Discusses Pat Mora's career as a children's book author and aspects of her work: the Latino experience, bilingualism, family life, desert landscape, and folk tales. Provides classroom activities in art, creative writing, social studies, geography, drama. Provides a selected bibliography of Mora's work. (PEN)

Reports on an interview with Gary Paulsen, the 1997 winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring an author's lifetime contribution in writing books for teens. Highlights include the importance of librarians and reading encouragement, the author's experiences and writing, and readers' responses to books. (Author/LRW)

Undergraduate creative writing students (n=41) and 40 student journalists (n=40) wrote sentences in response to photographs. Responses were then scored according to Burner's theory of Narrative and Paradigmatic Thought. Creative writers scored significantly higher than journalists on narrative thought. Male journalists outscored male creative…

Provides eight concepts, with illustrative questions for interpreting the authorship of texts, that are borrowed from cultural studies literature: (1) representation; (2) the gaze; (3) voice; (4) intertextuality; (5) absence; (6) authority; (7) mediation; and (8) reflexivity. States that examples were taken from British Columbia's (Canada) social…

Argues that, although most people dislike writing, instructors can make the task less onerous for young students. Suggests that the presence of both feeling and awareness of an audience can facilitate writing. Includes segments of interviews with professional writers and samples of seven-year-olds' writings. (SG)

The geographical, cultural, and linguistic diversity of the Philippines has strongly influenced the construction of self in Filipino literature. Filipino writers must formulate the fictional self in the midst of a tussle between the language of reality and the language of writing that is exacerbated by the country's colonial heritage. (JL)

Examines the relationship between composition textbook authors and publishers. Discusses editors and publishers' concerns, and what authors need to know about textbook publishing. Focuses on ideology, economics, legalities, and the need for integrity and respect. Looks at the written contract, contractual brutality, legal counsel, contractual…

Examines trends in authorship, reference practices, and quantitative techniques in "College and Research Libraries" from 1939 through 1988. Specific characteristics discussed include: percentages of unreferenced articles; average number of references per article; sex and institution of source authors; extent of collaborative authorship;…

Describes a discussion between Cleanth Brooks and Eudora Welty about the state of the story in today's fiction. Characterizes the narrative form as the spine of literature. Points out that, too often, contemporary writers neglect this form of writing and instead emphasize a type of prose poetry. Notes that authors today overemphasize the present…

Focuses on the quantity of articles authored or coauthored by individuals in the field of communication studies. Determines which individuals produce the most articles in this field, where they received their education, and their current affiliation. (MS)

Provides information regarding the place of women and gender-related topics in communication research in the past 20 years by examining the proportion of journal articles authored or co-authored by women and men, and the proportion of journal articles on communication and gender compared to articles on other topics. (MS)

Examines several writings by female Caribbean writers who address the formation of female identity, mothers as vehicles of culture and history, and the identity confusion that comes when this function is removed. The barriers between blacks and whites under slavery and colonialism and how these conditions affected female identity development in…

Discusses current copyright issues, including the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for Electronic Learners; Fair Use Guidelines for Electronic Reserve Systems; additions to the "United States Code" regarding copyright; copyright ownership for freelance writers; online material, including e-mail; and public performance versus…

Includes two articles that discuss science fiction and future possibilities in information technology: "'Jurassic Park' and Al Jolson: Thinking about the Information Revolution" (Connie Willis) and "The Good and the Bad: Outlines of Tomorrow" (David Brin). (LRW)

Provides a biographical sketch of Ron Hirshi, environmentalist and author of children's books on the environment. Describes his visit to an Ohio elementary school as part of the school's visiting author program and how he engages the children with his infectious love of nature. (HTH)