When you hear the words philanthropy, respect, and tender, do you think of a bear's attitude toward man? The bear from Aesop's "The Bear and the Fox" certainly does—and the fox would beg to differ! Class members listen to an audio...

Curse words, vulgar words, swear words, bad words. Why are some words labeled as inappropriate? Check out this short history of taboo words and their significance.

This video lesson from Yossarian the Grammarian explains how decide between using the word "society" and the word "people" when writing or speaking.

This video lesson from Yossarian the Grammarian explains how to interpret a sentence that uses present progressive verb tense and ambiguous wording.

This TurtleDiary interactive video lesson [1:27] features information about homophones. Games and worksheets are provided to supplement this homophones lesson

This video lesson from Yossarian the Grammarian demonstrates how clarify and edit adverbs so that they are not ambiguous in a sentence.

A screencast explaining the importance of removing obvious information from writing and providing several examples of obvious statements that could be eliminated. [2:52]

This video lesson focuses on the word connotation. It defines the term and discusses the impact connotation can have on an audience. It looks at the dictionary definitions of three words: course, class, and field, and uses their synonyms...

A screencast lesson explaining the difference between strong and weak verbs as well as how to replace weak verbs with stronger ones in a sentence. [4:17]

A video lesson explaining the difference between strong and weak verbs and providing examples of strong verbs that could be used to replace weaker verbs. [7:24]

Notes introducing author's voice and identifying specific techniques authors use to express their voice. Students can either read or listen to the notes. W.11-12.1d Tone/Style

A video lesson defining a strong verb and explaining how to create strong verbs within a written text by changing passive voice to active voice, eliminating unnecessary qualifiers, and reducing phrases to a single word. [7:24]

This video explains how to use a thesaurus and what information it gives you. [3:09]

Use vivid verbs the reader can "see." [7:34]

This video [4:04] will help you learn how to write for your audience in narrative, informational, and persuasive writing. You'll learn about writing style, formal and informal word choice, and tone.

In this video, viewers watch as a class dissects a poem and discusses the author's word choice.

Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy. [7:44]

A tutorial introducing the use of slang. Audio [1:07] is also available.