Composition Writing

You can make listeners smile. You can give them goosebumps or the giggles. You can even make them cry. You can show listeners the world the way you see it. You can write cool poetry!

Young writers discover techniques for crafting persuasive opinion essays. Think rabbits make the best pets or that winter is better than summer? Share your opinion through writing! This engaging nonfiction book includes basic writing instructions, tips, and prompts tailored to beginning writers' needs. Perfect for research writing, browsing, or for fun!

You can take audiences to faraway places. You can make giraffes burp and hippos sing. You can turn the sky purple and make audiences wonder what’s coming next. You can write awesome stories!

The first novel-writing guide from the best-selling Save the Cat! story-structure series, which reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any novel a success. Novelist Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story-structure guide for novelists that applies the famed Save the Cat!...

This is a book for everyone who writes or approves copy: copywriters, multichannel marketers, creative directors, freelance writers, marketing managers...even small business owners and information marketers. It reveals dozens of copywriting techniques that can help you write both print and online ads, emails, and websites that are clear, persuasive, and get more attention-and sell more products. Among the tips revealed:

Poetry is more than rhyming words on a page. A poem is crafted by carefully selecting each word and rhythm. But how does a poet get started? Finding inspiration is as easy as looking at a picture.

Ready to build a poem? First, you’ll need the right tools. Open this title in the Writer’s Toolbox series and discover plenty of tips and tools to get you started. Soon you’ll be writing rhythms and rhymes like a pro!

If the book tells a true story, you're listening to nonfiction. How else do you know? Quick, fun examples help you get the facts on nonfiction.

If words describe a feeling or some words rhyme, you're listening to a poem. How else do you know? Quick, fun examples help you understand the beauty of poetry.

You can tell listeners how much an elephant eats. You can reveal key moments in Babe Ruth’s life. You can list facts about Mars, airplanes, or Halloween. You can write excellent reports!

You can wish your cousin a happy birthday. You can share the latest news from school. You can ask your favorite basketball star for playing tips. You can write great letters and emails!

From drawing a map of a remembered neighborhood to signing a form releasing yourself to take risks in your work, Roorbach offers innovative techniques that will trigger ideas for all writers. Writing Life Stories is a classic text that appears on countless creative nonfiction and composition syllabi the world over. This updated 10th anniversary edition gives you the same friendly instruction and stimulating exercises along with updated information on current memoir writing trends, ethics, internet research, and even marketing ideas.

Twenty literary luminaries, ranging from Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare to Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain, are profiled in this entertaining and informative collection. Winner of A School Library Journal's Book of the Year Award, Lives of the Writers is both an indispensable reference tool and an exhilarating gossipfest. Author Kathleen Krull makes learning fun, painting realistic portraits of Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allan Poe, Frances Hodgson Burnett, the Brontë sisters, Emily Dickinson, E.B. White, Jack London, Murasaki Shikibu, Miguel de Cervantes, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen, and more. Krull serves up an outstanding introduction to the classics of literature for the whole family, while telling us all the real stories behind their writers.

A practical resource to help you turn struggle into success and become the writing coach your kid needs—from the creator of the award-winning Brave Writer curriculum Writing is often hard—for kids and for adults. How can we help our children get past the difficulties and learn the writing...

Everyone has a story, and helping people tell their stories has been Nancy Slonim Aronie’s life mission. Building on her acclaimed Memoir as Medicine, this new guide tackles the short personal essay. With warmth and humor, Nancy provides prompts, inspiration, and hard-won wisdom to empower you to write an unforgettable narrative. You’ll learn to begin with an irresistible hook (“kill ’em with the first line”) and employ compelling direct quotes, drama, vulnerability, universal themes, and self-reflection to get readers into your corner.

“I can’t write.” How often do we hear this every day from students at all different skill levels? What is it about writing that causes such self-doubt, disabling procrastination, and fear of failure? “So many students do not identify writing as a positive experience or identify themselves as writers,” Liz Prather says. “We rarely talk about the social-emotional resilience needed around the act of writing.” In The Confidence to Write, Liz argues that we can help students reset their writerly self-regard by naming and examining their writing identity through practical activities.