"I help my students apply the traditional principles of grammar, logic, and rhetoric to their writing. Many are working professionals and graduate students looking specifically to revise and polish their written work; others are retirees who are writing reflectively about their careers or personal lives. My instruction is not so much about “creative writing” as it is about taking a rough draft through its necessary revisions by working from no-nonsense, traditional principles by which we can produce the clarity and effect we need to write interesting prose.

For more than 35 years I have taught in a variety of settings: university programs, private schools, corporate seminars, and private tutoring. I am most satisfied when those I’m working with gain a much deeper understanding of how to approach their work; my goal is to get them eagerly writing and thinking and revising. I can explain simply the complexities of good language construction. There are rules, of course, but more important than knowing the rules is knowing the reasons behind the rules. That’s how we become confident and independent in the craft, and I like to demonstrate for my students how language is indeed both an art and a science.

I taught courses in Latin at Northwestern University, and received 1995 Distinguished Teaching Award from the University’s College of Continuing Studies. Shortly after completing my M.A. in Classics (Latin) at Northwestern, I founded The Feltre School (feltre.org), whose curriculum was based on the classical trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This is the same philosophy on which my private teaching practice is now based.

I taught all levels of Classical Latin at Northwestern University for over a decade.

I am the founder of The Feltre School in Chicago. We have taught comprehensive review courses in English grammar and writing to adults and professionals of every stripe, using my own grammar text for three decades.

Teaching is my life. Nothing is more fulfilling to me than helping someone unlock their" less...