The purpose of the conference presentation upon which this paper is inspired was to present an innovative approach to motivate students to write in a second language during a first-year Spanish class. Usually, students comply with writing exercises that convey basic thoughts, due to constrained vocabulary and limited knowledge of grammatical…

An experimental writing program lasting three years and four months was held in the Chicago Public Library System, for which writers-in-residence, scholars-in- residence, and other program associates presented several series focusing on the city of Chicago. Emphasis during the first year centered on the literary/historical aspect of writing in and…