This summer I attended a creative non-fiction workshop as a student at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I just received a copy of this note from one of my classmates, and I’m reproducing it here with her permission. I attended the Short Narrative Essay weekend workshop in June.  It was an enjoyable and useful workshop,...
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I’m psyched to say that tonight’s workshop is full. I look forward to working with 10 authors – topic: a complication of “showing vs. telling” and workshopping draft manuscripts. See you tonight.
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Today I discovered a very decent and FREE! screenplay and play writing program called page2stage. I use a program called scriptware and this free alternative (tested today) seems to work. Here’s the link: www.page2stage.com I was actually looking to see if an update was available to the program I was using, Scriptware, which has become obsolete...
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Tuesday, September 7, 2010 Heine Brothers Coffee, Chenoweth Lane, “Green Room” Meeting, Class & Workshop I am working on:: NovelShort StoryJournalismNon-fictionPoetryTechnical WritingPlay/ScreenplayDramaOther Try a workshop for 10% off. Enter coupon code “FIRSTWWP” when checking out. Workshop Details: WWP workshop 9/7/2010 Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 7, 2010 6:00 – 9:30 (ish)...
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Make Word Writer-Friendly: Change Default Quick Styles (This is a preview of the full article available online for purchase) by Michael Jackman, Director, Writers Workshop Project To help make Word 2007 more helpful to creative writers, here are three solutions to a common problem with default styles. Problem: “Normal” Style The new “Normal” style is causing problems for teachers,...
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Out of the box, Microsoft Word is unfriendly to poets. Here’s a quick fix to reconfigure Word to make it more poet-friendly.
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dude–so im pretty convinced that its thru texting that students use of complete spelling & little things like apostrophes r disappearing fr emails & even papers. LOL. ok, so like 4 a disclaimer i should say right up front that i both use and admire formal english & i want my students 2...
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I figured since I’ve been teaching writing, maybe on my writing project site I ought to have some blogs for teachers, too. Especially elementary ed teachers, those generalists who have to teach just about everything, even writing, even if they feel they don’t understand or do it well. So look for more entries on teaching...
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A rubric, for all the flaws in the concept, can be a helpful aid to grading and assessment. Even if “helpful” from a rigorous point of view, means “better than nothing.” Not all teachers, even faculty at universities, know what they are, so I’ll give an example. Often it’s a table. On the left is list...
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You, who end up teaching writing to elementary and secondary students, get taught a lot of silly things about writing, and these myths persist and mess up teaching of good writing ability. One of these persistent myths is that a set number of sentences defines a paragraph. Three. Five. Seven. There’s no such thing. The...
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