Writing Articles (Sorted by date)

What if somebody doesn't like my cause? Or religion? Or hobby? Or nationality? Or height? I can't believe how many times clients have said to me, "But what if the adcom doesn't like _________ [fill-in-the-blank: tennis players,...

You can argue about the devil, but certainly the substance, distinctiveness, and success of your essays depends on the details. Many applicants tend to bury their uniqueness and success under vague assertions.

"What makes you unique is not that you have had these life-altering experiences, but rather how and why your perspective has changed or been reinforced as a result of those and other everyday experiences. That is a story that only you can tell.

OK. You didn't get accepted at any of the schools you applied to. What should you do now? Deal. Get over it. And consider what you’re going to do next year.

Being wait-listed is tough, and you need the right set of keys to open the door to your dream program. The truth is that even with these keys, it's still not guaranteed that the lock will work.

In Berlin a restaurant opens for anorexics and in Buffalo a lawyer with a stutter wins a court case. When everything you're working on has gone STALE and your own initially promising concepts are starting to annoy you, you need a brainstorming...

In the ten years that I've taught people how to get on with their books and creative projects, I've noticed a phenomenon that I'll call "Author's Block." Would-be writers can, indeed, sit down and work when pressed to...

The other day, a client told me, “I’ve been talking to a lot of other aspiring writers and I can’t believe how unsupportive they are. I had an editor interested in something I’d written and two other writers were unbelievably...

Writers face many decisions when working on a project. Choosing the correct word for a certain situation is one choice that writers often either struggle with or make an incorrect choice.

The most common mistake people tend to make while writing is in the use of Punctuation. Wrong punctuation can damage the flow of ideas and change meaning, but properly used punctuation not only helps readers understand your meaning but also makes...