The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing

The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing
Author: Jennifer Sinor
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2002-11-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1587294303

Krutch’s trenchant observations about life prospering in the hostile environment of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert turn to weighty questions about humanity and the precariousness of our existence, putting lie to Western denials of mind in the “lower” forms of life: “Let us not say that this animal or even this plant has ‘become adapted’ to desert conditions. Let us say rather that they have all shown courage and ingenuity in making the best of the world as they found it. And let us remember that if to use such terms in connection with them is a fallacy then it can only be somewhat less a fallacy to use the same terms in connection with ourselves.”

Why I Write

Why I Write
Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Renard Press Ltd
Total Pages: 15
Release: 2021-01-01
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1913724263

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

Ordinary Hazards

Ordinary Hazards
Author: Nikki Grimes
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2022-03-01
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1635925622

Michael L. Printz Honor Book Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book Boston Globe/Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for Teens Six Starred Reviews—★Booklist ★BCCB ★The Horn Book ★Publishers Weekly ★School Library Connection ★Shelf Awareness A Booklist Best Book for Youth * A BCCB Blue Ribbon * A Horn Book Fanfare Book * A Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book * Recommended on NPR's "Morning Edition" by Kwame Alexander "This powerful story, told with the music of poetry and the blade of truth, will help your heart grow."–Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Shout "[A] testimony and a triumph."–Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way Down In her own voice, acclaimed author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse. Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir that will resonate with young readers and adults alike, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.

Craft Moves

Craft Moves
Author: Stacey Shubitz
Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1625310226

Foreword by Lester Laminack How do you choose mentor texts for your students? How do you mine them for the craft lessons you want your students to learn? In Craft Moves, Stacey Shubitz, cofounder of the Two Writing Teachers website, does the heavy lifting for you: using twenty recently published picture books, she creates more than 180 lessons to teach various craft moves that will help your students become better writers. Stacey first discusses picture books as teaching tools and offers ways to integrate them into your curriculum, and classroom discussions. She also shares routines and classroom procedures to help students focus on their writing during the independent writing portion of writing workshop and helps teachers prepare for small-group instruction. Each of the 184 lessons in the book includes a publisher's summary, a rationale or explanation of the craft move demonstrated in the book, and a procedure that takes teachers and students back into the mentor text to deepen their understanding of the selected craft move. A step-by-step guide demonstrates how to analyze a picture book for multiple craft moves. Using picture books as mentor texts will help your students not only read as writers and write with joy but also become writers who can effectively communicate meaning, structure their writing, write with detail, and give their writing their own unique voice.

Writing to Make a Difference

Writing to Make a Difference
Author: Dalya F. Massachi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780978883607

Engage your readers and boost your impact! Do you write--a little or a lot--for a socially responsible organization, business, or program? Wish you had an accessible writing coach to help you quickly craft potent pieces that move your readers to act? This feisty one-stop-shop of distilled wisdom will show you-step by step-how to turbocharge your marketing and fundraising documents. Start getting the results you want, right now! Whether you're an accidental or emerging writer or a seasoned wordsmith, this comprehensive resource will help you build and manage the invaluable skills behind writing values-driven copy. You will find advice on everything from advancing your brand to storytelling to minding the devilish details. Discover how to painlessly: - Write and edit a full spectrum of clear, concise, creative pieces that will reach and influence your diverse intended audiences - Streamline and strengthen your writing process-from planning to proofreading - Develop your own confident, expert writing voice Included in these pages you will find: - More than 500 real-life examples from nonprofits, green businesses, government agencies, and others - Hundreds of stimulating questions and exercises that help you apply the lessons to your own work - Numerous guide sheets, checklists, and handy appendices - Dozens of warnings about potential pitfalls ... all this delivered with a generous helping of fun illustrations, cultural references, and humor. If you've ever had trouble expressing your passion in writing, or telling your story in a fresh and compelling way, this powerhouse of a book is for you! ADVANCE PRAISE: "This book should be on the shelf of every nonprofit administrator, community organizer, and advocate. There is literally nothing else of its kind on the market; it is 'The Elements of Style' for the grassroots fundraising and marketing world." -- Leif Wellington Haase, Director, California Program, New America Foundation "'Writing to Make a Difference' is a great balance of both instructional and interactive tips, tools, and exercises...and helps to lower the barrier for organizations that desire to tell their story in a way that captures both head and heart." -- Alandra L. Washington, Deputy Director, W.K. Kellogg Foundation "If you think your work is important, if you feel you have a message to deliver, if you have people who need to understand how this is done - this is the book. Massachi is the perfect guide and a tremendous coach." -- Jeff Hamaoui, CEO, Origo Inc. and social investment and enterprise specialist "Massachi has drilled down to all that is important about good writing. I recommend this book for those of us who write regularly, and for those of us who don't write because we don't think we can. "-- Kim Klein, author, 'Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times' "This is an outstanding work, one of the best I have read in the genre, and of possible use in the university, for public relations and organizational communication courses. The writing lessons are succinct, the methods to convey them effective, and the style itself an example of professional brilliance. I recommend 'Writing to Make a Difference' because I know that it will."-- Michael Bugeja, author, 'Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age' and Director, School of Journalism & Communication, Iowa State University AUTHOR BIO: Dalya F. Massachi, M.A. began writing for publication as an adolescent interested in social justice. Now, Dalya draws on her nearly 20 years of professional experience writing and editing for hundreds of socially responsible organizations. With passion and fresh insight, she reveals the top strategic insider techniques she has honed through her work as a successful grantwriter, editor, journalist, workshop instructor, and writing coach.

Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks

Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks
Author: Wendy Laura Belcher
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2009-01-20
Genre: Education
ISBN: 141295701X

This book provides you with all the tools you need to write an excellent academic article and get it published.

Welcome to Writing Workshop

Welcome to Writing Workshop
Author: Stacey Shubitz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2019
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1625311664

Stacey Shubitz and Lynne Dorfman welcome you to experience the writing workshop for the first time or in a new light with Welcome to Writing Workshop: Engaging Today's Students with a Model That Works. Through strategic routines, tips, resources, and short focused video clips, teachers can create the sights and sounds of a thriving writing workshop where: - Both students and teachers are working authors - Students spend most of their time writing--not just learning about it- Student choice is encouraged to help create engaged writers, not compliant ones - Students are part of the formative assessment process - Students will look forward to writing time--not dread it. From explanations of writing process and writing traits to small-group strategy lessons and mini-lessons, this book will provide the know-how to feel confident and comfortable in the teaching of writers.

First We Read, Then We Write

First We Read, Then We Write
Author: Robert D. Richardson
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2009-03-01
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1587298422

Writing was the central passion of Emerson’s life. While his thoughts on the craft are well developed in “The Poet,” “The American Scholar,” Nature, “Goethe,” and “Persian Poetry,” less well known are the many pages in his private journals devoted to the relationship between writing and reading. Here, for the first time, is the Concord Sage’s energetic, exuberant, and unconventional advice on the idea of writing, focused and distilled by the preeminent Emerson biographer at work today. Emerson advised that “the way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent.” First We Read, Then We Write contains numerous such surprises—from “every word we speak is million-faced” to “talent alone cannot make a writer”—but it is no mere collection of aphorisms and exhortations. Instead, in Robert Richardson’s hands, the biographical and historical context in which Emerson worked becomes clear. Emerson’s advice grew from his personal experience; in practically every moment of his adult life he was either preparing to write, trying to write, or writing. Richardson shows us an Emerson who is no granite bust but instead is a fully fleshed, creative person disarmingly willing to confront his own failures. Emerson urges his readers to try anything—strategies, tricks, makeshifts—speaking not only of the nuts and bolts of writing but also of the grain and sinew of his determination. Whether a writer by trade or a novice, every reader will find something to treasure in this volume. Fearlessly wrestling with “the birthing stage of art,” Emerson’s counsel on being a reader and writer will be read and reread for years to come.

Ordinary Trauma

Ordinary Trauma
Author: Jennifer Sinor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781607815372

This original coming-of-age memoir uncovers moments in life that are made to appear ordinary but wound nonetheless.