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Calling a book “non-fiction” is a bit like saying you have a dog. Sure it covers the basics, but there's a big difference between a Doberman an...

Who says documentaries are boring? This video's basically a mini documentary about documentaries and it's awesome. Right everyone? Right? ...We'll...

Picking a theme for a party is pretty easy—always go karate party, because they come with nunchuck egg rolls. Themes in writing are a little diff...

ELA Drills, Advanced: Punctuation 4. Which of the words is spelled correctly?

ELA Drills, Intermediate: Meanings 1. Choose the words that would give the sentence an "insecure" or a "confident" tone.

Historians are still debating whether or not the first paragraph was written by a caveman named Krog.* While they're busy debating, you should watc...

Today we're learning all about allusions. We're pretty much the David Blaines of allusions. Oh you didn't know? Along with illusions, he's actually...

Hm. So this is supposed to be a summary of a video about...summaries. Well, to summarize we just talk about summaries and—ugh, this is getting to...

If you think stories about Abraham Lincoln hunting vampires were written with absolutely no research...well...we understand. But the fact is that a...

Sorry to disappoint, but this isn't a religion centered around banging metal plates together. Symbolism is a literary device authors use all the ti...

If you're building a case involving literature does that make it a...bookcase? Well, not in this case. Check out the video to learn all about what...

Review, revise, recycle, reuse...we're getting the feeling re-thinging things is a good idea in general. Make sure to re-watch this video over and...

Point your view at the screen and we'll teach you all about points of view in this Shmoopy video. 

ELA Drills, Intermediate: Spelling 3

Personally we don't like it when anything creeps. It's just...creepy. Today we'll learn all about preventing that from happening with opinions. You...

Quick. Run for the fiber bars, we've got all kinds of irregularity in this video. Oh wait...thank goodness. It's just with the verbs. Let's learn a...

Today we'll learn about how people tend to write about things that are going on in the time period they live in. You know, kind of like how you're...

This video will allow only the most perfect verbs in it. We're not kidding. If you're an imperfect verb you'd better not even watch. We're looking...

Step one: find the story's narrator. Step two: wait until they fall asleep. Step three: carefully trace their outline. Boom. Done. Or you could do...

For when the first search just didn't quite cut it...

No, this isn't a history lesson. Someday, whether it's for official government documents, a job application, or maybe even if you're just an old soul who likes writing things out, you'll need to know how to write a letter.

Today we're learning all about the poetic techniques in Beowulf like awesome alliteration and caesura...salad. When's lunch again?

Not unlike bread dough, stories need plenty of rising action and structure...otherwise they can fall pretty flat.

Today we're gonna teach ya'll about dialects and their uses in creative writing. Ya hear? Well, you will once you watch the video.

This video defines transition words and how to use them. It goes over the different ways transition words can be used to relate ideas in an essay and gives examples of useful transition words for each of these different scenarios.

The main takeaway here is that before the 1800's, government-funded schools didn't even exist. How great do you have it today, right? ...right?

Lend us your eyes and ears, because today we're learning about figurative language. And don't worry, we'll totally give you your eyes and ears back after. 

Today we'll learn about Freytag's Pyramid, which unfortunately has nothing to do with mummies...unless it's being applied to the movie The Mummy, in which case it's totally crawling with them.

What? Who in the world would be afraid of a stage? It's talking on one in front of a bunch of people that gives us the willies.

ELA Drills, Intermediate: Textual Analysis 2. Which sentence would be the best evidence to support the argument?

Okay, nobody likes taking notes, especially about dusty old schools. Well, luckily Cornell notes can be about anything you want. They just help keep things organized. And organization is almost fun...right? Right?

Speeches are much more than just talking at others. Now you'll know that before getting up in front of class and just wingin' it like we did. Fun (and related) fact: singing the Friends theme song three times in a row, is not actually considered a "speech." Who knew?

If you're lucky, you'll find text written by an author trying to inform and entertain you. That's definitely the best combination right there. No, we're not biased at all.

Today's lesson is on cranial cartography and meta-cognition. Unfortunately neither has anything to do with developing psychic powers. We were disappointed too.

Most people think Peter Pan was the protagonist, but all we see is a young boy who kidnaps a whole bunch of kids and terrorizes an old one-handed man. Peter Pantagonist, more like.

Kertucker on over and check out some strategies for finding the meanings of words in context. Yep, it even works for fake words like kertucker.

Clicking on this video will teach you all about cliques and how they can be harmful when they exclude others. They're not to be confused with clicks, of course. We love clicks. Please click on everything on our site.

What did the snow feel like? What does that bird sound like? What does that disgusting trash smell—actually never mind, we can do without that last one. Today, we'll tell you all about sensory details.

Learning about analogies with Shmoop is like eating a delicious cake. It's easy as pie.

Today we're learning about syntax. Because without it...sentences make wouldn't much sense.