Hi, I'm Megane Fogredi and today I have a quick and dirty tip about banding together.

A meaty middle about how understanding the movie Toy Story can help you write a great

essay and a tidbit about the idiom left holding the bag.

And now on to the quick and dirty tip.

Molly M. from New Jersey asked whether the correct phrase is band together or band together.

The correct phrase is band together.

When band is a noun, one common meaning is a group of people who've joined together

for some purpose.

Think of a rock band or the movie band of brothers or the Silicon Valley investing

group known as the band of angels.

Therefore, it's not much of a stretch to remember that when people join together, for example,

to form a band, the noun, they are banding together using band the participle.

Molly's question also reminded me of other common errors that happen when a word ending

with a D is followed by a word starting with a T. The correct phrases are used to and iced

T. But people sometimes think they should be used to and iced T because it's difficult

to hear the separation between the D and the T. And that was your quick and dirty tip.

The correct phrase is band together, like a rock band.

Next I have a meaty middle from Ethan Sawyer, better known as the college essay guy, about

how understanding the movie Toy Story and narrative structure can help you write a great

essay.

Here's a secret.

Most Disney and Pixar films have the same structure.

...