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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this clarion call to pick up a pen and find yourself from “one of our most astute chroniclers of modern life” (The New York Times Book Review), #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen shows us how anyone can write, and why everyone should.  What really matters in life? What truly lasts in our hearts and minds? Where can we find community, history, humanity? In this lyrical new book, the answer is clear: through writing. This is a book for what Quindlen calls...

You ain't gonna like it: bad grammar's not so bad. - The TimesRemember all those grammar rules from school? No? Most of us don't. Mike McCarthy, renowned corpus linguist and co-author of the 900-page Cambridge Grammar of English answers the awkward questions that regularly bother us about English grammar. In this helpful A-Z field guide, McCarthy tells us what the conventional rules are as well as shows us what people are writing or saying now and gives simple reasons why you might choose one or...

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, midd...

Take your skyship pirate, haunted waif, or alien scientist to the next level with this fun, interactive book of exercises to help you build your RPG character’s backstory—made specifically for the genres you love to play. You can now explore new RPG character ideas with this character backstory guide to the most popular RPG genres beyond fantasy, from sci-fi to horror and superhero to western-themed games. This latest guide from One Shot creator and RPG expert James D’Amato helps you build ou...

Evolutions in technology and connectivity have brought about significant changes in the ways writing is produced and shared. Yet despite monumental shifts in the practice of writing, how we teach writing has remained largely static. What we need is a new set of genres for writing instruction: genres that will speak to students who are already immersed in rich and multifaceted literacy practices through social media, gaming and new technologies. Jessica S. Early’s Next Generation Genres provides...

Providing the most thorough coverage available in one volume, this comprehensive, broadly based collection offers a wide variety of selections in four major genres, and also includes a section on film. Updated and revised, this fourth edition adds essays by Margaret Mead, Russell Baker, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, and Alice Walker; many new short stories; the addition of poets Langston Hughes and Louise Gluck; and plays by August Wilson, Marsha Norman, Wendy Wasserstein, and Vaclav Havel.

Increasingly, writing handbooks are seen as over-produced and overpriced. One stands out: The Broadview Guide to Writing is published in an elegant but simple format, and sells for roughly half the price of its fancier-looking competitors. That does not change with the new edition; what does change and stay up-to-date is the content of the book. The seventh Canadian edition brings a substantial re-organization of the contents under three headings: Writing Processes, Writing Mechanics, and Writin...

Academic Writing has been widely acclaimed in all its editions as a superb textbook-and an important contribution to the pedagogy of introducing students to the conventions of academic writing. The book seeks to introduce student readers to the lively community of research and writing beyond the classroom, with its complex interactions, values, and goals. It presents writing from a range of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, cultivating students' awareness of t...

Transform your writing! If you're ready to empower your writing but are unsure of where to start, let Keys to Great Writing Revised and Expanded show you the way. Award-winning author and veteran writing coach Stephen Wilbers provides invaluable instruction on every aspect of the craft, from word choice and sentence structure to organization and revision. In this edition, you'll find:    • Self-assessments to strengthen your sentences and paragraphs, evaluate your goals, and approach your w...

Write It Short, Sell It Now Short stories and personal essays have never been hotter--or more crucial for a successful writing career. Earning bylines in magazines and literary journals is a terrific way to get noticed and earn future opportunities in both short- and long-form writing. Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays capitalizes on the popularity of these genres by instructing on the two key steps to publishing short works: crafting excellent pieces and successfully submitti...

Master the Elements of the Writing Workshop The great paradox of the writing life is that to be a good writer, you must be both interested in the world around you and comfortable working in solitude for hours on end. Fiction Writer's Workshop, Second Edition, is designed to help you foster a strong sense of independence—of being and thinking on your own, of becoming self-evaluative without being self-critical—in order to accomplish what others seek in classroom groups. In this comprehensive gu...

How does good writing stand out? If its purpose is to convey facts, findings, or instructions, it need be read only once for its content to be clear. If its purpose is to entertain or to provoke thought, it makes readers want to come back for more. Revised and updated, this guide covers four essential aspects of good writing:    • Individual words - spelling variations, hyphenation, frequently confused homonyms, frequently misused words and phrases, irregular plurals and negatives, and uses o...

The journey to become a successful writer is long, fraught with peril, and filled with difficult questions: How do I write dialogue? How do I build suspense? What should I know about query letters? How do I start? The best way to answer these questions is to ditch your uncertainty and transform yourself into a KICK-ASS writer. This new book from award-winning author Chuck Wendig combines the best of his eye-opening writing instruction--previously available in e-book form only--with all-new insi...

Got 90 Days? Then You Can Be a Novelist... Many famous authors write their novels in a matter of weeks. William Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks. Joyce Carol Oates often cranks out two or three books a year. Stephen King believes first drafts should take no more than three months to complete. So, what's the trick? Novel writing isn't about inspiration. It's about the time, energy, and discipline to see the project to its finish. With 90 Days To Your Novel at your side, now is the tim...

The Must-Have Guide to Humor Writing Bring on the funny! With Comedy Writing Secrets 3rd Edition, you can discover the secrets of humor writing that will keep your readers rolling in their seats. Learn the basics of joke construction, as well as in-depth comedy-writing techniques that you can apply to a variety of print and online markets. If your aim is to make 'em laugh--and make a career in comedy writing--then look no further. In this completely revised and refreshed edition, you'll disc...

The only official Minecraft English book for children aged 8-9! Children embark on a Minecraft adventure in each English topic, using their skills and knowledge to complete the tasks and earn rewards. This is a write-in English practice workbook which uses the Minecraft game as a mechanism for practising the key English skills covered in Year 4. Accomplish English activities to help Minecraft characters on their missionsExplore different biomes in each topicEarn eme...

Identity: A Reader for Writers, Second Edition, focuses on the essential topic of identity as it relates to culture, rhetoric, and the multiple modes of expression that are increasingly common in today's multilingual society. Each chapter in this reader asks students foundational questions about identity. These questions include: Where are you from? Where did you go to school? What do you do for work? And whom do you love? While these questions appear easy to answer, students will learn as they...