Most teachers can point out their students’ mistakes. But you’re wrong if you think that’s the way to make an excellent writer out of your student.

This is the first of a regular feature on the WriteAtHome blog: the SAT Word post. It is designed, of course, to help students prepare for the SAT, but it will help anyone interested in expanding their vocabulary.

I won’t be just posting an impressive word and its definition. There are scores of websites where you can get that. I’d like to present a word that commonly appears on the SAT and then provide some exercises that will help you to incorporate the word into your working vocabulary. Memorizing lists of words is only minimally helpful, after all, and only for the short term. With vocabulary words, the old expression applies: Use it or lose it.

Is it ok to say funnest and funner? Here’s what I have to say about it.

You might know your stuff and even show some passion for the subject. But that’s not enough.

We all use idioms, but most of us never think very hard about where they come from. An idiom, by the way, is a word, phrase, or expression that carries meaning separate from the literal meaning of the words. Idioms are figurative and commonly understood. Idioms cause particular confusion with language learners, including children.

Which is right: till, ‘til, or til?