Argues that the possibility for surprise is the starting point for both effective writers and teachers and describes six elements that help create surprise: expectation, habit, ease, recognition, "pounceability," and acceptance. (MM)

Too often college composition students see language as an end in itself, rather than as a means to realization of self and world, and teachers need to establish a classroom environment that stimulates and demands that students use their language to find out about themselves. Techniques helpful in shaping composition classes toward this end…

Notes that teachers at every grade level have discovered that engaging children in book making has the power to motivate even the most reluctant writers. Notes that most curricula for teaching writing ignore the role of visual images in the writing process. Contends that by creating a combination of graphics and written text, children engage in a…

Assumptions that writers of books about creative writing make about their audiences, as well as assumptions about the purposes, practice, and value of writing, differ noticeably from the assumptions made by people who teach and write about composition. In substance and form, the range of creative writing books includes autobiography, interviews,…

Presents three exercises that teach good proofreading and editing skills as well as tap students' creativity on the word processor. (HTH)

Suggests that perception is most vigorous and thus most amenable to organization when guided by teaching that places creativity before communication. (MM)

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that recent theories connecting creative problem solving with cerebral specialization might explain why some writers compose much more effectively than others. Specifically, the experiment was designed to find ways composition teachers can help students to transform writer-based prose into…

Proposes that teachers use their own writing as a teaching tool. Discusses both the left-brain logical, rational approach and the right-brain intuitive approach to invention and states that in composing their own methods and materials, instructors can stress both patterns of creativity by illustrating how each complements the other. (EL)

Intended for teachers at all levels involved in composition instruction, this revised edition reflects the dynamic growth occurring in the discipline of writing, and consolidates advances made in teaching methodology. The 38 articles, written by such researchers and theorists in the field as James Moffett, Maxine Hairston, Janet Emig, Donald…