The Writer's Practice
Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing
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- USD 7.99
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- USD 7.99
Publisher Description
“Unique and thorough, Warner’s handbook could turn any determined reader into a regular Malcolm Gladwell.” —Booklist
For anyone aiming to improve their skill as a writer, a revolutionary new approach to establishing robust writing practices inside and outside the classroom, from the author of Why They Can’t Write
After a decade of teaching writing using the same methods he’d experienced as a student many years before, writer, editor, and educator John Warner realized he could do better. Drawing on his classroom experience and the most persuasive research in contemporary composition studies, he devised an innovative new framework: a step-by-step method that moves the student through a series of writing problems, an organic, bottom-up writing process that exposes and acculturates them to the ways writers work in the world.
The time is right for this new and groundbreaking approach. The most popular books on composition take a formalistic view, utilizing “templates” in order to mimic the sorts of rhetorical moves academics make. While this is a valuable element of a writing education, there is room for something that speaks more broadly. The Writer’s Practice invites students and novice writers into an intellectually engaging, active learning process that prepares them for a wider range of academic and real-world writing and allows them to become invested and engaged in their own work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Warner (The Funny Man) generously offers useful hints for improving nonfiction writing. He intends the book, he states at the beginning, "for anyone who wants to improve their writing, which is everyone because everyone is a writer." To Warner, writing covers not just books, articles, and essays, but text messages, e-mails, social media posts, office memos, and homework. To develop a writer's practice, he bases his creative, process-oriented assignments, or "experiences," on the idea that learning is doing. His writing philosophy, introduced first, covers attitude and skills, plus habits of mind, such as curiosity and openness. Each section, whether on analytical, research-based, or humorous writing, follows the same rubric, which comprises audience, purpose, and process; the latter means selecting subjects, considering audience, and drafting text. As a bonus, Warner proffers short, skillful essays on topics like procrastination and failure. Throughout, he wields common sense, humor, and self-deprecation (despite publishing half a dozen books and spending 20 years teaching writing). Warner's style reads like informal, intelligent conversation founded on a genuine desire to share what he knows, and his helpful book will serve as a trusty companion to writers on their own or in class.
