Rachel Toor is a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University’s writing program, in Spokane, and a former acquisitions editor at Oxford University Press and Duke University Press. Her most recent book is Write Your Way: Crafting an Unforgettable College Admissions Essay, published by the University of Chicago Press. Her website is Racheltoor.com.
Stories by This Author
Advice
You may understand the power of first-person writing, but can you wield it gracefully?
Advice
“Allow yourself to be terrified to take risks and take those risks anyway.”
Advice
You can opt to bore your audience silly with dense PowerPoint slides — or, you can adapt a popular business technique to better make your case.
Advice
What compelling lecturers do, and how their techniques can translate to good writing.
Advice
To reach a wider audience, try to unlearn a few habits.
Advice
A lively new book tackles the Oxford comma, the “unjustified vilification” of “me,” and other language matters.
Advice
“The failure to support new scholars with stable university positions is the biggest threat to research innovations.”
Advice
There is no easy street when it comes to writing, but this strategy may help you finish.
Advice
A Ph.D. in English who “tumbled off” the tenure track shares how she forged a new career writing fiction.
Advice
How to land an idea isn’t a skill we spend much time honing in ourselves or our students. But we should.
