Because of her unfamiliarity with the culture, an experienced creative writing instructor in her first year of teaching on the big island of Hawaii decided to use the standard writing workshop model. The University of Hawaii Hilo draws a diverse mix of students, returning students, and local students who speak Creole. Some students were uncertain…

Ernest Hemingway was wrong. It is not necessary to leave home and go out and experience "Life" in capital letters to have "stuff" about which to write. The daughter of a kindergarten teacher, Louisa May Alcott wrote a book about her family life which became one of the most popular children's classics, "Little Women."…

At the State University of New York at Albany, a controversy arose over what type of writing assignment is appropriate in introductory literature classes, particularly those taught by graduate students. Undergraduates applying for the honors division were unable to produce even one literary criticism essay despite 9 hours of literature courses…

This essay relates the way educator Dorothy Howard intuitively used intercultural education techniques to motivate students. Howard encouraged students to relate home experiences and family traditions when fulfilling writing assignments. She also used the rhymes, rhythms, and metaphors of playground games to study poetry, grammar, composition, and…

This paper discusses, from a personal point of view, the process of writing a poem, from inception through revision to the final product. The intention is instructional for any person who wishes to explore the nature of creative, directed expression in language. Because it is a personal account, however, it is idiosyncratic in nature and possibly…

This handbook is designed to take aspiring novelists from the concept of that first novel all the way through to completion, including the crucial step of marketing. The handbook discusses shortcuts to help save time, traps all new writers must avoid, inspiration to get a novel done, and checklists to guide every step. The chapters in the handbook…

Ellen Kreger Stark, in her article, "Reforming the Critical Space," in "Critical Quarterly" discusses the gap which exists for poets writing in academic discourse, saying that she could not tell when she was writing criticism and when she was being a poet. Usually, teachers/professors say such writing is too personal, too…

In 1990, Warner Brothers Television made a bold decision to recruit new, young writers from outside the Los Angeles (California) area. The method they first chose was a contest for East-coast Baltimore (Maryland) area. The writers with the reward of an opportunity to receive additional training in Los Angeles. Since this approach was expensive,…

This theme issue focuses on academic competitions for academically talented youth. It lists approximately 30 selected competitions from a variety of academic areas, describing their eligible grade levels, types of projects or tests involved, fees, awards, and deadlines. An article describes the National Merit Scholarship Program and use of the…

This paper discusses why school librarians are well qualified to write for students and describes the following aspects of becoming a successful writer: (1) manuscript development, including choosing the type of material to write, gathering materials, deciding on the level of intended readers, and getting a manuscript illustrated; (2) publishing…

Within the context of a basic composition class, writing stories allows teacher and students to have a conversation about issues that are important to the class and creates a space for students in which they can work on developing particular kinds of textual attention. Assignments are designed with the following questions in mind: What can…

In addition to providing a chronicle of the history of college writing programs in America, this book recognizes their common beginnings, their respective strengths, and the collaboration necessary to train students to be effective writers. The book examines the common roots of courses in creative writing, journalism, technical and business…

A project was designed to teach writing skills to adult basic education students in prison through the publication of a bimonthly newspaper. The target audience was any inmate in the Franklin County and Adams County Prisons in Pennsylvania; there were no restrictions on admittance to the program or to class size. Participation was voluntary and…

Pupils should participate in numerous forms and kinds of writing activities involving poetry and should hear, read, and write different forms and kinds of prose. Types of poetry that pupils can write include couplets, triplets, quatrains, limericks, free verse, haiku, and diamante. The ingredients that all types of poetry might have include…

Intended to impart the basic ways a poem is constructed, this concise handbook is a prose guide to writing poetry. The handbook talks about meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense, iambs and trochees, couplets and sonnets, and how and why this should matter to any person writing or reading poetry. Interspersing history and analysis with…