Describes how using split screens allows students to see writing as a complex and recursive yet coherent process rather than as a linear progression of distinct activities. Suggests that "windows" encourage sustained engagement in prewriting by opening accessible passageways for movement from prewriting and planning to drafting and…

Based on the idea that poetry, like any art, is best mastered through practice, this handbook for poets combines poetry-writing exercises with personal essays by each contributing poet. Some of the poets represented in the handbook are: Maxine Kumin, Rita Dove, Roger Mitchell, Carol Muske, Sydney Lea, and J. D. McClatchy. The exercises in the…

Focusing on satisfying the theatrical feature film audience, this book provides writers with the tools necessary to successfully create and market a screenplay. It includes "scribble exercises" every few pages--specific activities and questions to stir readers' reactions. Chapters in the book are: (1) Drama Is Conflict; (2) Satisfying…

Stresses the importance of using imagery when having beginning writers write poetry. Discusses additional techniques of stressing the unusual, continuation words, the five senses, and repetition of a word or phrase. (MG)

Intended for anyone who wants to write poetry (and do it well), this guide provides the "nuts and bolts" of craft and process, as well as the sources of inspiration. The guide contains brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing; each essay is followed by distinctive writing exercises. Included…

Argues that when students interrupt their thought flow during composition writing to edit language, syntax, or mechanics, the pauses obstruct fluency and dilute concentration. Use of the word processor for invisible composition is described to show how computers reduce time spent on composing and alter quantity and quality of time. (MBR)

Based on the idea that no piece of fiction will work without a strong infrastructure, this book explores how writers do what they do. The book uses anecdotes, helpful examples, and imaginative exercises to build a step-by-step approach to the structure of the short story and novel, always keeping in mind beginning and improving writers. Following…

This book is designed to be a how-to-write-fiction guide that is long on specifics and short on theoretical material. Each section of the book deals with a separate element of fiction--characterization, dialogue, point of view, plot, etc. Every exercise in the book is introduced in an opening paragraph, followed by instructions for completing the…

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…

This article describes an activity to generate interest in writing and ownership of the learning experience by students with learning disabilities. An object is placed in a bag, a volunteer describes the item by feeling it, students draw the item, and students then discuss the importance of expressing ideas clearly. (JDD)

This collection of materials, a summary of a workshop, is divided into five sections, framed by introductory and concluding remarks. The sections are: (1) a panel on "What Is the Domain Beyond?"--panelists discussed their particular interests in areas that could not be traditionally classified as "cognitive" and related those…

To describe a cross-curriculum writing model designed for a middle school, this paper provides a condensed script of what the designer of the program said and did during its first year to steer the program in a productive direction. The paper is written in the form of exerpts from relevant conversations. The first conversation relates how the idea…

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)…

Stresses the importance of having teachers of writing participate in writing activities at inservice meetings. (DF)

Teachers who restrict their teaching of writing to elements of exposition are likely to fail because there is insufficient content, interest, or challenge in learning simple exposition, and the techniques that contribute to polished exposition are more easily accessible when approached through aesthetic writing. A teaching sequence for using…