Ann Warren, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.

Hello! I’m Ann.

I teach English part-time here at Cypress College. I love teaching because I love helping my students learn. It’s great to see students develop knowledge and skills that will help them anywhere they go—that will help them succeed and have satisfying lives, rich in curiosity and confidence and the excitement of knowing there are endless possibilities.

While I was growing up, I always had my nose buried in a book. I even read while we were travelling. My family crossed the U.S. in a car nine times while I was a child. Did you know that you can read almost all of War and Peace in the time it takes to drive across Texas?

When I was a kid, I was going to be a detective, just like Nancy Drew. Then I was going to be a nurse, just like Cherry Ames. Then I was going to run away from home and live in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, just like the kids in my favorite book, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

As you can see, I didn’t do any of those things. Instead, I went to college, where I discovered literature professors, and had a revelation: I could actually get paid to read! I had to stay in college for a long time and read a lot to get a degree, of course—oh darn! I read my way to a B.A. at Gonzaga University, a small private college in Spokane, Washington. Then I decided I’d like to read in a different part of the country for a while, so I got my Master’s at Boston College. But it was too cold there in the winter, so I moved to Los Angeles and read for my Ph.D. at USC.

Along the way, I met my husband. He was an English major in college, too. The first time we met, he impressed me by quoting the last line of The Great Gatsby from memory. (Of course, I didn’t know until after the wedding that that was the only line of literature that he could quote.)

My husband and I share three dogs—Hopper, Donya, and Lindy—all rescue dogs. We do a lot of dog rescue work.

And last (always save the best for last), there’s our daughter, Lulu. She is a singer and actress, so we go to lots of plays these days.

And of course, I spend as much time as possible reading. Even now that I get paid for it, I still do it just for fun. I love mysteries; I read lots of plays now; I try to keep up with the new fiction that comes out; and then there are all those nonfiction books, and all the books my friends recommend, and all the old books I somehow never got around to reading.

So many books…so little time…

English 100

Many students dread this class, but it is the basis to a successful career in college and beyond. In this class, you will learn to read effectively and write competently.

That sounds boring, doesn’t it?

It’s not. We read current essays on topics ranging from whether or not high school should be abolished to the effect of texting on the brain. We read novels about computers and conspiracies. We read plays about people who fall in love with burglars and arsonists.

And as a student, you get to write what you think about all of those things.

And before you know it, you’ll be an expert—and you will have learned to read effectively and write competently almost without noticing it.

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
  The Online Writing Lab at Purdue (known as OWL) is a great place to look for information on MLA formatting, sample papers, videos on writing, and much more.
• 10 Resources to Upgrade Your Grammar and Writing Skills
  This Lifehack page has links to some great writing and grammar resources.
• Ted Talks
  Short talks about every topic you can imagine, from 3 minutes to 30 minutes long.
• 51 Weird Museums Across the U.S.
  Human beings are strange and wonderful creatures.