Reading To Write

In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart – to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’ Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail; to be inspired by Emily Brontë ’ s structural nuance and Charles Dickens’ s deceptively simple narrative techniques. Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading.

When you Read Like a Writer (RLW) you work to identify some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing. The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing. You are reading to learn about writing. Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which you will automatically do to some degree anyway), you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text. As you read in this way, you think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own responses as a reader. What is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do?

"Literature: Reading to Write "masterfully weaves together critical thinking skills, writing, and reading instruction through the use of writing prompts, literaryselections, and intriguing discussion points. The book helps you transition frombeing an active reader to a critical writer through a series of reading prompts andunique writing exercises. This process helps you find meaning in a broader contextby forging connections between literature and your personal experiences.The book includes an eclectic array of classic and contemporary voices in literature, as well as sections devoted to newer genres, such as graphic novels. This interactiveapproach develops the knowledge and confidence you need to write in your ownvoice and to produce research papers and essays that are thought-provoking, engaging, and authentic. "Literature: Reading to Write "includes features designed to focuson reading, critical thinking, and research writing Reading - A diverse, four-genre assortment of readings, handpicked by professors, includesa variety of authors, such as Susan Glaspell, Tim O'Brien, and Lucille Clifton.- Shorter mini-chapters introduce you to the writing/reading process and highlightnewer, appealing genres, such as comedy, horror, music, film, graphic novels, andexperimental literature.- Integrated writing instruction is broken down into a step-by-step process thatanalyzes each chapter reading. Critical Thinking - Biographical and contextual boxes are strategically placed next to selections toillustrate historical and literary meaning.- In a feature called Comparing Themes, you are asked to compare the same themein various works to develop your skills in comparative analysis.- Three critical casebooks demonstrate argumentative and interpretive writing foreach genre. Writing - Model student papers appear in every chapter in Part II (Writing in Response toLiterature) to show progress in mastering and demonstrating the various writingskills.- Part IV on Research Writing comprehensively covers the entire research processfrom brainstorming to citing sources.- The book conforms to the MLA Guidelines that were updated in 2009.

Use reader response strategies to achieve Common Core goals in reading and in writing! Response journals—brief, personal writing in response to reading—can significantly improve reading comprehension. What′s more, when scaffolded over the year, reader response strategies promote engagement, build understanding of complex literary and informational text, and even help students provide supporting evidence in their writing—all goals of the Common Core. For educators eager to use reader response strategies, veteran teacher Lesley Roessing presents a unique, step-by-step approach that inspires thoughtful reading and skillful writing in Grades 5–12. Based on research and her own classroom experience, Roessing′s innovative writing exercises encourage students to read more deeply, develop questions, and participate actively in class. Beginning with simple response tasks and moving toward more complex assignments, the book provides a scaffolded curriculum for the full academic year. Developed for language arts and content area teachers, as well as literacy specialists, this resource includes: Examples of response journals for a wide range of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and students′ personal reading Strategies for using reader response to guide classroom discussions, group work, book clubs, and journal writing at home Adaptations for students with diverse abilities Numerous classroom-ready templates and samples of student work Discover a well-structured writing curriculum that promotes confident learning and the joy of reading.

A modern and actionable guide to the fundamentals of writing compelling, well-crafted, authentic stories in any medium, with lessons illustrated by novels, plays, films, music, video games, and TV, and writers from Shakespeare and Dostoevsky to Quentin Tarantino and Eminem.

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

A New York Times Notable Book Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award A personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy, from the author of Orwell's Roses Apricots. Her mother's disintegrating memory. An invitation to Iceland. Illness. These are Rebecca Solnit's raw materials, but The Faraway Nearby goes beyond her own life, as she spirals out into the stories she heard and read—from fairy tales to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—that helped her navigate her difficult passge. Solnit takes us into the lives of others—an arctic cannibal, the young Che Guevara among the leprosy afflicted, a blues musician, an Icelandic artist and her labyrinth—to understand warmth and coldness, kindness and imagination, decay and transformation, making art and making self. This captivating, exquisitely written exploration of the forces that connect us and the way we tell our stories is a tour de force of association, a marvelous Russian doll of a book that is a fitting companion to Solnit's much-loved A Field Guide to Getting Lost.