How to Compose An Email

For those of you who still need help with this: Here's a helpful (and essential) list of 20 questions you should answer before you hit the send button on any email. Join the resistance, and help fight email slobbery:

1. Is the subject line helpful?

2. Did you get right to the point?

3. Is the language clear?

4. Did you say too much?

5. Are your facts right?

6. Did you say what you're replying to?

7. Were you polite?

8. Were you discreet?

9. Is there a greeting and a closing?

10. Is the attachment welcome?

11. Did you use the shift key? Capitalize properly!

12. Did you break for paragraphs?

13. Will the reader get the shorthand? Avoid "slanguage"

14. Will the joke fall flat? Don't forward jokes!

15. Does this look like spam?

16. Do all these people need copies?

17. Should you sleep on it? Never e-mail in the heat of anger.

18. Does it have to be an e-mail?

19. Did you read it again?

20. Did you check the grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

See the whole thing at Grammarphobia.com

How To Write a Literary Essay

Just a reminder: You should consult your "How to Write a Literary Essay" packet, paying particular attention to the "seven steps." This is designed to help you write your reader response essays. It should be a valuable tool; use it! Excerpt:

Analyzing literature is a learned skill and a process you can master. As you gain more practice with this kind of thinking and writing, you’ll be able to craft a method that works best for you. Until then, here are seven basic steps to writing a well-constructed literary essay:

1. Ask questions*
2. Collect evidence
3. Construct a thesis
4. Develop and organize arguments
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body paragraphs
7. Write the conclusion

* Read the "ask questions" section carefully.