Examines a young girl's abridgment of Mara Kay's novel "Masha," focusing on the selection processes she used. Suggests that text selected for the abridgment had personal significance, while less significant or negative text was omitted. Concludes that the experience gave shape and meaning to the girl's own growing up. (MM)

Discusses two ways of organizing writing: "imitative" or "natural" order, which reflects either chronology or spatiality; and "imposed" order, in which topical materials have been restructured in a significant way. Argues that all rhetorical alternatives should be considered when teaching writing. (MM)

Describes a study of the differences between eight experienced writers who describe themselves as either one- or multi-draft writers. Considers advantages and disadvantages of their differences, including the point at which they begin writing, option-exploring behavior, attitudes toward closure, and writer-based versus reader-based early drafts.…

Examines the issue of using formal academic style or first person style in writing that is to be graded or evaluated. Questions whether students can be proactive writers and use their preferred style when it might affect how their work is assessed. (SK)

Discusses the life, work, and working habits of Milton Meltzer, who has spent a good part of his life writing about people whose words and deeds have gone untended and been washed from the landscape of the historical record. (RS)

Suggests that the author's novels will never be politically correct--they will always run the risk of offending someone. Suggests that her characters and their stories will invite disappointment, or even disapproval, from readers who look to fiction to support a point of view rather than to mirror human experience. (RS)

Suggests that excellence in writing, as in many things, will flourish in a climate that is open to it, wherever and however it may express itself. Argues that a fundamental skill that writing teachers must teach their students is to identify and describe the things that drive writing for them at any given time. (RS)

Argues for using the metaphor of the contract as a principal strategy for teaching students how to craft introductions. (SR)

Presents a conception of writing assignments as a navigation through five writing "events" that students experience through individually imposed writing tasks. Describes the five events within each assignment. Concludes with positive student evaluations. (HB)

Offers suggestions on ways to introduce a workshop audience (of faculty, teaching assistants, or new composition instructors) to composing as women. Discusses classroom structure, teaching the composing process, the rhetorical situation, designing writing assignments, teaching expository form, using peer review groups, responding to drafts,…

Presents a title-writing exercise which can be completed in class in 20 to 30 minutes. Asserts that the exercise works for many writers as a strategy for focusing and developing. (PRA)

Suggests writing instructors reconsider the way they represent to students the nature and function of thesis statements, particularly in their first-year rhetorics. Notes that the conventions of disputation and argument are increasingly challenged by the growing value various disciplines are placing on uncertainty, mediation, and exploration in…

Relates the real-life experiences that prompted the author, the 1992 Newbery medalist, to write the novel "Shiloh." (PRA)

Traces an encounter with Mikhail Bakhtin during the process of reading and writing a dissertation. Refocuses attention from "Bakhtin" as authoritative text to the reader. Reappropriates Bakhtin in service of a feminist practice of reading. (SR)

Offers seven planning and prewriting tips for the writing of award-winning proposals. (SR)