This study aimed to determine the effect of mind mapping on story writing skills of the students. A pre-test, a post-test, and a semi-experimental research design were used in this study. The study group consisted of a total of 86 third-grade students; 33 students from the experimental group, 23 students from the control 1 group, and 30 students…

Award-winning author Carolyn Coman has made a career out of writing stories for children and young adults as well as teaching writing to people of all ages. She believes that the essence of good writing, no matter the genre, is the ability to craft a solid story. In this innovative book, Carolyn provides advice, strategies, and inspiration…

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…

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…

Discusses length and speed, spontaneity, and discipline as the attributes that affect creative writing assignments, students' development as creative writers, and appropriate methods of teaching creative writing. (RL)

Presents a series of exercises aimed at helping students generate lines and ideas for their poetry. (MM)

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…

Recommends drama as a technique to help children make a bridge between thinking and writing. (JL)

Students more familiar with failure than success can carry inhibiting levels of fear, and mature students are twice as likely to drop out of Higher Education in their first year than younger students. Through its use of conversational and supportive tones, this study guide puts readers at ease assisting the transition to academic study. The author…

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…

Offers six prompts to use in teaching creative writing at the high school level. Explains how the prompts are used in the classroom. (MG)

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…

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,…

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…