Well put. However, one suggestion of his, as related to college writing, that I feel is always valid is throwing away the common ideas. The best advice I ever

Well put. However, one suggestion of his, as related to college writing, that I feel is always valid is throwing away the common ideas. The best advice I ever received for writing essays was very similar to what the author suggested. Every essay I write, before I begin, I come up with five ideas, or approaches to a subject or argument, and then I cross all of those off the list of things that I will use. Since you can't hide within the "common thought floating in the community soup," it really does force you to tackle a direct, and often in-depth line of argument. It takes a little more work at the beginning, but ever since employing the practice, I've yet to get anything other than an A on an essay. Grammar quizzes however.. Oh, lord.. If only there were a trick for those.. My high essay grades subsidize my lack of anything resembling grammatical competence. "Is that modifier dangling..?"