Be a Better Writer: For School, for Fun, for Anyone Ages 10-15

by Steve Peha, Margot Carmichael Lester (With)

Overview

One Book for All Kinds of Writers and All Kinds of Writing

Whether you're writing essays for school or fiction for fun, this book helps you be a better writer.

For School...

Improve your grades with techniques like the What-Why-How and Content-Purpose-Audience strategies that clarify your thinking and strengthen logical arguments on tests, in essays, and on research reports. Use Sentence Patterns and the Plain English for Handy Analysis approach to improve your grammar without having to learn grammar rules. Get your work done faster, develop more confidence, bring home better report cards, and score higher on state tests.

For Fun...

Improve your creative writing by using The Five Facts of Fiction to dream up compelling characters and powerful plot lines that keep your readers reading from beginning to end. Produce rich description with the Tell-Show strategy. Render your ideas in well-chosen words and smooth-sounding sentences. Find your voice and translate your passion to the page so your readers feel it, too.

For Anyone...

You have a voice the world wants to hear. You have stories to tell, real and imagined, that readers can't wait to read. You have things to say that will change the way people think and feel, and that will shape the way they look at life after seeing it through your eyes. Don't keep your readers waiting; give them things to read. Don't wait for someone to discover you; discover yourself. Don't wait to be a better writer; be a better writer now!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997283105
Publisher:	On Demand Publishing, LLC-Create Space
Publication date:	04/20/2016
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.78(d)
Age Range:	10 - 15 Years

About the Author

Steve Peha has been writing about writing for over 20 years. He has worked with thousands of writers, young and not-so-young, through Teaching That Makes Sense, the company he founded in 1995 to provide high-quality educational training and innovative learning materials. In 2007, he won the Independent Publishers Award Gold Medal in Young Adult Nonfiction for the first edition of Be a Better Writer.

Editorial Reviews

2017-10-04
An updated writing manual encourages teenagers to improve their skills. Speaking specifically to a teen audience, veteran prose guru Peha (Be a Writer, 2006, etc.) seeks to demystify the writing process by making it as approachable as possible. He doesn't even expect his audience to peruse the whole thing. Readers are encouraged to skip around among the book's many topics, which include instructions for prose genres as disparate as fiction, academic essays, and personal narratives. "Find a section that interests you," urges Peha in the first chapter, "spend some time reading it, then use what you learn in your writing right away." The structure of the book is reflective of this attitude, which is central to the author's message: readers don't need to know everything about composition to be accomplished writers. Even if they learn only one new skill and apply it to their own work, it will immediately make them better writers. But Peha offers many tips in this volume. His techniques run the gamut of writing-related strategies, from selecting a topic and organizing thoughts to making stronger arguments and revising a work through better word choices. The book includes axioms (write what you know), twists on conventional wisdom (show and tell), and new bits of advice that even veterans may not have come across before ("Get better faster by finishing many short pieces instead of a few long ones"). Exercises, author interviews, and asides from Peha's co-writer, Lester (Be a Better Writer, 2006, etc.), round out this comprehensive manual. As one would hope, Peha's fluid, engaging prose zips across the page: "I try to revise transition words and phrases out of my writing. This cuts down my word count and makes my writing crisper." The book is calibrated to a teen audience not just in the direct, conversational nature of the prose, but also in the busy, eye-catching way that it is organized. As the author reminds the audience early on, "These days, especially, readers don't want to read any more than they have to." The volume mimics a textbook, with quick sections, frequent breaks, numbered lists, font changes, information in the margins, and many examples. While the work may appear chaotic and antsy at first glance, the reader quickly realizes how impeccable the format and presentation actually are. More impressive still is the content, which dives deep into the minutiae of writing to make sure that the reader truly understands not just what structures are operating, but how and why they function. One suggested activity is crafting a passage with no punctuation to force the student to choose words that will communicate their meaning even in the absence of periods and commas. This combination of out-of-the-box thinking and the traditional tactics of composition makes Peha's work a solid choice for any teen attempting to get a handle on that big, mysterious practice known as writing. An innovative and accessible writing guide for students.

Kirkus Reviews