How-To Chisnell.com
How To Make Forum Posts
The basics of posting to the chisnell.com forums.
How to Post to the Forums
Videos and pics to show how to use the Chisnell.com Forums.
Choosing a Topic Pt. 1
How do you even start in choosing a topic? Here’s one approach!
Moodle Strategies
Instructions and Strategies around Moodle use.
Website Introduction
Videos that introduce different ways to use the chisnell.com site.
Cover Letters
Cover Letters Sometimes I will require you to add a cover letter to your writing, but I’ve found that it’s always a good idea to do so. It reflects well on you as a student and thinker, someone concerned about success in a thoughtful way instead of just for “points.”...
Essay Tip: Write the Intros last!
I wanted to give out an essay tip that Mr. Chisnell mentioned in the Flatland essay workshop over the summer. He said that it might be a good idea to start your essay by writing the body paragraphs first. Mr. Chisnell went on to explain that this might help in...
Turning in Papers and Other Major Assignments
Using Google Drive In general, I will comment on and score assignments in the same format in which I receive them. Moodle assignments on Moodle, hardcopy with handwritten comments, email in response to email, etc. Even so, the best choice for turning in...
Essai
Michel de Montaigne has been called the inventor of the essay. But what American students call an essay (noun) is originally a French verb, essai. To essai is "to explore," in particular the workings of the writer's own thinking. In this sense the best...
The Stephen King School of Detail
I call it this because King must be doing something right to sell so many novels so often. After King released his excellent nonfiction work, On Writing, I have modified this list based upon his direct advice about what makes writing work. Physicalize the...
Bonsai
Imagine the care required in a lifetime of work discovering the beauty in a miniature tree. The bonsai artist visualizes and contemplates, crafts and prunes . . . all the time removing everything which isn't beautiful. The tree--our writing, our idea--contains...