Tip #3 Be authentic! This might sound cliched, but it’s useful advice for students writing their college essays. It’s much easier to write about yourself when you’re not trying to be someone else. I’ve been especially reminded of this wisdom over the past few months as I work with twins from Essex, CT on their […]
Read MoreTip #2 “I don’t know what to write about!” This is the number one source of frustration for students starting their college essays. A typical scenario occurred last week with one of my students from Madison, CT. She struggled to choose between two different essays. One, she really liked, but feared it wasn’t “traditional” enough. […]
Read More“That’s part of my brand.” So said a Harvard student to my daughter as he was trying to woo her with his impressive credentials. He was a clown but he was stating some part of the truth. I’ve grown away from the prestige seeker I once was. The self-esteem that seems attached to name […]
Read More“I am going to be an influencer.” So said Jillian, a student from Old Lyme Connecticut who attends Lyme-Old Lyme High School. Since I provide college-career counseling in the new world of work, I did not scoff at Jillian. Instagram influencers exist. Some Instagram influencers earn their living as influencers. Some earn a […]
Read More82% of employers want candidates with written communication skills Good writing increases profitability; bad writing hurts a company’s bottom line. Businesses now spend a billion a year on remedial writing training for their employees (Kaleigh Moore . Inc.). So more and more employers are looking to hire people who already know how to write well. […]
Read MoreWhy students should care about refining their writing skills. Certainly for other reasons than an A on the Hamlet essay, writing skills can open or close doors after high school. After all, writing is communication, and effective communication in business is key. As Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon put it, your ability to “communicate with […]
Read MoreMost of the students we tutor in CT and NY have incredibly busy lives. If they participate in sports, as they often do, their schedules are tightly packed with practices, games, and homework. Writing skills are typically the first to be sacrificed to the school-year time crunch. But they don’t have to be, and they […]
Read MoreOf the “big” three academic skills–reading, writing, and math–writing probably lost the most ground last year. Students hardly did any writing last year, especially compared to prior years. And although this isn’t surprising, given the stresses on teaching and learning during the pandemic, it doesn’t bode well for overall academic acheivement. As my summer writing […]
Read MoreYoung men are opting out of college. That’s the headline in a dozen or so recent articles pointing out the decline in male academic performance. When I wrote Motivate Your Son in 2012, I saw this train wreck coming based on the hundreds of boys who entered our Student Mastery Program. Most of the girls […]
Read MoreComing of Age Ceremonies Religions and cultures across the globe have celebrations to honor becoming an adult. For that reason, it would seem that transitioning from child or adolescent to adult must be a big deal. Here in the melting pot of the US, many of those religions and cultures still have those celebrations. However, […]
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