Even the best wordsmiths can find themselves tripping over words that are commonly misused, mixed up or misspelled. Most of us have suffered the embarrassment of suddenly discovering that they have been using or spelling a word wrong for years, or, in some cases, their entire life. This useful reference untangles the mix-ups and misuses of language so that you can ensure you've got the word you're looking for, whether it's 'taught', 'taut', 'tort' or 'torte'. With definitions, examples of how to sharpen up text and improve your writing, lists of useful social media abbreviations and a discussion of unusual plurals, this playful look at the often bizarre and frustrating English language has got you covered. Word to the Wise will help you get your word use straight, whether you're writing a book, blog, email or text message.

Creating Texts emphasises a practical approach to composition and enables students to understand what is involved in the creation of a text and to learn from the practice of other writers. Extensively rewritten and updated from Walter Nash's earlier volume, Designs in Prose, attention is paid to the general theory of composition, in both traditional and original terms, so that students are made familiar with the basic resources of composition, in grammar and in the lexicon. The essence of every chapter is the discussion of examples of text, sometimes devised by the authors, but more often drawn from the work of authors writing in diverse styles of English. This practical approach is most evident in the final section of the book where detailed suggestions for projects and exercises reinforce the connection between theory and practice, and encourage students to develop their creative sense and to adapt their style of writing to fit the particular audience and context. In addition, this section is cross-referenced to the main text to allow students to consult easily the relevant chapter.

A growing body of neuroscience research has established the principle of neuroplasticity; a powerfully hopeful message that we can use our minds to change our brains in the direction of greater health and well-being. The key to shaping this change rests in how we direct and focus and our attention. In an easy-to-use workbook format this publication offers a strengths based, preventative, positive approach, grounded in neuroscience research, for creating a stronger sense of overall well-being. It contains more than 65 unique writing prompts and a facilitator's guide with complete facilitation plans for 1-hour, 90 minutes and 2-hour groups.

This book undertakes a general framework within which to consider the complex nature of the writing task in English, both as a first, and as a second language. The volume explores varieties of writing, different purposes for learning to write extended text, and cross-cultural variation among second-language writers. The volume overviews textlinguistic research, explores process approaches to writing, discusses writing for professional purposes, and contrastive rhetoric. It proposes a model for text construction as well as a framework for a more general theory of writing. Later chapters, organised around seventy-five themes for writing instruction are devoted to the teaching of writing at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. Writing assessment and other means for responding to writing are also discussed. William Grabe and Robert Kaplan summarise various theoretical strands that have been recently explored by applied linguists and other writing researchers, and draw these strands together into a coherent overview of the nature of written text. Finally they suggest methods for the teaching of writing consistent with the nature, processes and social context of writing.

Gotham Writers' Workshop has mastered the art of teaching the craft of writing in a way that is practical, accessible, and entertaining. Now the techniques of this renowned school are available in this book.
Here you'll find:
- The fundamental elements of fiction craft-character, plot, point of view, etc.-explained clearly and completely
- Key concepts illustrated with passages from great works of fiction
- The complete text of "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver-a masterpiece of contemporary short fiction that is analyzed throughout the book
- Exercises that let you immediately apply what you learn to your own writing
Written by Gotham Writers' Workshop expert instructors and edited by Dean of Faculty Alexander Steele, Writing Fiction offers the same methods and exercises that have earned the school international acclaim.
Once you've read-and written-your way through this book, you'll have a command of craft that will enable you to turn your ideas into effective short stories and novels.
You will be a writer.

Have you ever wanted to write a novel or short story but didn't know where to start? If so, this is the book for you. It's the book for anyone, in fact, who wants to write to their full potential. Practical and jargon-free, rejecting prescriptive templates and formulae, it's a storehouse of ideas and advice on a range of relevant subjects, from boosting self-motivation and confidence to approaching agents and publishers. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience as successful writers and inspiring teachers, it will guide you through such essentials as the interplay of memory and imagination; plotting your story; the creation of convincing characters; the uses of description; the pleasures and pitfalls of research; and the editing process. The book's primary aim is simple: to help its readers to become better writers.

This book is aimed at researchers who need to write clear and understandable manuscripts in English. Today, English is the official language of international conferences and most important publications in science and technology are written in English. Therefore, learning how to write in English has become part of the researcher's task. The book begins by discussing constructs of the English language such as sentence structure and word use. It then proceeds to discuss the style and convention used in scientific publications. This book is written at such a level that the reader should not have to resort to a dictionary. It includes many examples and exercises to clarify the rules and guidelines presented. Topics covered in this book include word choice - how to avoid redundancy; sentence and paragraph structure; the planning of a manuscript - format, nomenclature and style; how to present attractive figures and tables; references; how to prepare a manuscript for publication; submission to a journal and checking of proofs; and some standard abbreviations and symbols.

"Stories from the Heart" is for, by, and about prospective and practicing teachers understanding themselves as curious and literate beings, making connections with colleagues, and researching their own literacy and the literacy lives of their students. It demonstrates the power and importance of story in our own lives as literate individuals. Readers are encouraged to: tell, write, or re-create the stories of their literacy lives in order to understand how they learn and teach; begin the journey into writing the stories of others' literacy lives; find support in their researching endeavors; and examine the idea of framing stories by using the work of other teachers and researchers.

"Everything passes/Everything perishes/Everything palls" - 4.48 Psychosis How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note? The question comes from a review of 4.48 Psychosis' inaugural production, the year after Sarah Kane took her own life, but this book explores the ways in which it misses the point. Kane's final play is much more than a bizarre farewell to mortality. It's a work best understood by approaching it first and foremost as theatre - as a singular component in a theatrical assemblage of bodies, voices, light and energy. The play finds an unexpectedly close fit in the established traditions of modern drama and the practices of postdramatic theatre. Glenn D'Cruz explores this theatrical angle through a number of exemplary professional and student productions with a focus on the staging of the play by the Belarus Free Theatre (2005) and Melbourne's Red Stitch Theatre (2007).

Rhetoric, as a general teaching -- while preaching locality of action and guidelines for handling that locality -- has tended from the beginning to serve as a universality. It has offered a generalized "techne" with only limited categories, appropriate for all discursive situations, at least for those that were not excluded from the realm of rhetoric. Nonetheless, from its beginnings, rhetoric limited its interests to certain activity fields such as law, government, religion, and most important, the educators of leaders in these activity fields.
This collection presents landmarks showing where the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID) movements have gone. They have opened up a number of prospects that were impossible to see when rhetoric and composition confined their gaze to relatively few discursive activities. This suggests that the rhetorical landscape is becoming more complex and interesting, as well as more responsive to life in the complex, differentiated societies that have emerged in the last few centuries. This volume will reveal to scholars and researchers a range of possibilities for the study of disciplinary discourse and its teaching, and suggest to them new prospects for the future -- and for the better.

Memory has long been ignored by rhetoricians because the written word has made memorization virtually obsolete. Recently however, as part of a revival of interest in classical rhetoric, scholars have begun to realize that memory offers vast possibilities for today's writers. Synthesizing research from rhetoric, psychology, philosophy, and literary and composition studies, this volume brings together many historical and contemporary theories of memory. Yet its focus is clear: memory is a generator of knowledge and a creative force which deserves attention at the beginning of and throughout the writing process.
This volume emphasizes the importance of recognizing memory's powers in an age in which mass media influence us all and electronic communication changes the way we think and write. It also addresses the importance of the individual memory and voice in an age which promotes conformity. Written in a strong, lively personal manner, the book covers a great deal of scholarly material. It is never overbearing, and the extensive bibliography offers rich vistas for further study.

Craft your fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability.

An imprisoned man receives an unexpected caller, after which "everything changed..."

And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene.

This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including "Dropshot," "Tiebreaker" and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to:

• "worry" your readers into following your story to the end
• prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead
• juggle cause and effect to serve your story action

• believable fiction must make more sense than real life
• every scene should end in disaster
• some scenes should be condensed, and others built big

This new book is a 'what and how to' guide to writing for successful scholarly publication in the emerging fields of healthcare improvement and patient safety. While there are many useful authors' aids for scholarly biomedical publication, none focuses explicitly on these relatively new fields. It offers practical advice that includes preparation and organization of a scholarly healthcare improvement manuscript, where to submit it to find the most likely interested editor and journal, how to take full advantage of coauthors' working together effectively, and strategies for authors to reach a broader health professions readership.

This volume explores adult work-world writing issues from the perspectives of five seasoned professionals who have logged hundreds of hours working with adults on complicated written communication problems. It examines the gap between school-world instructional practices and real-world problems and situations. After describing the five major economic sectors which are writing intensive, the text suggests curricular reforms which might better prepare college-educated writers for these worlds. Because the volume is based on the extensive work-world experiences of the authors, it offers numerous examples of real-world writing problems and strategies which illustrate concretely what goes wrong and what needs to be done about it.

Essential and engaging essays about the joys and challenges of creative writing and teaching creative writing by a host of Canada's leading writers. Writing Creative Writing is filled with thoughtful and entertaining essays on the joys and challenges of creative writing, the complexities of the creative writing classroom, the place of writing programs in the twenty-first century, and exciting strategies and exercises for writing and teaching different genres. Written by a host of Canada's leading writers, including Christian Boek, Catherine Bush, Suzette Mayr, Yvette Nolan, Judith Thompson, and thom vernon, this book is the first of its kind and destined to be a milestone for every creative writing student, teacher, aspirant, and professional.