Good writer, bad writer

I feel incredibly fortunate to have had my blog mentioned on the internet king of all miscellanea, BoingBoing, last week when they published an email I wrote to one of the co-founders. That single mention has brought more readers on the blog, which is always a good thing in my book.

If you’re new or just finding this for the first time, here’s a greatest hits list of some of the most popular posts and among the posts that I am most proud of:

• The Value of Topic Sentences 
• Against Cynicism in Education
• What Mario knows that you don’t: Video games and assignment design
• Games in the writing classroom: designing and teaching an RPG creative writing class
• Deliberate practice, motivation, and “The Dan Plan” 
• The Hidden Value of Writing Everyday
• Staying focused on writing: The High Score Method
• Motivating Students: When “giving a sh**” meets the “oh sh**!” moment

Since one of my jobs is helping students transition from the widely taught five-paragraph essay into a more fluid format, I also constructed a series of posts called “The Five-paragraph Fix.” Here are some of the better posts in that series:

• Critical thinking essentials
• How to write longer essays

I should also take this time to mention that I’m eager to talk to readers and to develop a community here where others have a voice. If you have specific topics you’d like to seen written about or you have topics that you want to write about, please comment or drop me a line.