non-fiction tips
Civic writing: Excercising your rights as a citizen
Submitted by aanderson on June 26, 2007 - 11:38.Excerpted and edited from a 2005 YWP article
By Ed Darling
Teacher, South Burlington High School
Leader, National Writing Project, Vermont
- Look at examples from other writers before beginning your letter to the editor, minutes for a meeting, resolution, or other civic writing.
- Get feedback on your writing and be sure to edit before you send it out!
- Civic writing can be an important part of active citizenship and government participation. Improve your civic writing skills by practicing with the techniques below.
Art of the interview: Stories take shape from Q & A
Submitted by ggevalt on September 6, 2006 - 20:00.
By Heidi Ringer, The Warren School and
Ed Darling, South Burlington High School
Good interviewing is a lifelong skill that is essential to good writing. Practiced - and prepared - interviewers can get their subjects to talk and to reveal things that are fascinating and help a writer explain a topic or narrate a character or tell a story. Interviewing allows writers of all ages the opportunity to expand their experience by connecting with others.
Narrative writing
Submitted by ggevalt on August 27, 2006 - 11:26.
By Geoffrey Gevalt
The old man reached for the doorknob without an inkling as to what he was about to experience …
Now that I've got your attention, it's time to talk about writing a narrative.
Narrative writing is fun; it's the act of telling a story, having a conversation with your reader. You can find good narrative writing in newspapers, magazines and books; it is used in letters or short stories, news stories or novels.
