Discusses the prewriting process in terms of forces that affect prewriting, prewriting as rehearsal, and eight signals that tell writers that a piece of writing is near. (DD)

Discusses the 10 elements of the author's personal writing curriculum: solitude, experience, faith, need, tension, pattern, voice, ease, productivity, and readers. (RS)

Notes that while faculty grumble about academic writing in a "publish or perish" atmosphere, many enjoy writing and its inherent discovery processes. Presents methods and suggestions that have helped the faculty/author publish numerous works on the writing process to invite others who publish to reveal their own craft. (HTH)

Argues that the possibility for surprise is the starting point for both effective writers and teachers and describes six elements that help create surprise: expectation, habit, ease, recognition, "pounceability," and acceptance. (MM)

Examines the reading personna of the writer and its functions. Discusses how a writing instructor, by means of listening in a conference setting, can bring this other personna into existence. (HTH)

Explains how the author has come to understand that all writing, in many different ways, is autobiographical and that autobiography grows from a few deep taproots that are set down in childhood. Shares some of his own writing as examples. (MG)

Writing in the first person is not usually tolerated in academic writing under the illusion that the third person insures some kind of objectivity. But writing in the first person is honest, permitting the reader to know that what is being said is a matter of opinion. It is a direct way of speaking about what a writer sees or feels or thinks, and…

Views the writing act as an act of exploration rather than the reporting of what was discovered and emphasizes six elements that achieve the surprise in writing, including expectation, ease, and acceptance. (DF)

Suggests a six-step exercise that can be used in one 50-minute session to help students (or teachers at a workshop) experience the writing process of prewriting, writing, and rewriting with response from a peer. (TJ)

A writer and educator with an obsession for writing and a concern with the teaching of writing demonstrates how all writing, in many different ways, is autobiographical and that autobiography grows from a few deep taproots that are set down into the past in childhood. Autobiography (described as the way an individual makes meaning out of his or…

Intended to stimulate teachers to make use of their own experiences at the writing desk and in the classroom workshop to discover what is meaningful about writing and teaching, the articles in this collection reflect what the author has learned over the years through writing. The articles in the first section emphasize the writing process, and…