Lori
I diagram sentences for fun. Yes—you read that right—I diagram sentences for fun. I play with language the way other people play board games or musical instruments or sports. For the record, I also play board games and a couple of musical instruments, and I sometimes ride my sleek blue road bike, whose name is Aster, or my staunch grey hybrid bike, whose name is Mollusk. But at the end of the day, it is the chance to play with words—moving them around, mixing them up, making them sing—that truly brings me delight.
I've put my love of words to good use since 1996 as a freelance writing tutor and text editor. I've also worked as a writing instructor at Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, Arizona, USA), the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA), and Denison University (Granville, Ohio, USA). My teaching experience also includes 1st- and 2nd-semester German courses, intermediate- and advanced-level English as a Second Language courses, and courses designed to help pre-service teachers work effectively with students who are not native speakers of the classroom language. My academic degrees are in German Literature (BA, Kansas State University), German Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (MA, UW-Madison), Teaching English as a Second Language (Graduate Certificate, Northern Arizona University), and ESL Teacher Education (PhD, UW-Madison.)
If I could offer my students (and you!) just one piece of advice about writing, I'd say the following:
Remember that writing is both a product and a process. While the finished product is important, the process is not to be ignored! Allow plenty of time to craft multiple drafts. Frequent revision is not a sign of weakness; rather, it's the hallmark of a thoughtful writer who uses the writing process to explore, develop, and share great ideas with others!