College Point, New York. After visiting my favorite park and a little deli, we were going to find an old elementary school of mine. That’s when I heard THE jingle. Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, I immediately got excited — it’s Mister Softee! This franchise highlighted…

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#ThankfulThursday Warmth for My Garden

For a while there, the weather wouldn’t cooperate with the traditional planting schedule. May brought a late frost in the early days, threatening to freeze my seedlings and thriving squashes before they could ever yield a crop. Thankfully, my plants survived the cold snap and have enjoyed warmer temperatures to encourage continued growth. The tomatoes are growing taller, the pumpkin…

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#TutoringTuesday Pre-Writing Basics

In my classes this week, we’re discussing pre-writing techniques. This process helps the writer compose a better essay. Although I’ve found that some of my students prefer to just start writing as they go, using pre-writing techniques helps craft your paper according to the assignment guidelines. There are several things you’ll want to do when planning an essay: choose a…

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#MondayMemories Spider Surprise

Mother’s day was fast approaching, and my manager asked me to place teacup roses in the front entrance to attract customers. I pulled the L-cart full of boxed up arrangements to the front and began clearing room on the tables for my task. Some of the arrangements were set in cute little tea cups, while others were placed in ceramic…

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