John WarnerThe Writer's Practice

I have long been a fan of Warners' blogs, and this book does not disappoint. Small, straight to the point, really helpful to get started and avoid some of the pesky mistakes. Highly recommended.

Mein Kollege hat mir das Buch empfehlen. Ich kann nicht so viel damit anfangen. Aber ich möchte mich auch nicht negativ über den Inhalt äußern. Vielleicht mag nur ich es nicht.

Anyone who teaches writing has experienced the struggle with getting writers to think meaningfully about their practice and developing their craft. The Writer's Practice offers help in the form of writing tasks designed to get students engaged in the meat of writing: thinking, constructing meaning, and adapting their voices to specific tasks. Warner's book is structured as a cycle of potential writing sequences, each of which is given an Audience, Purpose, the outline of a potential Process and ultimately opportunities for Reflection. A variety of tasks even offer "Remixes" to give some variety in how writers approach the task. Warner does a fantastic job of asking students to 1) engage in the "practice" of writing, and 2) consider how the elements of writing, far from isolated steps or points on a checklist, are intrinsically tied to the thinking and practice of writers (and students of writing who are, after all, still writers).

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Doing the exercises three times a week for an entire semester made me a better and more confident writer. Now, I am someone who doesn’t fear writing… or maybe someone who doesn’t fear it as much. Before reading this book, I was very self-conscious about my writing because I felt like I was never taught how to write. To me, the longer my essay, the better I believed it was. That is simply not true. I know now that to be a good writer, you have to have something to say, something you believe in, or something factual. That requires research or individuality.After going through all of the exercises in this book and getting feedback on my work three times a week from peers, I feel I have learned a lot about writing and have become much more confident in my work in general. This book proved to me that I am creative and I have important things to say, which I never believed before.I hope to develop further my academic writing. I think this requires me to expand my vocabulary, and the best way to do that is to read more often.I would highly recommend this book to any person looking to develop their writing skills. It is not a book that requires you to read it in chronological order and it is fun to pick and choose what exercise to complete on your own. There are so many exercises, everyone will find one they enjoy. Personally, my favorite was "You've Got To Do This!" found on page 158. the exercise works on your research and argumentative writing skills and the prompt is to persuade someone to do or try something that you are passionate about! Who doesn't love writing about stuff they are passionate about! I ended up turning my writing for that exercise into a Pinterest post to share my work.If you are thinking about getting this book, you should go for it!

After his interesting book, Why They Can't Write, I had high hopes for this book. However, this book is terribly disappointing. It is a series of very high school-y prompts, without much real information. There are interspersed lessons, but nothing has much depth. Simplicity can be beautiful, but this isn't.