The ninth-grade students are helped in finding their writing voices by using a traditional African poem as a model. With the teaching of this poetry project, it is observed that having a well-defined structure allows students to think and write creatively.

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…

This book offers guidance for poets at every stage of development. It is a book about a person's shaping his or her memory and passions, pleasures, obsessions, dreams, secrets, and sorrows into poems. The book contains chapters on the language and music of poetry, the art of revision, traditional and experimental techniques, and how to get poetry…

Assumptions that writers of books about creative writing make about their audiences, as well as assumptions about the purposes, practice, and value of writing, differ noticeably from the assumptions made by people who teach and write about composition. In substance and form, the range of creative writing books includes autobiography, interviews,…

Tests were given to a nine-year-old boy to establish the constraints operating when he was writing poetry. The tests involved writing cloze tests on poems by poet Ted Hughes and on a poem the boy had written a year earlier. The boy was also asked to write a poem and then to discuss what he was thinking as he wrote. The following constraints were…

Empirical and theoretical research and a teacher's own writing experience provide equally valuable resources in the composition classroom. Current research on the composing process suggests a conceptual change from that of a rigid sequence of clearly demarcated stages to a more recursive, hierarchically structured model. Until recently, the role…

Interviews Ron Padgett, editor and writer, about his attitude toward editing, his views on allowing students to edit writing, and his experiences with having his own writing edited. (DF)

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…

Describes the features of a process model of writing and efforts to translate the theory into practice. (JL)

Presents a double-voiced narrative that represents a collaborative experiment to rewrite the traditional relationship of a professor and a graduate student. Represents an open invitation to the voices of others, women and men, who will wind their stories with the lines and notes of this story, expanding the collaboration. (PA)

Presents a three-phase strategy whereby teachers can introduce the writing process to children at almost all grade levels by involving them in writing fractured fairy tales or fairy tales with a twist. Appends a sample fractured fairy tale. (SR)

The Scenario Writing component of the Future Problem Solving Program calls for students to write a short-short story exploring variables in the future. This article describes the scenario writing process, presents samples of award-winning scenarios, and offers tips for student-authors and for coaches. (JDD)

Describes how the writer, an author of books for young adults, uses journal writing in many and varied ways: to deal with grief and confusion; capture his fascination with life; for free writing; keep quotes from people he admires; save things his friends say; keep wonderful passages from other books--a personal safe to keep precious things. (SR)

Explores claims about creative writing through students' experiences in a summer introductory fiction workshop for non-English majors. Suggests that in writing instruction, the critical and the creative need to go hand in hand. Concludes that critical reflection on the makings and use of stories is crucial for students planning careers in…

Describes one teacher's experience teaching writing as she gets involved in writing along with her students. Discusses how she uses her own writing as examples of the writing process for the students. Explores experiences teaching and writing fiction. (SG)