language | Purposeful Prose

Pointing the Finger at the Mirror

Some common words of wisdom are that language can only have an impact on you if you allow it to, but that's not always true. The way that...

A Breakdown of Advice: Scholarship Application Essays

Today, I will be following through on a suggestion that I was sent following my previous post. As a quick backstory, their children all...

Isolation by Accident: Addressing How We Use Language

It's easy to say that we don't need to understand the way a person identifies, that it's better just to accept it. Abiding by that...

The Tools of Our Gatekeepers

Purposeful Prose began with an examination of older methods by which writing and writing education has been studied. Some of the...

Why We Made Language Complicated

The reason for overcomplication and undercomplication of language has several easily dismissible reasons, some having to do with...

"It is a story that promises to get better." - Part 1

As of now, there is no single clear definition that encompasses what writer's block is because every writer faces different sets of...

Shaped by Expectation - Part 4

"Good" writers are not made. They must choose to make themselves, to practice, to learn, and to develop their skills using the most...

Style Guides: The Pros and the Cons

Those who write professionally, whether they are a student or in a career that focuses on writing, usually abide by some kind of style...

Shaped by Expectation - Part 1

In academic settings, students are often expected to find the best possible way to produce fact and analysis of fact without knowing the...

Reinventing Writing: Is Assertiveness Always the Answer?

In my last post, "Are We Limitless," I described post-process theory according to Thomas Kent and some of the methods by which...