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)

Suggests that despite culturally induced aversions, aromas do have a role to play in writing instruction. Suggest there are many examples in literature of authors' treatment of the olfactory sense. Argues that emphasizing smell as a writing stimulant and encouraging olfactory analyses of literary works can serve as valid ways of introducing…

Examined how students drew upon their asynchronous conference discussions in an online course for their written assignments. Found that computer conferencing can give students the opportunity to rehearse discipline-based debates and then exploit these as rhetorical resources in their written work; students use the voices of their peers in ways…

Presents seven suggestions to help writers and teachers go beyond limericks, parts of speech poems, and haiku. Frames the suggestions for those who are (for whatever reason) trying to write poems, including teachers who are joining their students in the act of learning poetry writing. (RS)

Describes the evolution of the author's children's picture book, "An Amish Christmas." Notes how he refers to "Christmas in Noisy Village" (1964) by Astrid Lindgren, a praised children's Christmas book. Describes how he used Lindgren's economical use of words and book format as a guide. (SG)

The old cliche about not reinventing the wheel is especially apropos concerning the grant writing process. It has been my experience that grant writing is equal parts form and substance. The "trick" is to discover a successful formula that can be used repeatedly to secure different grants, while every grant underwriting organization has its own…

Ethnography can be practiced anywhere by anyone without the slightest knowledge that it is being practiced. The students of three elementary schools are being examined to find the ways in which they have engaged in ethnographic writing.

This article provides 10 reasons why it is important to do critical media analysis in the second language classroom and describes how a process-writing approach can be used for this in a university writing class. The authors explain how to prepare a lesson plan and the idea of an "Adbuster." They then describe 10 stages in the lesson…

Process-oriented writing instruction stresses the value of between-draft revision. Yet current literature and traditional pedagogy have provided little guidance for motivating student writers to look beyond surface errors to develop and to refine their communicative intentions. Based on the assumption that this deep-level revision is most…

The writing approach framework provides a comprehensive perspective on college-level academic writing based on the relationship of writers' beliefs and strategies to the quality of written outcomes. However, despite increased demands for more and better writing at the graduate level, little is known about graduate-level writing processes or about…

The "Literacy Cafe," a celebration of genre study and student writing, offers students (and visitors!) a positive environment in which to engage in reading and discussion of writing without self-consciousness or fear of criticism. It works because students learn to recognize writing as a learning tool and a relevant, authentic skill in the real…