I was in the first two Top Writer classes on Quora — 2013 and 2014 — and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their writing. I started out writing about sports, but I quickly did the same thing I had done in the late 1980s at my college newspaper. I wrote about everything I could. There were a ton of subjects I never touched because I didn’t have the knowledge, but there were a lot of things I could answer with a little research.

I didn’t use keywords or put a lot of graphics into my answers — I wrote the same way I’d been writing for wire services since 1990. I gave well-researched smart answers and I got rewarded.

At one point, I was answering more questions a week than any other Top Writer, but I burned out during some rough times in my life. I still visit once in a while and I still wear the fleece jacket on chilly days.