The following Subject Headings can be used to search by subject in the catalog to find books physically located in Speed Library. The headings below are linked to the MICAL, the library's online catalog.
Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]
Education Research Complete [EBSCO]
MLA International Bibliography [EBSCO]
OED Online (Oxford English Dictionary Online) -- This site allows you to trace the etymology of words and provides the most complete historical record of the English language.
Creative Writing in the Digital Age : theory, practice and pedagogy by
Creative Writing in the Digital Age explores the vast array of opportunities that technology provides the Creative Writing teacher, ranging from effective online workshop models to methods that blur the boundaries of genre. From social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to more advanced software like Inform 7, the book investigates the benefits and potential challenges these technologies present instructors in the classroom. Written with the everyday instructor in mind, the book includes practical classroom lessons that can be easily adapted to creative writing courses regardless of the instructor's technical expertise.
Beyond the Writers' Workshop : new ways to write creative nonfiction by
An innovative new approach to teaching and writing creative nonfiction from veteran teacher and critically acclaimed author Carol Bly. Teachers and writers everywhere are facing the limits imposed by the prevailing models of teaching: community or MFA “workshops” or, at the high-school level, “peer review.” In Beyond the Writers' Workshop Carol Bly presents an alternative. She believes that workshopping’s tendency to engage in wry scorn and pay exaggerated attention to technical details, causes apprentice writers, consciously or unconsciously, to modify their most passionate work. Inspired by a philosophy of individuality and moral rigor, Bly combines ideas and techniques from social work, psychotherapy, and neuroscience with the traditional teaching of fresh metaphor, salient dialogue, lively pace, and analysis of other literary work in her pioneering new approach. She also includes exercises and examples in an extensive practical appendix.
Write great fiction : plot & structure : techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish by
Craft an Engaging Plot How does plot influence story structure? What's the difference between plotting for commercial and literary fiction? How do you revise a plot or structure that's gone off course? With Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, you'll discover the answers to these questions and more. Award-winning author James Scott Bell offers clear, concise information that will help you create a believable and memorable plot, including: Techniques for crafting strong beginnings, middles, and ends Easy-to-understand plotting diagrams and charts Brainstorming techniques for original plot ideas Thought-provoking exercises at the end of each chapter Story structure models and methods for all genres Tips and tools for correcting common plot problems Filled with plot examples from popular novels, comprehensive checklists, and practical hands-on guidance, Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structuregives you the skills you need to approach plot and structure like an experienced pro.
Novel Ideas : contemporary authors share the creative process by
Novel Ideas provides a substantial introduction to the elements of fiction followed by in-depth interviews with successful novelists who speak with candor and insight into the complex process by which a novel is made. This edition includes new and updated interviews as well as writing exercises to enhance its use in the writing classroom. Dorothy Allison recalls "deliciously self-indulgent" days of writing in her bathrobe, wrapped in misery and exultation; Peter Cameron explains how he made the move from short fiction to the novel with the aid of a music composer's notebook to track the movement of his characters. Writers as different as Ha Jin, Jill McCorkle, Richard Ford, and Michael Chabon describe their unique approaches to their work while consistently affirming the necessity of committing to the hard effort of it while also remaining open to surprise. Aspiring novelists will find hands-on strategies for beginning, working through, and revising a novel; accomplished novelists will discover new ways to solve the problems they face in process; and serious readers of contemporary fiction will enjoy a glimpse into the way novels are made. Includes interviews with:Dorothy AllisonLarry BrownPeter CameronMichael ChabonMichael CunninghamRobb Forman DewRichard FordHa JinPatricia HenleyCharles JohnsonWally LambValerie MartinJill McCorkleSena Jeter NaslundLewis NordanSheri ReynoldsS. J. RozanJane SmileyLee SmithTheodore Weesner
Beginnings, Middles and Ends by
Covering the main elements of fiction writing, Beginnings, Middles & Ends demonstrates effective solutions for potential problems, from how to hook the editor in the 1st few paragraphs to building drama and credibililty in prose.
Turning Life into Fiction by
Life is rich with ideas for good stories. Robin Hemley shows how to make the most of them -- including ways to fictionalize other people's stories.
The First Five Pages: a writer's guide to staying out of the rejection pile by
IF YOU'RE TIRED OF REJECTION, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. Whether you are a novice writer or a veteran who has already had your work published, rejection is often a frustrating reality. Literary agents and editors receive and reject hundreds of manuscripts each month. While it's the job of these publishing professionals to be discriminating, it's the job of the writer to produce a manuscript that immediately stands out among the vast competition. And those outstanding qualities, says New York literary agent Noah Lukeman, have to be apparent from the first five pages. The First Five Pages reveals the necessary elements of good writing, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or poetry, and points out errors to be avoided, such as * A weak opening hook * Overuse of adjectives and adverbs * Flat or forced metaphors or similes * Melodramatic, commonplace or confusing dialogue * Undeveloped characterizations and lifeless settings * Uneven pacing and lack of progression With exercises at the end of each chapter, this invaluable reference will allow novelists, journalists, poets and screenwriters alike to improve their technique as they learn to eliminate even the most subtle mistakes that are cause for rejection. The First Five Pages will help writers at every stage take their art to a higher -- and more successful -- level.
The Situation and the Story: the art of personal narrative by
A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author ofFierce Attachments andThe End of the Novel of Love All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth. How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the truth-speaker who will tell the story a personal narrative needs to tell? That is the questionThe Situation and the Story asks--and answers. Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras. This book, which grew out of fifteen years teaching in MFA programs, is itself a model of the lucid inteligence that has made Gornick one of our most admired writers of ninfiction. In it, she teaches us to write by teaching us how to read: how to recognize truth when we hear it in the writing of others and in our own.
Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life by
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'" With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive. If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this books for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eves open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life. "An inspiring book about writing as a way of finding the truth -- San Francisco Chronicle "Surpasses all the other books on writing already out there -- even the wonderful stuff by Natalie Goldberg, John Gardner, and Annie Dillard." -- Seattle Times "Well-written, funny, and useful." -- Denver Post "I ended up reading it twice and expect to dip into it again in times of need. I recommend this book to other writers without reservation....This woman is uncanny." -- Marie Winn, Wall Street Journal "A quirky, personal, mordant, down-to-earth guide to fiction writing by a wonderful novelist essayist. Lamott makes writing seem like something you could actually enjoy." -- The Nation
Below are examples of eBooks from our new Academic eBook Collection. Learn more about how to download an eBook to read on your computer or on your Apple, Android, and Kindle devices here.
Studying Creative Writing by
Studying Creative Writing provides a practical guide for current and prospective students of creative writing in higher education. It explains how courses work, what they require from students, how students can make the most of opportunities and achieve success, and where creative courses lead next.
The Handbook of Creative Writing by
An extensive, practical and inspirational resource, this three-in-one volume is aimed at students and practitioners of creative writing at all levels. As well as the main creative writing activities, chapters cover other practices, from translation to starting a small magazine and from memoir writing to writing for children. Contributors are all experts in their fields: poets, novelists, dramatists, agents, publishers, editors, tutors, critics and academics. Anyone with an interest in creative writing will find this book invaluable in developing their own creative writing projects and as a way into new areas of writing activity.
To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook by
To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook is designed to help young writers come to grips with questions and problems relative to their creative efforts. The authors discuss a range of topics, providing guidelines on such issues as style, technique, point of view, characterization, poetic diction, figurative language, denotation and connotation, etc. They equally offer useful critical comments on some of the works of accomplished African writers whom they cite as models for beginning writers, fusing literary creativity with literary criticism. All along the co-authors stress the centrality, in imaginative writing, of both the 'what' and the 'how' or matter and manner, and how to combine both to good effect.
A Field Guide for Immersion Writing Memoir, Journalism, and Travel by
For centuries writers have used participatory experience as a lens through which to better see the world at large and as a means of exploring the self. Considering various types of participatory writing as different strains of one style--immersion writing--Robin Hemley offers new perspectives and practical advice for writers of this nonfiction genre. Immersion writing can be broken down into the broad categories of travel writing, immersion memoir, and immersion journalism. Using the work of such authors as Barbara Ehrenreich, Hunter S. Thompson, Ted Conover, A. J. Jacobs, Nellie Bly, Julio Cortazar, and James Agee, Hemley examines these three major types of immersion writing and further identifies the subcategories of the quest, the experiment, the investigation, the infiltration, and the reenactment. Included in the book are helpful exercises, models for immersion writing, and a chapter on one of the most fraught subjects for nonfiction writers--the ethics and legalities of writing about other people. A Field Guide for Immersion Writing recalibrates and redefines the way writers approach their relationship to their subjects. Suitable for beginners and advanced writers, the book provides an enlightening, provocative, and often amusing look at the ways in which nonfiction writers engage with the world around them. A Friends Fund Publication.
The Little Red Writing Book: 20 Powerful Principles for Clear and Effective Writing by
"For Writing Aficionados from All Walks of Life " Whether you're a student, test-prep candidate, or business professional, this book offers a concise guide to penning strong and effective work for all occasions. A wealth of examples, charts, and engaging exercises makes "The Little Red Writing Book" an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to master those skills that will make a good writer even better. Author's bio: Brandon Royal is an award-winning writer whose educational authorship includes "The Little Gold Grammar Book, The Little Red Writing Book Deluxe Edition, The Little Green Math Book, " and "The Little Blue Reasoning Book." During his tenure working in Hong Kong for US-based Kaplan Educational Centers -- a Washington Post subsidiary and the largest test-preparation organization in the world -- Brandon honed his theories of teaching and education and developed a set of key learning "principles" to help define the basics of writing, grammar, math, and reasoning. A Canadian by birth and graduate of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, his interest in writing began after completing writing courses at Harvard University. Since then he has authored a dozen books and reviews of his books have appeared in "Time Asia" magazine, "Publishers Weekly, Library Journal of America, Midwest Book Review, The Asian Review of Books, Choice Reviews Online, Asia Times Online, " and About.com. Brandon is a five-time winner of the International Book Awards, a five-time gold medalist at the President's Book Awards, as well as a winner of the Global eBook Awards, the USA Book News "Best Book Awards," and recipient of the 2011 "Educational Book of the Year" award as presented by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. "The articulate exposition of Royal's twenty principles of writing fit neatly into 128 short, accessible (paperback) pages. I recommend this wonder to all my writing students. Perhaps one day writing committees will wisely follow suit and make this a primary text for all writing courses at their schools." --Ray Turner, B.A., MA (Communications), Writing Instructor and Former Educational Administrator, Corpus Christi TX, USA
Below are example periodicals related to English Secondary Education. You can browse a complete list of online & print periodicals in the library's Journal Finder, examples of journals follow:
