States that "gathering material" is what writers do when they are not writing and that writers are their own first audience, even as they write. Advocates active reading and book collecting as rewarding for writers. (PA)

Argues that outlining should not be abandoned as a means to teaching students how to organize their thoughts because it can be an invaluable tool in certain circumstances. Describes in outline form how one teacher goes about teaching outlines to her students. (TB)

Discusses the pedagogical consequences that follow from distinguishing invention from prewriting. Contrasts the importance of stasis in invention, and the resulting importance of writing with an audience in mind, with prewriting techniques that merely direct students toward exploring a topic without reference to an audience. (RL)

Recommends adding formal training in note taking to the high school English curriculum to help students master the skills of abstracting major ideas from texts, summarizing facts, and paraphrasing materials. Suggests an approach to note taking. (RBW)

Presents a professional writer and writing teacher's ideas on writing and the writing process. (JL)

Argues that, in understanding creativity and the process of composing, it is helpful to think in terms of the metaphysical concept and while polar opposites appear to be contradictory, they are part of the same whole. Suggests some polarities that help in understanding the creative process in writing. (TJ)

Discusses the prewriting process in terms of forces that affect prewriting, prewriting as rehearsal, and eight signals that tell writers that a piece of writing is near. (DD)

Describes method in which students write a draft requiring some writing skill before learning about that skill. Concludes that predrafting (1) enforces first-drafting; (2) shows students their natural writing abilities; (3) emphasizes discovery of substance first, rules and form second; (4) promotes an active student role; (5) arranges learning in…

Describes how studying under Ken Macrorie led one high school English teacher to use freewriting as a prewriting activity in her classroom. (ARH)

Explores the similar and different ways that reading and writing influence consciousness. Summarizes the relationship between reading and writing as meditation--a way of modifying inner speech or composing in the mind. (HTH)

Discusses motivation, ritual, perception, language and perception, heuristics, investigation, and character as a catalogue of inventionist themes and explains their potential applications to the teaching of writing. (JL)

Computers, if programed to respond to writer-generated content with heuristic strategies, can guide the writer in the prewriting stage. Heuristics are problem solving strategies that can aid the writer in exploring a topic either through a systematic posting of relevant questions or through an unsystematic process of free-association. To date the…

Explores the mental processes involved in preparing to write. (FL)

Reports on the difficulties a teacher had while trying to compose her first poetry assignment at the Bread Loaf School of English. (RL)

Argues that students need invention strategies as well as introspection to collect information and make sense of it, but they also need instruction in discriminating among invention strategies and help in choosing the best strategy for a given writing task. Three overlooked strategies are research, collaboration, and form. (RS)