A long time ago, in another career, I taught English to 9th graders, one of the most fun jobs I've ever had. It taught me something important about the learning process, and there's something in that process that can work for everyone, teenager and adult, 9th grade English student and home computer user.

When I first started out, I would assign the kids a paper and then a couple of weeks later they would hand the results in to me. I would mark up the papers - indicating the multitude of errors (and commending fine writing as well) - hand them back, and then talk to the class about techniques for good writing.

Unfortunately, this process was repeated over and over and over. My students' writing improved only slightly. Clearly, I needed to change my method.

Then I realized my problem. I was telling my students things like "Don't use contractions in formal writing" and "Avoid run-on sentences" and fifty other things, but that was way too much for them to keep in their heads at one time. Heck, it would be too much for any one person to keep in her head, unless she made the act of writing to be something she did so often that she absorbed all the various writing techniques and rules and they finally became intuitive.

My solution was "The Checklist". I drew up a checklist of 50 or so rules that my students were to follow when writing their papers, keyed to a style guide that I had them use. Next to the rules were columns labeled "Draft 1," "Draft 2," "Paper," "Rewrite 1," "Rewrite 2,", and so on. When a student handed in a paper to me, he was to hand in three drafts plus the checklist. The student was to use the checklist as a tool for finding and eliminating common mistakes. Every box in the first three columns should have a check in it, meaning that the problem was not found, or a minus sign, meaning that the problem was found and corrected.

I would grade the student's paper. When I got to the fifth error that the student had claimed was corrected but in fact was not, I would hand the paper back to the student, along with all the other drafts and the checklist, and make him rewrite it. And again, and again, and again, constantly keying the errors back to the checklist and the style guide.

Suddenly, the quality of my students' writing shot up. Quickly, we got beyond the little mistakes in technique and could focus on the bigger issues of form, and methods of argument and persuasion, and style. To this day, I still have former students tell me that they learned to write from my class, but really, it was The Checklist.

If you've been reading any of my columns over the past year, you'll know that the security problems of ordinary, non-technical users have been a focus of mine. One of the things I've constantly addressed is the problem that most people don't secure their computers or act in a secure manner. I think the main reason is that most people don't know what to do. Or worse, security pros try to help, but we overwhelm folks with too much information and end up sowing confusion and hopelessness.

With that in mind, I'm introducing a checklist for basic home security. I've come up with a list of steps that, if followed, would contribute an immense amount to the security of most user's computers. I'd like all my readers to print it out and walk through it with their family, friends, churches, and clubs. Fill it in with them, or better yet, explain to them how to fill it in. If they need to know more about an item, point them back to this page and tell them to click on the links I've provided. After the checklist is filled in, tell them to post it next to their computers or in a safe place, but tell them to refer to it if they have any questions.

A couple of notes about the checklist. Yes, I know that I provided space for folks to enter their passwords below. I thought long and hard about that, and it seems to me that the problem of lost or forgotten passwords, especially if it's a home computer with a limited user base, outweighs the problem of someone's wife or husband seeing a password. If it really bothers you, then don't fill those blanks in, or have someone fill in two copies of the checklist: one with passwords that is filed away in a safe place, and one without passwords that is posted on the wall next to the computer. Be flexible - you know the situations of your friends and family better than I do.

A final note: this is a work in progress. Send in suggestions via the discussion forum below, or email me directly. We'll try to update the checklist to incorporate suggestions or criticisms, and as new technologies are introduced, we'll try to add those as well. Let's make this a community project, with the goal of better security for everyone.

And now, without further ado, my latest checklist. I hope you find it useful.