Trigger warning: I’m about to list some terms that might give you nightmares. Do you remember these?

• Gerunds
• Participles
• Sentence diagrams
• Split infinitives
• Absolute modifiers

Just talking about them might cause you to flash back to middle school. You’re sitting in a sweaty classroom, listening to the chalk squeak as your teacher writes the definition for each term on a dusty chalkboard.

You, in the meantime, are mentally calculating how many minutes are left before lunchtime.

Here’s the thing about learning to write: It’s not about the terms above. Yes, you need to be aware of them. But if you think learning to write well …read more