During my freshman year of high school, my well-meaning English teacher told me that, given my writing skills at the time, I would not be able to go to college.

Two years later, I not only had the highest AP English Language and Composition score in my class, I also had the most dramatic increase in writing competency since I began as one of the weakest (if not the weakest) students in my cohort.

Ever since I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my writing has only improved.

My teaching philosophy is straightforward: all students are capable of excellent writing. My role is simply to help students organize their thinking so that their good ideas are reflected accurately and coherently in their essays and other writing projects.

The common mistake students make is thinking that there are people who are just "good" at writing or that writing is a convoluted process. In reality what we consider "good writing" has tried and true formulas for success and, with a little bit of guidance, can be applied to any thing you want to write.