Dash it all, there’s an octopus on my paper!

Whatever could an octopus have to do with writing a paper? Read and “sea” for yourself.

As you may know, my official capacity–or rather, my capacious official title–at Principia College is “post-graduate teaching intern in writing, Teaching and Learning Excellence Center,” which in almost layman’s terms is “super-tutor for the erstwhile Writing Center.” Last term, we started a writing blog full of tips, WriteHereWriteNowWriteOn.wordpress.com. All entries are by Principia tutors and/or writing staff, past and present. Yes, you guessed it–this week was my turn.

For your edification and enjoyment, I present not one, but two entries!

An Awk-topodous Approach to Clunky Composition: Eliminating the “awkward sentence” and revising for clarity, with octopus jokes to spare. (Yes, it is okay to have fun writing. I mean that both ways–fun writing and fun while writing.) Perhaps you hear the connection between the octopus and writing: “oc” and “awk” sound the same.

Dash it all! The difference between dashes and hyphens (my debut entry).

Write on!