From the invention of the alphabet to the explosion of the internet, Dominic Wyse takes us on a unique journey into the process of writing. Starting with seven extraordinary examples that serve as a backdrop to the themes explored, it pays particular attention to key developments in the history of language, including Aristotle's grammar through…

This book is the first to bring together a collection of recent empirical studies investigating languaging, an important construct first introduced by Swain in 2006 but which has since been deployed in a growing number of L2 studies. The contributing authors include both established and emerging authors from around the globe. They report on…

Based on a successful workshop, this book presents the basic elements of narrative and a series of exercises that offer a self-guided set of discussion topics and exercises for a writer, a small group of writers, or a class interested in the craft of narrative prose. Topics addressed in the book are: the sound of language; the narrative sentence…

Encouraging exploration and practice, this book offers hundreds of exercises and numerous tips covering every step involved in creating poetry. Each chapter is a self-contained unit offering an overview of material in the chapter, a definition of terms, and poetry examples from well-known authors designed to supplement the numerous exercises.…

Helping business students to communicate better, this book addresses approaches and techniques for planning messages and selecting media, discusses a broad range of business writing situations, and covers key situations most managers would face on the job. Exercises in the book were written at two levels of difficulty (those applying basic…

This book presents the essentials of good writing in an easy-to-follow 4-part process. The first step discussed in the book, "Using Your Noodle," guides the student through the preparatory thinking process (audience awareness, brainstorming, grouping thoughts). The second step, "Following a Format," presents the challenge of…

No matter how intimidated or how blocked, any writer can tap into the vast oceans of creativity within by following the exercises in this book. Broken into small steps, each exercise is easy and takes only minutes to do. Yet each one forms a wave that brings with it a rush of ideas, images, and scenes as it crests. Chapters in the book are: (1)…

The 19 conference papers in this collection deal with the relationship of various rhetorical theories and their practical applications to the rhetorical traditions that they are superseding. The papers deal with many topics, including the following: (1) a multidisciplinary approach to writing instruction; (2) the importance of writing as a human…

Working from both literary and composition theory, this book argues that American composition theory and pedagogy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is founded on the Platonic view that invention is a solitary act in which the individual, drawing upon innate knowledge and mental structures, searches for the truth, using introspective self…

Written by teachers, linguists, psychologists, and reading specialists, this book elucidates the relationship between reading and language, and explains why reading should be regarded as a language-based process. The book is divided into eight sections, each of which includes an introduction and sources for further reading. The essays for each…

Noting the improvement that has occurred in the teaching of writing since the introduction of the process approach to instruction, this book offers suggestions for still more improvement and for solving the problems that arise in the teaching of writing. The first section of the book stresses the importance of letting children write and of…

Spaning 30 years, the essays in this collection present variations on the theme of how, through language and social interaction, humans evolve increasingly more accurate maps of their worlds. The six essays in the first section, "Literature and the Shaping of Experience," point to a central concern for literature as a fundamental way of knowing…

Exploring writing in its many social and cultural variations, the seven articles in the first part of this book show different genres of writing serving various purposes in diverse contexts, while the six articles in the second part examine the effects of oral language differences on the learning and teaching of writing. Topics covered in the…

Prepared by educators, theoreticians, and researchers, the papers in this collection address the connections and interdependencies between writing and cognition. The 24 papers deal with the following topics: (1) rhetoric and romanticism; (2) cognitive immaturity and remedial college writers; (3) current brain research and the composing process;…