You’ve seen your fair share of messages on t-shirts, and you’ve probably worn a few t-shirts with writing on them.
Sports teams, music groups, camps, and even hospitals put their messages or advertisements on t-shirts.
They are like wearable billboards, and everyone reads them as you walk by. What message do you want to tell people? (more…)
You learn important skills in essay writing that you can apply to other forms of writing, but are essays always the best way to communicate ideas to others?
When Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wanted to save a piece of American history in 1830, what did he do?
Did he write his senator? Take out an ad in the local papers? Write a letter to the editor? Make protest signs?
Although all of those things are legitimate ways of communicating with people, he did none of them yet still succeeded in saving the USS Constitution, an old warship that had fought in the important War of 1812.
How did he do it? (more…)
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson writes that our “inalienable rights” are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Inalienable” means you can’t sell your rights or transfer them to someone else. They’re yours to keep.
But what does “the pursuit of happiness” mean? (more…)
Former U.S. presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson used to be hot rivals but became close friends later in life. In fact, for the last twelve years of their lives, they wrote to each other almost daily. In one letter about a year before his death, Jefferson wished the ailing Adams “nights of rest” and “days of tranquility.”
Near the end of their lives, they wrote to each other that they wanted something very special. Do you know what they wanted? (more…)
True story: I was eating dinner in a restaurant recently when I heard a woman in the booth behind me state, “This is an abomination!”
My ears perked up. My curiosity was piqued. I rarely hear the word “abomination” any more and wondered what could be so horrific as to need that word. I imagined she and her dining partner were reading a magazine article on human trafficking or perhaps watching a YouTube video about persecution in Indonesia.
I strained my ears to learn what she was referring to. (more…)
Many exciting stories have come from scientific ponderings. Take, for instance, Frankenstein. It was written by Mary Shelley while the scientific world debated the idea of reanimation. Could something dead, a frog, perhaps, be reanimated by electricity? And if a frog could be brought back to life, what about a human? And if a human could be brought back to life, does that mean we should?
So Dr. Frankenstein sews together pieces of cadavers and, after many failed attempts, actually brings to life this cobbled-together thing, this human, if you can call it that.
Eighty years later, H. G. Wells is exploring a similar topic in The Island of Dr. Moreau. Can humans and animals be joined together?
Fast-forward 200 years from Shelley’s Frankenstein. What happens if scientists (more…)
Writing tools for all ages!
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