Andrea Jameson
Contributing Writer
[email protected]

 Retired professor William H. Koenecke has become an established author and is on the road to completing his second novel. His books include study tips, grammar help and important writing techniques. 

Koenecke wrote his first book “Write Well Right Now: A Guidebook on English Grammar, Punctuation, and Writing,” published in July 2017, about how to learn writing skills in a fast, well-organized way. 

He began writing his first book in 2000 while teaching at Murray State as a visiting professor in the College of Education.

Koenecke is currently writing his second book called, “Study Smarter, Not Harder: Over 77 Ways to Improve Your Study Skills in Just Minutes A Day,” which will be publised  within a few months.  

“One of the reasons for writing both books was to inspire students and others,” Koenecke said. “They could improve their English and study skills without spending a large number of hours.” 

With an educational past, Koenecke started teaching as a high school principal. Later, he went down the chain by being a middle school principal and then led an elementary school. 

Koenecke had researched many books about grammar, punctuation and writing skills before writing his own. His inspiration came from his own past experiences with errors in grammar. 

“I had struggled in elementary, middle, high school and during my early college years with grammar, punctuation and having the ability to express myself in a logical and succinct manner,” Koenecke said.  “I had a bad habit of not writing clearly with numerous errors in the text of the letter. I found several excellent books and articles and I decided to write a simple book that would be easy to understand and would provide help to those people who needed the help,” Koenecke said. 

Along with inspiration from his past, his mother and mentors have been by his side throughout his writing career to keep him motivated to write both of his books. 

“My mother had her Ph.D. and she gave me encouragement to write my first book,” Koenecke said. “One of my mentors, Dr. Kenneth Henson, has been helpful in giving me advice. Ken has authored over fifty books and hundreds of journal articles during his career.” 

Koenecke has different advice chapters organized in his first book.  

“One of the chapters in my book is on how to study smarter and is titled ‘Advice From Experts,’” Koenecke said. “ It’s a cross-section of approximately fifty students, teachers, authors, dentists, medical doctors, attorneys, a C.P.A. and others who have submitted practical tips/suggestions they actually used to study smarter and become successful in their chosen careers.” 

Concerns were raised about grammatical errors for students and teachers, which is why Koenecke decided to write about topics that could be helpful to them in the future. 

 “I’ve been writing the two books at about the same time period,” Koenecke said. “I just finished the English book first. I wrote these two books to especially help students and others reach their maximum potential and be able to obtain good jobs in their career choices.”

With his second book soon to be published, he is thinking about writing a third book about school financing and school politics, along with other interesting topics about education and the school system. 

“We are thinking about the different topics that we may address in the book. For sure we will discuss school finance, and I’ve had several new and remodeling school building projects,” Koenecke said. 

Koenecke also shared his  “Top Ten on How to Study Smarter” tips, which he shared on his website as well.

“Space out your time, practice, don’t just re-read books and notes, test yourself, mistakes are okay as long as you learn from them, mix-up your self-testing, use pictures, diagrams and graphs, make a plan and stick with it and lastly, dig deeper,” Koenecke said. 

More information about Koenecke’s books can be found at his website writewellrightnow.org.