Discovering Ideas: An Anthology for Writers

by Jean Wyrick

Book Overview

Discovering Ideas is designed to help students find new techniques and strategies they can analyze and then incorporate into their own writing. It is also a collection of essays, stories, and poems carefully selected to help writers discover new ideas and create opinions that they want to talk and write about. By simultaneously providing models of good writing and provocative, challenging ideas, Discovering Ideas should help teachers guide their students...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030522072
• ISBN13: 9780030522079
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Holt McDougal
• Length: 402 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A writing teacher's favorite text book for 10 years!

If you are a college writing teacher looking for a superb textbook, one without self-conscious, politically correct propaganda in essays and pictures, you have found it, and "Oh! what a relief it is." Jean Wyrick's gift is neither politically correct nor politically incorrect. It is simply an eclectic selection of authors (some famous, some not so) with diverse points-of-view. Each is presented honestly, as a fine and fascinating writer, not as a social engineer or a socio-political activist. At the end of each entry, thoughtful questions are asked on content, structure, style, and vocabulary, folllowed by creative and inspiring suggestions for student writing that make it easy for a teacher to teach! As a writer ("Mornings with Fulton Sheen"), and as a college educator, I adore this book. For ten years, I have been using it to lead students to unclench their fists, to relax and enjoy English comp. Many have gone on to write for publication, and several have won writing awards. All have discovered the delight and the sheer joy of being able to write freely. If I could give this book ten stars, I would.

Definetly, A Book for Aspiring Writers

"Discovering Idea: An Anthology for Writers" captivates the readers mind with excellent, thought-provoking essays by many well-known names such as Poe and Clemens, and some new ones, such as Rodriguez and Ouellette. My sister, who is a high school resource teacher of eleven years, was very impressed with the range of topics covered. The variety of ways that essays are presented and the in-depth questions after each one, helps each reader to really learn the innuendoes of academic writing. The question that every educator has heard from their students, "I have nothing to write about." will never be asked again with the use of this book.