Describes the sensibilities and temperament that make a successful, daily writer. Questions why writers write. Attempts to define what it is that makes a writer write. (HB)

Describes one key goal of writing instruction as being to help students develop successful rituals in their writing processes. Compares two kinds of writers: Beethovians and Mozartians, or discoverers and planners. Relates these two groups to writing instruction, and suggests a combination as a third group. (HB)

Discusses the positive and negative aspects of textbook writing, noting common pitfalls that will be encountered by new authors. The article also suggests how to become better educated about the process of textbook writing and enhance the chances of producing a quality finished product. (SM)

Presents the voices of basic writers, telling the importance of education in their lives and their struggles with it. Argues that basic writing merits support and should be regarded as college-level in its objectives and methods. Rejects the move to transform the mission of two-year colleges into one of narrowly defined developmental endeavors.…

Describes a project in a reading class in which students wrote to communicate with a real audience and in so doing interested themselves and others in reading and writing. Outlines the project's five steps of prewriting, prewriting with partners, writing, revising, and proofreading. Notes the students' overwhelming positive response to the…

Surveys British academics. Reveals a divide between writers who favor a word processor as their main writing tool and those who favor the pen or pencil. Finds that word processors are both indirect and delayed. Suggests that educators may need to legitimate handwritten drafts or reversion to handwriting for some word-processor users. (RS)

Describes consequences of an inadvertent misalignment in grading practice by analyzing an instructor's essay evaluation checklist. Finds that, in trying to promote evaluative consistency, the checklist privileges product over process, academic discourse over students' own voices, and an analytic predisposition to student writing over an…

Studies whether students who reread their drafts aloud as they revise compose essays that are stylistically superior to those of students who do not. Finds this makes a difference for students with adequate to proficient reading skills but not for poor readers. Suggests basic writing courses should focus on reading and style, besides principles of…

Presents an interview with E.L. Konigsburg, acclaimed author of books for middle-school children. Discusses her writing, her many award-winning books, and her latest success, the 1997 Newbery Medal winner "The View From Saturday." (SR)

Describes a series of miniature writing assignments for college students, including reflections on freedom, writing down ideas in a notebook, writing postcards or letters, a gathering page, and doing a first draft in 20 minutes. Provides examples of each assignment. (PA)

Presents an essay by renowned author of young adult literature Robert Cormier, musing on the autobiographical aspects of his own writings as well as writing in the guise of people or about situations to which he is a complete stranger. (SR)

Collects and presents comments made by authors of young adult literature about their writing and about literature. Discusses how writing for young adults and teaching young adults might be related; why write books for adolescent readers; what their goals are as writers of young adult literature; and how they move from a blank page to a finished…

Offers an interview with Jennifer Armstrong, writer of historical novels and nonfiction for children. Discusses her beginnings as a reader and a writer, her creative process, her purposes in writing nonfiction, her concerns about accuracy, and the origins of her second nonfiction book, "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary…

Presents a series of alternatives to the modernist research paper: the argumentative research paper, the personal research paper, the research essay, and the multi-genre/media/disciplinary/cultural research paper. Addresses theoretical implications of alternative research writing strategies. (NH)

Profiles the accomplishments of Brandon Marie Miller, an Ohio writer of children's non-fiction historical literature. Discusses her writing processes and why she writes non-fiction rather than popular historical fiction. Appends annotations of 3 of her works. (NH)