Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999 -- and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it -- fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.(back cover)

    Now this bestselling information is available for the first time in book form, in an easy-to-follow, graduated vocabulary building program that teaches an outstanding vocabulary in just ten steps. Unlike other vocabulary books, Verbal Advantage provides a complete learning experience, with clear explanations of meanings, word histories, usages, pronunciation, and more. Far more than a cram session for a standardized test, the book is designed as a lifetime vocabulary builder, teaching a vocabulary shared by only the top percentage of Americans, with a proven method that helps the knowledge last.A 10-step vocabulary program teaches 500 key words and 3,000 synonyms. Lively, accessible writing from an expert author and radio personality.

    Addressed to copyeditors in book publishing and corporate communications, this thoughtful handbook explains what copyeditors do, what they look for when they edit a manuscript, and how they develop the editorial judgment needed to make sound decisions.This revised edition reflects the most recent editions of The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.).

    With an introduction by Peter Straub.

    You can describe what you're thinking but you don't know the name for it. Flip Dictionary solves this common problem! Best-selling author Barbara Ann Kipfer has created a huge reference that offers cues and clue words to lead writers to the exact phrase or specific term they need. It goes beyond the standard reverse dictionary format to offer dozens of charts and tables, listing groups by subject (such as automobiles, clothing types, plants, tools, etc.) Flip Dictionary is an excellent resource for everyone. Writers of fiction and non-fiction will use it to find that elusive word they need, and word lovers will find it an entertaining book to simply sit and browse through. Crossword puzzlers will also find it invaluable. An indispensable desk reference, as necessary as a dictionary or thesaurus, but a whole lot more fun.

    Writing can even help you understand what you want. In this book, you will read stories about ordinary people who witnessed miracles large and small unfold in their lives after they performed the basic act of putting their dreams on paper. Klauser's down-to-earth tips and easy exercises are sure to get your creative juices flowing. Before you know it, you'll be writing your own ticket to success. You Can Find the perfect mate Buy your dream house Get a great new job Wake up happier Travel the world Have a better relationship with your teenage son

    As Lead Staff Developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Carl Anderson has provided hundreds of teachers with the information and confidence they need to make these complex conferences an effective part of classroom practice. Finally, in "How's It Going?," Anderson shares his expertise with the rest of us. For Anderson, the key to a powerful writing conference lies in understanding that it is a conversation with a clear purpose and a predictable structure. This is the best lens through which to view the task of talking about writing. To that end, Anderson shows how we can take what we already know about having effective conversations and use that knowledge. Sample transcripts of conferences with elementary and middle school students in both urban and suburban settings walk us through the process step by step, providing new insight into how ambitious conferences unfold.Above all, "How's It Going?" is a practical book. Written in a conversational style, it's filled with lots of useful advice, including an in-depth discussion of the teacher's role in conferences, strategies for teaching students to take an active role, ways to weave in literature, minilessons, classroom management strategies, and responses to the most frequently asked questions about conferring. Along the way, readers will learn new ways of thinking, develop effective techniques, and perfect straightforward strategies. At the same time, they'll grasp the art and logic of conferring, and with this learning in mind, discover for themselves how to confer well.

    Ever refusing to be marginalized or categorized by genre, Maso is an incisive, compassionate writer who deems herself daughter of William Carlos Williams, a pioneer in combining poetry and fiction with criticism, journalism, and the visual arts. She is daughter, too, of Allen Ginsberg, who also came from Paterson, New Jersey. Known for her audacity, whether exploring language and memory or the development of the artistic soul, Maso here gives us a form-challenging collection, intelligent, and persuasive.

    No more wading through dry style manuals. No more guesswork. Just clear, proven guidance, including:Four Myths of Great WritingThe Elements of Style ChecklistThe Elements of Composition ChecklistThe Four-Step Writing ProcessGlossary of Grammatical TermsProofreading ChecklistFour Common Errors in Word Choice (and How to Avoid Them)Five Ways to Bring Music to Your WritingFourteen Techniques to Eliminate WordinessAnd much more!Keys to Great Writing is like having your own desktop writing coach. Use it, learn from it, and give the voice to the great writer within you.

    No theories! Only actual techniques! The ultimate HOW TO screenwriting book! Creating the ultimate villain, harvesting the audience's secrets desires or hidden fears to create a hit film, how to write a plot twist, the four kinds of suspense, using reversals to keep your descriptions exciting, four ways to explode cliches, the two types of heroes, ten ways to create exciting action scenes, using secrets and lies, weapons for weirdos, instant character identifiers, your script's DNA, 16 steps to better description, pacing secrets, rugpulls, visual characterization, "Popeye" points, and more! "Secrets Of Action Screenwriting" was written by a working professional screenwriter with seventeen produced films. He knows what works!

    Discussing the joys and problems that face both writer and reader, it is for those who wish to engage the art of letters at its deepest level. "These timeless poems delve into the heart of writing." - Cleveland Plain Dealer Poet

    Surprise! There is no secret to being a writer. But there is a process.Good writing isn't forged by magic or hatched out of thin air. Good writing happens when you follow certain steps to take control of your sentences—to make your words do what you want them to do. This book lifts the curtain on how writers work and helps aspiring writers discover their own writing process.Perfect for classrooms, How Writers Work is full of practical wisdom. It's tailored especially for young writers, but aspiring authors of all ages can benefit from bestselling writer Ralph Fletcher's tips.Everyone can struggle with the writing process at times. Unlock your potential by reading How Writers Work!

    Each of the 100 sharply focused, historically and culturally diverse passages from world literature targets a specific component of voice, presenting the elements in short, manageable exercises that function well as class openers. Includes teacher notes and discussion suggestions.

    It is intended for those who write humor or have ever wanted to.

    Rules of style and technique are covered, with examples of expert prose from the masters. An Appendix covers punctuation and grammar.

    Every writer should have a shrink or this book. The book is cheaper." --Gary Shandling, actor, comic, and writer "wise, compassionate, and funny..." --Aram Saroyan, poet and novelist"Dennis Palumbo provides a sense of community in the isolation of writing, of knowing that we are not alone on this uncharted and privileged journey. He shows us that our shared struggles, fears, and triumphs are the very soul of the art and craft of writing." --Bruce Joel Rubin, screenwriter, GhostandDeepImpactWriter's block. Procrastination. Loneliness. Doubt. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Just plain...fear. What does it mean if you struggle with these feelings on a daily basis?It means you re a writer. Written with a unique empathy and deep insight by someone who is both a fellow writer and a noted psychotherapist, Writing from the Inside Out sheds light on the inner life of the writer and shows you positive new ways of thinking about your art and yourself. Palumbo touches on subjects ranging from writer s envy to rejection, from the loneliness of solitude to the joy of craft. Most of all, he leads you to the most empowering revelation of all that you are enough. Everything you need to navigate the often tumultuous terrain of the writer s path and create your best work is right there inside you.

    Includes: All the President's Men - Magic - Harper - Maverick - The Great Waldo Pepper. Also features essays by Goldman: "Getting Even or Creative Accounting " "Sneak Previews, or Why Did She Have to Die? " "Hype or Consequences: A Brief History of the Future " "Shooting from the Hip: Don't You Know Anything About Screenwriting? " and "Nothing for Me to Steal: The Secret Life of an Adaptation."

    Heroic characters can be broken down into sixteen archetypes. By following the guidelines of the archetypes presented in this comprehensive reference work, writers can create extraordinarily memorable characters and elevate their writing to a higher level. Throughout the book, the authors give examples of well-known heroes and heroines from television and film so the reader can picture the archetype in his or her mind.At the very core of a character, every hero can be traced back to one of the eight major archetypes, as can every heroine. The core archetype tells the writer the most basic instincts of heroes or heroines - how they think and feel, what drives them and how they reach their goals. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a novice, The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes & Heroines will help you improve your own writing and help you create truly memorable characters.

    It is a multilayered, multivoiced literary experience. Genres of narrative thinking require writers to make an imaginative leap, melding the factual with the imaginative. Writers cant just tell. They must show. They must make their topics palpable. They must penetrate experience. Multigenre papers enable their authors to do that. Blending Genre, Altering Style is the first book to address the practicalities of helping students compose multigenre papers. Romano discusses genres, subgenres, writing strategies, and stylistic maneuvers that students can use in their own multigenre papers. Each idea is supported with actual student writing, including five full-length multigenre papers that demonstrate the possibilities of a multigenre approach to writing. There are also discussions of writing poetry, fiction, and dialogue, in which readers will discover how students can create genres out of indelible moments, crucial processes, and important matters in the lives of the subject under inquiry. One chapter alone is devoted to helping writers create unity and coherence in their papers.Imbued with Romanos passion for teaching, Blending Genre, Altering Style is an invaluable reference for any inservice or preservice English language arts teacher. The only prerequisite is a desire to help students write.

    But distinguished poets Mark Strand and Eavan Boland have produced a clear, super-helpful book that unravels part of the mystery of great poems through an engaging exploration of poetic structure. Strand and Boland begin by promising to "look squarely at some of the headaches" of poetic form: the building blocks of poetry. The Making of a Poem gradually cures many of those headaches.Strand, who's won the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship and has served as U.S. Poet Laureate, and Boland, an abundantly talented Irish poet who has also written a beautiful book of essays on writing and womanhood, are both accustomed to teaching. Strand, now at the University of Chicago, and Boland, a Stanford professor, draw upon decades in the classroom to anticipate most questions.Ever wonder what a pantoum is? A villanelle? A sestina? With humor, patience, and personal anecdotes, Strand and Boland offer answers. But the way they answer is what makes this book stand out. The forms are divided into three overarching categories: metrical forms, shaping forms, and open forms. "Metrical forms" include the sonnet, pantoum, and heroic couplet. "Shaping forms" explains broader categories, like the elegy, ode, and pastoral poem. And "open forms" offers new takes on the traditional blueprints, exploring poems like Allen Ginsberg's "America."Each established form is then approached in three ways, followed by several pages of outstanding poems in that form. First, the editors offer a "page at a glance" guide, with five or six characteristics of that specific form presented in a brief outline. For example, the pantoum is defined like this:   1) Each pantoum stanza must be four lines long.   2) The length is unspecified but the pantoum must begin and end with the same line.   3) The second and fourth lines of the first quatrain become the first and third line of the next, and so on with succeeding quatrains.   4) The rhyming of each quatrain is abab.   5) The final quatrain changes this pattern.   6) In the final quatrain the unrepeated first and third lines are used in reverse as second and fourth lines.With this outline, it's easy to identify the looping pantoum. In the second piece of the pantoum section, Strand and Boland include a "History of the Form" section, again condensed to one page. Here, we learn that the pantoum is "Malayan in origin and came into English, as so many other strict forms have, through France." Indeed, both Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire tried their hands at the pantoum. As always, Strand and Boland offer some comparison to the other forms, which helps explain why a poet might choose to write a pantoum over, say, a sonnet or a sestina:"Of all verse forms the pantoum is the slowest. The reader takes four steps forward, then two steps back. It is the perfect form for the evocation of a past time." Next, the editors include "The Contemporary Context," which introduces several of the pantoums of this century. Finally, in what may be the book's best feature, they provide a close-up of a pantoum, an approach they repeat for each form discussed. In this case, it's the "Pantoum of the Great Depression" by Donald Justice. The editors offer some biographical information on Justice, and then they map out how that specific poem gets its power. This "poet's explanation" of the workings of a poem is invaluable, especially when it comes from leading poets such as Stand and Boland. What's more, these remarks are transferable. Reading how Strand and Boland view a dozen poems transforms the way one reads. With any future poem, you can look for what Strand and Boland have found in the greats.The editors offer their readers a great start, with a list for further reading and a helpful glossary. If anything can get a person excited about poetry, this selection of poems can -- though the editors, as working poets, readily admit their choices are idiosyncratic. Gems here include the best work of lesser-known poets, including several "poets' poets." For example, Edward Thomas, a prominent reviewer in his day and a close friend of Robert Frost's, is represented by "Rain," an absolutely brilliant blank-verse poem which begins:      Rain, midnight rain, nothing but wild rain      On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me      Remembering again that I shall die      And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks      For washing me cleaner than I have been       Since I was born into this solitude. Thomas's poem -- and other treasures here -- introduces readers to what and how poets read to learn to make poems. Of course, many of the usual suspects are found here, but the surprises are exciting, and even the old favorites seem new when the editors explain why and how a particular poem seems beautiful. This is particularly evident in their discussion of Edna St. Vincent Millay's rushing, initially breathless sonnet "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and How, " which reads:      What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,      I have forgotten, and what arms have lain      Under my head till morning, but the rain      Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh      Upon the glass and listen for reply,       And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain      For unremembered lads that not again      Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.       Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree      Nor knows what birds have vanquished one by one,      Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:       I cannot say what loves have come and gone,       I only know that summer sang in me      A little while, that in me sings no more. In the "close-up" section, Strand and Boland offer an biographical paragraph that mentions that in 1923, Millay became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. They then discuss Millay's "distinctive and unusual" approach to the sonnet form: "Instead of taking the more leisurely pace of the public sonnet that had been the 19th-century model, she drove her sonnets forward with a powerful lyric music and personal emphasis."The editors point out Millay's heavy reliance on assonance and alliteration, and then note how she takes advantage of the different tempos the sonnet offers:"Here she uses her distinctive music and high diction to produce an unusually quick-paced poem in the first octave and then a slower, more reflective septet where the abandoned lover becomes a winter tree. This ability of the sonnet, to accommodate both lyric and reflective time, made it a perfect vehicle for highly intuitive twentieth-century poets like Millay."That simple explanation of the sonnet as a form able to "accommodate both lyric and reflective time" helps clarify most sonnets. But Strand and Boland are careful not to explain everything. The deepest beauty, as they explain in their introductory essays on their attraction to form, is built on mystery. And it is that attempt to understand the greatest mysteries that defines the greatest poems. Similarly, mystery often drives poets to write, as Strand explains in his essay on Archibald MacLeish's "You, Andrew Marvell," which Strand describes as the first poem he wished he had written himself in his early years as a poet:"Although I no longer wish I had written 'You, Andrew Marvell,' I wish, however, that I could write something like it, something with its sweep, its sensuousness, its sad crepuscular beauty, something capable of carving out such a large psychic space for itself&. There is something about it that moves me in ways I don't quite understand, as it were communicating more than what it actually says. This is often the case with good poems -- they have a lyric identity that goes beyond whatever their subject happens to be."With this book, Strand and Boland help quantify the explicable parts of a "lyric identity." Understanding form, the editors believe, is one way to begin understanding a poem's beauty. This lucid, useful book is a wonderful guide to that mysterious music.—Aviya Kushner

    It contains many of the articles and workshops from this site, plus three articles written especially for the book: My Five Worst Career Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them, Ten Keys to Designing a Series Character You Can Live With (Forever), and How to Make Every Story Better Than the Last." (from HollyLisle.com)

    Now, in Algernon, Charlie, and I, Keyes reveals his methods of creating fiction as well as the heartbreaks and joys of being published. With admirable insight he shares with readers, writers, teachers, and students the creative life behind his classic novel, included here in its original short-story form. All those who love stories, storytelling, and the remarkable characters of Charlie and Algernon will delight in accompanying their creator on this inspirational voyage of discovery.

    Contains over 2,000 quotations from published sources showing how language is used.

    Now what? How do you turn this raw material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, memoirs? Drawing on her own experience as a writer and a student of Zen, Natalie shows you how to create a field big enough to allow your “wild mind” to wander — and then gently direct its tremendous energy into whatever you want to write.Here, too, is invaluable advice on how to overcome writer’s block, how to deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, how to get the most from working with an editor, and how to learn from reading accomplished authors. With humor and compassion, Goldberg recounts her own mistakes on the way to publication — and how you can avoid the most common pitfalls of the beginning writer. Through it all there is a deep celebration of writing itself — not just as the means to an end, but as a path to living a deeper, more fully alive life.

    The anthology includes renowned writers like Kathy Acker, Dennis Cooper, Nicole Brossard, Daphne Marlatt, Lydia Davis and Kevin Killian, writers who have spent years pondering the meaning of storytelling and how storytelling functions in our culture, as well as presenting a new generation of brilliant thinkers and writers, like Christian Bök, Corey Frost, Derek McCormack and Lisa Robertson.Contemporizing the friendly anecdotal style of Montaigne and written by daring writers of different ages, of different origins, from many different regions of the continent, from Mexico to Montreal, these essays run the gamut of mirth, prose poetry, tall tales and playful explorations of reader/writer dynamics. They discuss aesthetics founded on new explorations in the field of narrative, the mystery that is the body, questions of how representation may be torqued to deal with gender and sexuality, the experience of marginalized people, the negotiation between different orders of time, the 'performance' of outlaw subject matter.Brave, energetic and fresh, Biting the Error tells a whole new story about narrative.Biting the Error is edited by Mary Burger, Robert Glück, Camille Roy and Gail Scott, the co-founders of the Narrativity Website Magazine, based at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University.

    These short anecdotes provide remarkable insight into the human character. Ranging from the humorous to the tearful, they span classical history, recent politics, modern science and the arts. Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes is a gold mine for anyone who gives speeches, is doing research, or simply likes to browse. As an informal tour of history and human nature at its most entertaining & instructive, this is sure to be a perennial favorite for years to come.

    Their singular takes on their craft, their influences, their lives, the state of contemporary theater, and the tricks of the trade create an illuminating and unparalleled record of the life of the theater itself."At its best,  theater is an antidote to the whiff of barbarity in the millennial air. 'My feeling is that people in a group, en masse, watching something, react differently, and perhaps more profoundly, than they do when they're alone in their living rooms,' Arthur Miller says here. In the dark, facing the stage, surrounded by others, the paying customer can let himself go; he is emboldened. The theatrical encounter allows a member of the public to think against received opinions. He can submerge himself in the extraordinary, admit his darkest, most infantile wishes, feel the pulse of the contemporary, hear the sludge of street talk turned into poetry. This enterprise can be joyous and dangerous; when the theater's game is good and tense, it is both."--from the Introduction by John Lahr

    Bringing new insight to the comprehensive HODGES' HARBRACE HANDBOOK, Fifteenth Edition, rhetorician Cheryl Glenn and linguist Loretta Gray add their expertise to this market-leading handbook.

    Goldman opens his long-awaited sequel by writing about his years of exile before he found himself--again--as a valuable writer in Hollywood. Fans of the two-time Oscar-winning writer (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) have anxiously waited for this follow-up since his career serpentined into a variety of big hits and critical bombs in the '80s and '90s. Here Goldman scoops on The Princess Bride (his own favorite), Misery, Maverick, Absolute Power, and others. Goldman's conversational style makes him easy to read for the film novice but meaty enough for the detail-oriented pro. His tendency to ramble into other subjects may be maddening (he suddenly switches from being on set with Eastwood to anecdotes about Newman and Garbo), but we can excuse him because of one fact alone: he is so darn entertaining. Like most sequels, Which Lie follows the structure of the original. Both Goldman books have three parts: stories about his movies, a deconstruction of Hollywood (here the focus is on great movie scenes), and a workshop for screenwriters. (The paperback version of the first book also comes with his full-length screenplay of Butch; his collected works are also worth checking out). This final segment is another gift--a toolbox--for the aspiring screenwriter. Goldman takes newspaper clippings and other ideas and asks the reader to diagnose their cinematic possibilities. Goldman also gives us a new screenplay he's written (The Big A), which is analyzed--with brutal honesty--by other top writers. With its juicy facts and valuable sidebars on what makes good screenwriting, this is another entertaining must-read from the man who coined what has to be the most-quoted adage about movie-business success: "Nobody knows anything." --Doug Thomas

    Tore Boeckmann and Leonard Peikoff for the first time now bring readers the edited transcript of these exciting personal statements. The Art of Fiction offers invaluable lessons, in which Rand analyzes the four essential elements of fiction: theme, plot, characterization, and style. She demonstrates her ideas by dissecting her best-known works, as well as those of other famous authors, such as Thomas Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, and Victor Hugo. An historic accomplishment, this compendium will be a unique and fascinating resource for both writers and readers of fiction.

    In his hugely popular Stage Performance class at Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music, singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor teaches students how to take center stage without fear and deliver a natural performance that is rewarding for both the artist and the audience. Follow Livingston's unique approach to being comfortable in the spotlight, and discover: -- The right way to begin -- and end -- your time on stage-- The conversation of performance-- How to spend the time before and after your gig-- The single most important factor in your show's success...and more

    Goodall's distinctive style will engage and energize students, offering them provocative advice and exercises for turning qualitative data and field notes into compelling representations of social life.

    This book is based on the Johnson's popular workshops of the same name.A Story is a Promise is a journey of understanding into the craft of storytelling designed to help bring writers forth with passion, feeling, and dramatic clarity the stories they conceive in their minds and heart.

    * Learn to spot the clues to average writing-and how to find and fix them in your own work. * See how an editor analyzes the techniques of 215 writers who got right what most writers get wrong. * Get an insider's tips for painless revisions by computer. * Find out the secrets of craft that can boost your odds of changing an "a" for average to the "A" of Accepted.. . . . . . ."Chock full of practical advice for the novice writer. Even seasoned writers could use a copy as a refresher course." --"Charlaine Harris, New York Times best-selling author of 29 books in multiple genres""Best book of its kind by far. Required for my college level students. Recommended for all aspiring writers." --"Reed Farrel Coleman, two-time Edgar nominee; Shamus, Barry, and Anthony winner""Without qualification, I recommend this book to fiction writers, be they literary, mainstream, or genre writers." --"John Thornburg, Professor English/Creative Writing, San Jacinto College, Pasadena, TX""A savvy writer's guide to creating a manuscript that will SELL!" --"Carolyn Hart, two-time winner of Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards""A must for anyone who seeks to become a published author." --"Midwest Book Review""This is an undisputed winner ... one that you must buy if you're at all serious about seeing yourself in print. Highly recommended." --"Concept Sci-Fi"

    Thirty years later, a younger author at the start of his career is introduced into the company of these two great pessimists—neither of whom make cooperative interview subjects, and each of whom represents, in his own way, a radical rejection of the common languages of his art.

    Christensen lead you on a journey of personal discovery with his new sketch-and-notebook series, Personal Illuminations. Each book is both a catalog of Mr. Christensen's most whimsical, outlandish, and thought-provoking sketches and ideas and a personal notebook for you to keep track of your own insights and images. Over the course of his career, Mr. Christensen has filled more than fifty notebooks with notes, sketches, and musings, and he is convinced that most people do not mine their own ideas and perceptions nearly enough.In Imagination, Mr. Christensen describes his creative process and prompts you to discover your own. In Exploration, he suggests ways to get more out of the impressions that come to you as you travel. In Enumeration, he invites you to examine your life through the making of lists and tables. And in Illumination, he taps into the personal revelations about our lives and what's important to us that come to each of us in the most unexpected circumstances.

    Field-tested writing exercises are also included, guaranteed to short-circuit potential mistakes and ensure inspiration.

    In 1981 Basquiat was discovered while painting as the graffiti artist known as Samo and by 1983 he was already showing major large-scale paintings on the international gallery scene and had made the cover of TIME. In 1985 he began a series of remarkable collaborations with Andy Warhol, and by 1988 he had died. Despite his short life. Basquiat left behind an oeuvre that continues to receive critical and popular acclaim. With almost 200 images, including extensive reproductions of the artist's best work, and a large selection of never-before-seen photographs, this much-needed monograph is rounded off with essays and remembrances of Basquiat by critics, colleagues and friends -- as well as an illustrated biography and a chronology.

    As its title suggests (nothing in excess), it advocates moderation in ways of working, based on the single-most reliable difference between new faculty who thrive and those who struggle. By following its practical, easy-to-use rules, novice faculty can learn to teach with the highest levels of student approval, involvement, and comprehension, with only modest preparation times and a greater reliance on spontaneity and student participation. Similarly, new faculty can use its rule-based practices to write with ease, increasing productivity, creativity, and publishability through brief, daily sessions of focused and relaxed work. And they can socialize more successfully by learning about often-misunderstood aspects of academic culture, including mentoring. Each rule in Advice for New Faculty Members has been tested on hundreds of new faculty and proven effective over the long run -- even in attaining permanent appointment. It is the first guidebook to move beyond anecdotes and surmises for its directives, based on the author's extensive experience and solid research in the areas of staff and faculty development. For new teachers.

    Piccirilli lets you know from the start that writing is serious business, but at the same time, the book is full of his offbeat, scathing humor. ..".if anybody tells you that all you need is a lucky break, then tell them to shove off. Luck is about the worst thing that can happen in this biz, and it's no substitute for knowledge, experience, and skill." -Tom Piccirilli, from Welcome to Hell

    You'll learn how to dig for information before quoting a fee. You'll examine the pros and cons of different pricing methods, such as hourly rates, project fees, and retainers. You'll discover the only two rules of pricing and why following them will guarantee you pricing success. You'll find out how to keep records that will enable you to maximize your profits on future projects. And you'll see how and when to analyze your income retroactively and to raise your rates with little effort.With self-employment being the hottest job trend, What to Charge is essential reading and a must-have reference for all entrepreneurs. No other book provides the detailed guidance of this volume, which is now in its second edition. Here's what readers of What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants have said:"I wish I had this book when I began freelancing.""You've taken the guesswork out of pricing!""This is the most logical, practical approach to pricing-and business management%u2014for the self-employed that I have ever seen.""I've had my own business for years, and I thought I knew it all. But What to Charge gave me new insights and new approaches. As soon as I implemented one of these strategies, I recouped the cost of the book."Lessons learned in the trenches form the basis of this book. The author, Laurie Lewis, has more than 25 years as a freelance medical writer and editor. Active in several professional associations, the author has incorporated not only her own experiences but also those of other self-employed professionals to create a model for successful pricing of consulting services.The techniques presented in What to Charge have stood the test of time, remaining valid through the recession that occurred since the first edition was published in 2000. In fact, because the book presents strategies, it will never go out of date. Whether you're just launching a freelance business or you have many years of consulting under your belt, What to Charge is for you.

    The selections are funny, gritty and brutally honest, writing that attests to a raw spirituality formed and informed by life on the street. When these writers are given prompts like "It Was the Best Day," "So I Lied," "September Eleven," "My Best Mistake" or "In My Other Life," they hold nothing back. Peter Nkruma writes about the "delicious fun" he had at the library writing on his Web log a parody of the evangelical Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, playing God and "rapturing" to the heavens a boozy magazine editor he liked while leaving behind one who ignored articles by African-Americans. Donald Mackey's moving essay on "Working for My Welfare" describes scrounging for a dirty pair of gloves at a cleaning job he needed to keep his food stamps. In his piece on "Recovering," Mackey reflects on how the writers' workshop has changed his life, he is now a licensed minister completing a book and a one-act play. Sometimes sweet and sometimes bitter, this collection is a nutritious "slice of life" from a writers' workshop that's truly in the soul-food business." Publisher's Weekly

    What if you knew how to capture whole concepts and lock information into your brain while you re taking notes? And what if you could open those notes days later or even weeks later understand what they re about and pick up right where you left off? In this book you ll learn techniques for making information more meaningful (making notes, not just taking notes) and more memorable (turning notes into maps that connect information and help you see the big picture).

    In her essays, as with her Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry, Mazine Kumin speaks to "the encounter": with poetry, poets, and the details of country life. In clear, direct prose she is equally at ease musing over her garden or discussing poetic form, raising horses or critiquing the work of other poets. For Kumin, poetry is inseperable from daily life. "The prose is highly readable, full of humor and insight, and each essay brims with a kind of grace. Highly recommended" -- Library Journal.

    Featuring tools, techniques, and illustrative examples from the best black writers of our day, this book will help writers learn to: -- find their own style-- create characters readers will care about-- capture voices from their community-- write natural-sounding dialogue-- mine personal experience for detail-- weave a compelling story-- and moreTelling the Tale also includes helpful exercises, worksheets, and tips to show African-American writers how to perfect their craft.

    He discusses how to find a distinctive style, how to make time to write, and how to negotiate contracts. In easy-to-follow steps, the book outlines the keys to contacting agents, securing copyrights, and selling manuscripts to more than one market. Lots of people want to make it as writers. Hensley tells you how to do it — and enjoy the process.

    This is an essential book for working journalists, professors and students of journalism, directors of newspaper inservice writing programs, and anyone who wants to learn more about:the news-writing processreporting and writing for surprisefocusing your storydraft writingediting and fine-tuningcase studies of real journalists at work.Combining his knowledge as a composition researcher and theorist with his practical experience as a teacher and journalist, Donald Murray both explains and demonstrates the writing process as he allows the reader to look over his shoulderand the shoulders of other journalistsas they practice the craft of the immediate.

    A collection of alphabetically organized English words and terms provides two thousand "definitions" that offer sample usage and etymology and that stand alone as informative, often hilarious miniature essays.

    Parents struggle too, especially to find ways to communicate with their children and to show how much they care. This practical and valuable little book presents a proven method of staying in touch with your children throughout their school years.Lunch Box Letters is the result of the experience of two parents who -- separately -- wrote notes to their children on a regular basis and were immensely encouraged, by the results. Now they show how you can use their successful method to communicate with your own kids. They provide sample letters to let you see just how simple these little notes are to write - and how important they are to both parent and child. They also answer common questions that parents raise, such as 'Where do I find the time?' 'What if I have three kids?' or 'What if I'm a lousy speller?'As the authors make perfectly clear, you do not have to be Shakespeare to write lunch letters. (In fact, it's probably best if you're not.) Your children just want to hear your voice - to know that you care enough to write a few words for them to read in the middle of the day.Lunch Box Letters contains 75 sheets of colorful notepaper, perforated and ready for you to tear out and use. Just add a few words and tuck the finished letter into your children's lunch boxes. They will be thrilled. And you'll find that with this book to help you, the message takes almost no time at all.Some of the letters that Carol and Bill have written are simple expressions of love, notes of encouragement, or appreciation of the progress that children make in growing up. Some are designed to help kids overcome uncertainty, some are even apologies. And some are written simply for fun.

    English in Today's Research World offers students a very high level of writing instruction, with a specific focus on the projects students undertake--such as dissertations and conference abstracts--at the end of their university work or as they begin careers in research or academia.In addition to instruction on writing for publication, English in Today's Research World provides needed advice on applications, recommendations, and requests--types of communications that are particularly vulnerable to influences from national cultural expectations and conventions and that, therefore, place the NNS writer at increased disadvantage.The text is both a reference manual and a course book, so that researchers can continue to use the book after they have completed their formal education. New ESL/EFL teachers can use English in Today's Research World as a reference book for themselves or as a teaching aid in the classroom.

    Includes short tutorials on drawing deserts, cowfish, flip-flops, and more. 200 full-color photos.

    Stimulate kindergarten students desire to learn to read and write through multilevel activities! Also help increase their phonemic awareness and knowledge of letters and sounds, print or language concepts, and interesting words with this Four-Blocks® Literacy Model support classroom resource.

    Profusely illustrated. Limited edition of 500 copies.

    Stories of illness and healing are often arresting in their power, and they can illuminate aspects of practices and experiences surrounding illness that might otherwise be neglected. Recognizing the value of increased theoretical consciousness among those eliciting and analyzing narratives, these contributors explore narrative from a variety of perspectives.

    From the moment they are born, we encourage children to talk. We enunciate for them, applaud their expanding vocabularies, and hang on their every word. That is, until they enter school. At that time, we expect them to stop talking and measure their language abilities through a new medium: writing. While the educational system focuses on the written product as the sole measurement of language development, many children fail to measure up to established standards. Why? Because, Davis observes, writing is not our first communications tool; for most of us it functions as a "foreign language." The problem is, individuals are not capable of "creating" or "thinking" within a foreign language. Davis argues that we must step back into our familiar "first" language--the spoken word--as our creative medium and learn to "translate" into that new foreign language called writing. With enough success, writing will eventually become a second language instead of a foreign language. When we talk about language arts in our school, we focus on reading and writing instead of nourishing the whole oral and kinesthetic package that is our spoken language. Davis argues that talking and writing should not be mutually exclusive in language development. In this book, he lays out the method he has used successfully in countless residencies at schools across the United States, working with adults, teens, children, and teachers to develop their personal writing style.

    Drawing on diverse disciplines including classics, anthropology, psychology, and literary studies, this product of twenty years' scholarship provides a detailed typology of the hero in Western myth: birth, parentage, familial ties, sexuality, character, deeds, death, and afterlife. Dean A. Miller examines the place of the hero in the physical world (wilderness, castle, prison cell) and in society (among monarchs, fools, shamans, rivals, and gods). He looks at the hero in battle and quest; at his political status; and at his relationship to established religion. The book spans Western epic traditions, including Greek, Roman, Nordic, and Celtic, as well as the Indian and Persian legacies. A large section of the book also examines the figures who modify or accompany the hero: partners, helpers (animals and sometimes monsters), foes, foils, and even antitypes. The Epic Hero provides a comprehensive and provocative guide to epic heroes, and to the richly imaginative tales they inhabit.

    Drawing on discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and the voices of professional insiders, Ken Hyland explores how academics use language to organize their professional lives, carry out intellectual tasks, and reach agreement on what will count as knowledge. In addition, Disciplinary Discourses presents a useful framework for understanding the interactions between writers and their readers in published academic writing. From this framework, Hyland provides practical teaching suggestions and points out opportunities for further research within the subject area.As issues of linguistic and rhetorical expression of disciplinary conventions are becoming more central to teachers, students, and researchers, the careful analysis and straightforward style of Disciplinary Discourses make it a remarkable asset.The Michigan Classics Edition features a new preface by the author and a new foreword by John M. Swales.

    This is the book for you; a practical guide to all aspects of post-graduate documentation for Engineering, Science and Technology students, which will prove indispensable to readers.Writing for Science and Engineering will prove invaluable in all areas of research and writing due its clear, concise style. The practical advice contained within the pages alongside numerous examples to aid learning will make the preparation of documentation much easier for all students.

    The former editor of Decision magazine, Palms helps you take stock of your gifts and use the to creatively minister to others. Giving a clear understanding of each step in the magazine process, Palm describes how to work with editors, write a query letter, and conduct interviews. He demonstrates how to find ideas, develop each draft, and overcome problems with grammar, tenses, story line, and voice. The book also addresses the ethical and legal side of writing, as well as understanding the diversity of readers in our every-changing culture.

    

    Building on the success of his Zen and the Art of Stand-up Comedy, Jay is moving further into the uncharted wilds of solo performance.

    For each entry, there's a basic definition, grammatical status, and the term's history proper--when it first appeared in English, its origins, and the history of its development. Trace such words as cathedral and syllable back to the original Latin and Greek; see direct borrowings from foreign languages such as zeitgeist and incubus; explore the scientific birth of coinages like agoraphobia and titanium; and enjoy some nonsense inventions, including frabjous and runcible. It's a goldmine of entertainment and enlightenment into the shifting meanings and usages of English.

    Noticing that this was an acute problem for writers in the West because standard thesauruses face east, Scott Thybony started a file of western words. Sorting through spoken and written texts, he looked, as he puts it, for 'grounded talk', 'place-linked words, both rooted and wind-blown'. He ended up with a list of western place names, cowboyisms, American Indian words on permanent loan, Spanish terms, a sprinkling of Arabic, some scientific terms, and an assortment of random coinings, borrowings, and outright expropriations. Soon this evolved from a computer file to the book he calls Dry Rivers and Standing Rocks and describes as 'something resembling a thesaurus of western geography'. This book is full of information but it's not really a reference book. It reads like poetry. But you don't need to be a writer to appreciate it. Readers, teachers, hikers, cartographers, even crossword puzzlers will love this book. Neither scholarly nor comprehensive, it's a collection to make you think. It contains paired words like standing rock, grafts like snaggletooth, loners like hoodoo.

    She describes the way she invites children to study the model poem, beginning by asking kids, What do you notice? She shows how she demonstrates the poetry-writng process to children: thinking aloud and drafting poems about her own life, and then inviting children to write on their own. Includes 20 reproducible poems written and illustrated by third-and fourth graders to share with kids. Perfect for classroom teachers and parents! For use with Grades 3-4.

    This Book Is It.In this one-stop writing resources, Sally Stuart will tell you how to:•Find the publisher you want•Write a professional query letter or book proposal•Approach and work with editors•Decipher copyright and tax laws•Negotiate contracts•Manage the writing life•Set up a home office•Develop your book and article ideasWith practical tips and anecdotes, technical details and legal helps, this essential compendium provides the information every writer needs to get in print and stay in print. Whether you are just beginning or you have been published for years and want to polish up on a few fine points, this is your guide to publishing success.

    It also includes some previously unpublished poems.

    All these pieces appeared in the magazine's pages over the course of seven years. As Caskie writes: I would like to think the serious reader of these essays may detect in them some truths, some gaiety, some unanswered questions, some enthusiasm, and a great deal of hope.