Introductions

To the Writing Student

To the Writing Teacher

Each chapter includes 'Connecting to Reading'; 'Connecting to Writing'; and Writing Projects

Chapter One: Writers and Ways of Writing

Thinking About Definitions of "Writer" and the Processes Writers Choose and Use

Moore, Lorrie: "How to Become a Writer."

Marshal, Paule. "The Poets in the Kitchen."

Wilbur, Richard: "The Writer." (poem)

Yolen, Jane: "[on her writing process]".

Weathers, Winston: "The Winston Weathers Writing Way: A Self-Examination."

Williams, Terry Tempest

Classroom authors:

Debbie Olander: "The Fortunes"

Brian Overcast: "Brambles"

Chapter Two: The Literacy Narrative

Thinking About the Literacy Narrative

Brown, Christy: "The Letter A"

De Chungara, Domitila (with Moema Viezzer): "Let Me Speak!"

Hughes, Langston: "Theme for English B." (poem)

Mellix, Barbara: "From Outside, In."

Rodriguez, Richard: "Going Home Again."

Simpson, Eileen: "Dyslexia"

Wright, Richard: "The Library Card."

Tan, Amy: "Mother Tongue."

Classroom authors:

Armstrong, Stephen B.: "A Trip to the Lake"

Bacque, E. Andree: "Drop Everything and Read"

Olson, Chris: "Learning to Read: For Me It's Been the Struggle of a Lifetime."

Chapter Three: Considering Community and Audience

Thinking About Your Interactions With Other Writers and Readers

Corbett, Edward and Robert Connors: "A Brief Explanation of Classical Rhetoric."

Rose, Mike: "The Discourse of Academics"

Graff, Gerald: "Disliking Books at an Early Age"

Aagard, John: "Listen Mr. Oxford Don."

Dove, Rita: "To Make a Prairie."

Witkin, Stanley L.: "Writing Social Work."

Shen, Fan: "The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition."

Fulwiler, Toby: "The Role of Audiences."

Teaque, Deborah Coxwell: "Making Meaning - Your Own Meaning - When You Read"

Classroom authors:

Lauren, Benjamin: "What Are We Doing with Our Pennies?"

Marcum, Leah V.: "Storm Surge."

Reeves, Kenneth: "Freaks and Geeks"

Chapter Four: Writing to Find Your Topic: Inventing, Exploring, Discovering

Thinking About Getting Started

Lee, Spike: "Journal Entries: Do the Right Thing."

Lamott, Anne: "Index Cards."

Classroom Handout: Invention Exercises

Writing to Find Your Topic

Writing about the Environment and Food and Family

Haake, Katharine: "Exercise I: Beyond the End of Writing."

Classroom handouts: Invention Exercises

Carver, Raymond: "Saturday Night."

Classroom authors:

Leah V. Marcum: "You've Got Mail (Whether You Want It or Not)

Scott Arkin: "iChat"

Chapter Five: Form to Develop Your Thoughts: Modes and Topics

Thinking About How Form and Structure May Help Develop a Topic You Already Have

Corbett, Edward and Connors, Robert: "Formulating a Thesis."

Hopkins, Evans D: "Lockdown."

Staples, Brent: "Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space."

Steiner, Donna: "Love Drunk."

Trask, Haunani-Kay: "Tourist, Stay Home"

Alexie, Sherman: "White Men Can't Drum."

Ackerman, Diane: "Mute Dancers: How to Watch a Hummingbird."

Kincaid, Jamaica: from "A Small Place"

Lopez, Barry: "My Horse."

Bishop, Wendy: "It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity"

Smith, Leonora: "The Five Paragraph Essay." (poem)

Classroom authors:

Gerrity, Maggie: "In Capital et Caritas"

Giles, Sandra: "The Mediums, Their Message"

"The Medium" (earlier version of "The Mediums, Their Message")

Fleming, Amanda: Essay on hunting and taxidermy and other digressions, in two versions.

"Not Your Typical Martha Stewart Decorating Tip"

"Girlfriend's Guide: 'Getting that Trophy Husband'"

Chapter Six: Writers and Readers: Drafting, Responding, and Revising

Thinking About Your Methods for Drafting, Responding, and Revising

Lamott, Anne: "Shitty First Drafts."

Godwin, Gail: "The Watcher at the Gates."

Straub, Richard: "Responding, Really Responding to Writing."

Elbow, Peter and Belanoff, Pat: "Summary of Ways of Responding."

Classroom handout: The Executive Summary

Fulwiler, Toby: "A Lesson in Revision."

Dillard, Annie: "Transfiguration" and "How I Wrote the Moth Essay—And Why."

Locklin, Gerald: "Amphibians Have Feelings Too" (poem)

Pastan, Linda: "Marks" (poem)

Classroom authors:

Szczepanski, Jay: "On a Blackslick Road in Winter" and two earlier drafts

Harmon, Tom: "Watch," "Radical Revision Guy," and "Radical Revision Process Narrative"

Chapter Seven: Research and the Writer: A Joining of Voices

Thinking About the Ways All Writers Are Researchers

Elbow, Peter and Pat Belanoff: "Writing a Research Paper."

Crossley, Gay Lynn: "Making Peace with the Research Essay--One Teacher's History."

Goldthwaite, Melissa: "This Too Is Research"

Wald, Catherine: "Research and the Fiction Writer."

Greene, Stuart: "Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument"

Classroom Authors:

Harrington, Rachel: "Blizzard Baby."

Vaccaro, Andrea: "What Exactly is a Guide Dog?"

Torralba, Michael: "Radiohead's 'OK Computer'."

Chapter Eight: Examining Experience: Story, Memory, and the Essay

Thinking About Story, Narrative, and the Essay

Sanders, Scott Russell: "The Most Human Art: Ten Reasons Why We'll Always Need a Good Story."

Newman, Dean: "Becky's Mirror."

Hampl, Patricia: "Memory and Imagination."

Williams, Lynna: "We Told You This, Didn't We?"

Kingsolver, Barbara: "In Case You Ever Want to Go Home Again."

Murray, Donald: "Trying on the Essay"

Bishop, Wendy: "Try This."

Classroom authors:

Gawrys, Keith: "The Legend of the Swine Creek Monster"

Maddox, Carlyn: "How He Should Have Died"

Szczepanski, Jay: "Story Told Simply"

Chapter Nine: Language Matters

Thinking About Writers' Relationships to Language and Style

Julia Alvarez: "Bilingual Sestina." (poem)

Rose, Mike: "Writing Around Rules."

Joseph, Allison: "Rules of Conduct: Colored Elementary School, 1943." (poem)

Autrey, Ken: "Prepositions in Alabama." (poem)

Bishop, Wendy: "Reading, Stealing, and Writing Like a Writer."

Classroom handouts: Style Revision Exercises and Examples

Marius, Richard: "False Rules and What Is True about Them."

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: "How to Write with Style."

Iyer, Pico: "In Praise of the Humble Comma."Classroom authors:

Andre, Sarah M.: "Self-Analysis of Style"

Fleming, Amanda: "Style Analysis"