The beginning creative writer usually needs to learn the distinction between creative writing and purely informational or reportorial exposition. This can often be accomplished through writing assignments incorporating the concepts of New Journalism--the method of rendering realistically, from the point of view of an outsider who has temporarily…

Getting students involved in the process of heightening, which is really the transforming of experience and self-expression into fiction, is a basic factor in teaching the writing of fiction. This process of heightening involves two devices for communicating "felt life": concretization and dramatization. In teaching these devices, prewrigting…

Presents five short teaching tips written by five different authors on the following topics: newspapers, writing exercises for aspiring elementary school teachers, telephone directory as research tool, structured essay assignments, and teaching description with Raymond Carver's "Cathedral." (TB)

Proposes a heuristic to generate specific and vivid phrasing and to draw on the right hemisphere of the brain for the substance of the essay. Describes stages of process as DRAW (Delineate, Ruminate, Analogize, and Write). Emphasizes creative description and expressive language rather than generation of ideas. (JG)

Basic writers can be taught to write effective expository prose if they are taught to revise, and they can make considerable progress if they are given opportunities to write narration before tackling the complexities of exposition. Narratives come easily to basic writers and allow them complete control over subject matter and language. The…

Valgardson discusses his attitudes toward his work and toward the teaching of writing. (RL)

Teachers participating in the Teacher Center-United Kingdom Exchange Program at New Mexico State University were required to keep a journal throughout the entire exchange year. The objective of the exercise was to improve writing and reduce writing anxiety among the teachers, and to influence them to implement journal writing in their public…

Paragraph writing mediated by imagery is richer, more flexible, and more creative than that produced by the somewhat impoverished, predictable, one-process model usually taught in composition classes. Since the writing advice given students differs considerably from the practice of professional writers, students should be given exercises that not…

Reflecting the view that a single formula for revolutionizing the teaching of writing is unavailable, this publication of the New York State English Council presents a series of articles dealing with various topics in the teaching of composition in high school and college settings. Subjects discussed include the following: the use of fables in the…

This paper describes a year-long, college senior composition course based on nature writing and open to students from all content areas. Nature writing is defined as writing about nature with the specific requirement that the writer must remain true to the objective facts of nature while at the same time presenting the human response to, and the…

A collection of 50 essays from successful applications to various U.S. colleges is presented along with comments from admissions officers. It is noted that "right" and "wrong" essays do not exist, and with a little creativity and effort, almost any topic can make for an effective and memorable college application essay. Every…

The tenth volume in a series, this publication is a collection of papers produced by college students in women's studies classes around the country. The major purpose of the collection is to provide teachers and students in the field with access to the products of classes other than their own. Most of the writings come from the humanities or from…

This collection focuses on writing exercises, both expository and creative, as well as areas of adjacent concern. The book is divided into nine major sections: prewriting; diction; theme, thesis, and paragraph; style; ideas for whole papers and special topics; description; research; the short story; and rewriting. The exercises deal with such…

By following the "steppingstone" or marker theory of dividing one's life into no more than 12 and no less than 8 significant periods, a student in a writing course can develop a brief response for each phase to articulate multiple experiences. Writing teachers can aid students in realizing that important life experiences are the stuff of…

This article describes an undergraduate course in creative writing offered by the Department of English at the University of Hong Kong. Most students in the course have Chinese as a native language and have received their secondary education in English. They have had extensive practice in writing English in connection with their studies. The…