Review
------
“Warner generously offers useful hints for improving
nonfiction writing. . . . Warner’s style reads like informal,
intelligent conversation founded on a genuine desire to share
what he knows, and his helpful book will serve as a trusty
companion to writers on their own or in class.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An essential guidebook in or outside the classroom for anyone
who wants to think, act, and communicate as a writer.”
—Library Journal
“In this uber-handy guide, veteran rhetorician Warner invites
readers to sharpen their written communication skills. . . . The
guide is well-organized and extremely readable, infused with the
perfect a of Warner’s personality and experiences. Unique
and thorough, Warner’s handbook could turn any determined reader
into a regular Malcolm Gladwell.”
—Booklist
“In The Writer’s Practice, John Warner invites us on a quest.
Quite literally—the book is no passive read, but instead an
interactive journey. Warner lays out a of writing challenges
and puzzles (he calls them ‘experiences’), provides tools for the
odyssey, and keeps up a friendly, encouraging banter throughout.
The experiences stretch one’s writing practice in compelling
ways, covering a wide variety of genres and skills. Completed
collectively or selectively, the practices would assuredly
benefit students, professionals, or anyone who desires to improve
their writing.”
—Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Assumption College, author of The Spark of
Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of
Emotion
“Think you can’t write? John Warner disagrees. In his carefully
plotted guide to better writing, Warner argues that with focused
practice, you CAN improve. So can your students. The Writer’s
Practice offers an easy-to-follow series of lessons that, while
prompting you to write, build essential writing muscles. An ideal
book for anyone new to teaching writing or for aspiring writers
keen to improve their craft.”
—Carol Jago, long-time high school English teacher, past
president of the National Council of Teachers of English, and
associate director of the California Reading and Literature
Project, UCLA
“A fast and fun guide to what matters in writing (spoiler:
attention to audience and purpose), covering everything from
academic papers and business reports to travel guides, memoirs,
jokes and even obituaries. Warner writes for readers, and they’ll
love him for it—plus they’ll learn to do the same.”
—Daniel F. Chambliss, Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of
Sociology, Hamilton College, and co-author of How College Works
“With its focus on doing rather than explaining, The Writer’s
Practice invites collaboration. Whatever route readers takes
through the book (and Warner outlines several possibilities),
they will encounter new and challenging authorial tasks,
helpfully contextualized. Working through the various sections,
writers will practice the “attitudes, skills, habit of mind, and
knowledge” that Warner positions as critical to effective
writing. The end product will be a sort of co-authored text,
reflecting Warner’s goals and methods, and the reader’s effort
and growth. Adaptable for classroom use but just as valuable for
solo practitioners, The Writer’s Practice is an indispensable
guide for writers and instructors alike.”
—Susan Schorn, Writing Program Coordinator, School of
Undergraduate Studies, University of Texas–Austin
“John Warner’s approach to nonfiction merges his experience as a
creative writer and his expertise as a teacher of college
composition. Rather than see creative and academic writing as
sed, Warner encourages the aspiring nonfiction writer to
adopt a dual perspective: Analytical writing can be like a
dialogue. A memory can be held up to the test of research. Too
many writing tasks ask the student to regard their writing at a
great distance, as if poking something vaguely distasteful or
even dangerous. Warner’s book encourages students to bring
non-fiction writing closer to them, to embrace its complexity,
its challenge, and its importance to their own lives.”
—Catherine Prendert, Professor, Dept. of English, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Practice? Writer’s practice? Who’s a writer?? You?? Me???
Cling that everyone is a writer, experienced writer and
writing teacher John Warner shares his ins about writing.
It’s not magic, but it takes practice—not a list of rules—to
write well. He guides novices and even more seasoned writers to
think about what they are trying to accomplish, and then how to
make it happen. It’s not the usual school-writing, thank
goodness, so students and those guiding them will find it
refreshing and even, possibly, enlightening. In his
I’m-in-love-with-writing approach, Warner can’t be stopped from
sharing every trick he’s stumbled upon. We all write. We can all
write better. It’s hard, and fun, and will change the way you
look at communicating, and possibly the way you think about
everything.”
—Susan D. Blum, Professor of Anthropology, The University of
Notre Dame
“In The Writer’s Practice, writer and writing teacher John
Warner confesses: ‘There’s no one right way to write.’ Throughout
this how-to volume on nonfiction writing, Warner remains grounded
in this paradox by avoiding templates while guiding writers as
well as would-be writers and teachers through the questions and
problems that all writers navigate in the pursuit of writing
well. This book is a gift and everyone learning to write (thus,
everyone), or seeking ways to teach writing better, must add this
work to their essential bookshelf.”
—P.L. Thomas, professor of Education, Furman University, and
author of Trumplandia: Uning Post-Truth America and Teaching
Writing as Journey, Not Destination: Essays Exploring What
“Teaching Writing” Means
“While most writing textbooks devote a chapter to the rhetorical
situation, John Warner’s The Writer’s Practice is the rare book
whose activities center on the idea that good writing responds to
the demands of its situation. Presenting a variety of authentic
writing tasks, Warner’s book shows students how to adapt their
writing to address different audiences, even if that audience is
oneself.”
—Chris Warnick, College of Charleston
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )
About the Author
----------------
John Warner has more than twenty years’ experience teaching
college-level writing, working with a range of students on
developmental writing through graduate-level studies. He has
taught many different types of writing, from composition,
fiction, and narrative nonfiction to technical and humor writing.
A contributing writer at Inside Higher Ed, he has become a
national voice on writing pedagogy and writes a weekly column on
books and reading for the Chicago Tribune. He is the author of
five books. An editor-at-large at McSweeney’s, he has worked with
writers who have gone on to publish in outlets including the New
York Times, The New Yorker, and the Guardian.
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------
Before We Begin . . .
Do me a favor and write down how to make a peanut-butter-and-
jelly sandwich. You can even write it right in the book if you
want. It’s a good thing to write in books, and I’ve asked the
publisher to leave some room.
WRITING EXPERIENCES
In this book, rather than “assignments” or “essays,” I want us
to consider what we’re doing in terms of “experiences.” While
you’ve likely done lots of writing, for our purposes, you’ve just
completed your first writing “experience.” How did you do?
Take a moment to visualize what would happen if someone who is
unfamiliar with making a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich could
successfully make an acceptable sandwich with your instruc-
tions.
What would they do? What’s missing?
For example, is there a line like “Take the peanut butter and
spread it on one side of the bread”?
Picture someone following this instruction literally.
It does not tell this person how much peanut butter to spread or
what to spread it with. A true literalist would actually be
rubbing the closed peanut butter jar against a piece of bread.
Mmm . . . delicious.
Maybe this seems picky or ridiculous, but imagine leaving out
key instructions for something not as mundane as making a
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.
Take a couple of minutes to see all the mistakes you might cause
if someone followed your instructions to the letter.
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCES
Do not feel bad if you now recognize your instructions as
subpar. I set you up for failure. Over the years, I have asked
hundreds, maybe thousands, of people, ranging from students to
tenured
professors to published writers, to prepare instructions for
making a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and almost invariably
they make very similar mistakes.
They make mistakes because I purposefully neglected to mention
an audience in the instructions, and by not doing this I have
induced them to be careless and inconsiderate of the audience’s
needs. This is forgivable since they didn’t know the audience
existed.
Most people, when asked to do this, write a vague description of
themselves making a sandwich. In their minds, they picture the
steps as they see them, rather than through the eyes of an
inexperienced sandwich maker.
Now that you are aware of an audience, you would likely change
your directions in significant ways.
Being “audience aware” while working is one of the most
important skills writers develop. Over time, it becomes second
nature to ask yourself if the choices you’re making are good
ones.
You are already a more experienced writer with an improved
appreciation for the role of the audience in writing, and we’ve
just barely started.
Before we move on to more experiences, I want to answer some
questions you might be having.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS BOOK
WHO IS IT FOR?
This book is for anyone who wants to improve their writing, which
is everyone because everyone is a writer.
Think about it. You write all the time. You text, you e-mail,
you interact on social media, you make lists, and you write for
school or work or both. On any given day, you write thousands of
words. Writing is communication. If you’re trying to convey a
specific message to a specific audience to fulfill a specific
purpose, you’re
writing
HOW DOES IT WORK?
We get better at writing the same way we get better at anything
else: by doing it. This book is designed for doing things that
allow you to practice the “writer’s practice.”
Yes, you are going to practice your practice: the attitudes,
skills, habits of mind, and knowledge that writers engage with
when they are writing. Ultimately, the goal is to think and act
as a writer whenever you are confronted with a writing task.
You will practice your practice by engaging with different
experiences, after which you will reflect on the experience to
better understand what you’ve learned and can apply the next time
you are confronted with a writing-related problem.
The experience of writing instructions for a peanut-butter-and-
jelly sandwich has likely already allowed you to reflect on how
important it is to consider your audience before you start
writing. Now that we know that considering the audience is a key
to effective communication, we will do it from this moment
forward.
Writing is a skill, but it’s a skill that can appear to
disappear when we move from a familiar writing task to an
unfamiliar writing task. Reflection is a way to transfer what we
know about writing in one arena to a new arena by understanding
the similarities and identifying the differences and adjusting
accordingly.
It’s like an athlete looking at game tape or a musician
reviewing a performance. We’re asking: What happened? What did I
learn? What will I do differently the next time?
Eventually enough experience accrues and you have a
battle-tested process for tackling any writing task, no matter
how unfamiliar.
WHAT DO I NEED?
There are no prerequisites for having these experiences, and
there is no one so experienced that they can’t benefit from them.
In fact, once I started thinking about writing as a series of
experiences, I became a much better writer. When I need to write
something unfamiliar, I now try to break it down as a writing
experience. Once you’ve had enough experiences, you too will be
able to take an unfamiliar writing task and break it down into
its component parts.
You’ll want to keep track of your writing experiences one way or
another, but you should use the writing tools with which you’re
most comfortable. I’m a word-processing software person myself,
but if you’re a chisel and stone type, all blessings to
you.
In addition to the experiences themselves, I’ve included
chapters designed to allow for deeper, big-picture reflection
about what you’re learning.
WILL THIS WORK IN A CLASS?
The experiences are designed to be adaptable to a class context.
An instructor can add elements such as grading criteria,
deadlines, word counts, specific readings, peer response, or
anything else necessary to fit the structures and rhythms of
school. Almost all of these experiences were born in the college
classrooms in which I’ve worked for twenty years.
In the appendix, I’ve included possible assignment sequences that
may be useful in planning a contained, semester-long course. It’s
important to remember that these are designed to be
“experiences,” and the meaning is in the doing. This leaves room
for any necessary alterations to meet specific curricular needs
or demands.
WHAT IF I’M WORKING ALONE?
Care has been taken to make all experiences self-contained and
doable on your own. Because we always write for audiences, at
times you will be asked to find someone to test your writing’s
effectiveness on, but following the process will provide you with
enough information and context to complete the experience and, in
turn, increase your knowledge of and confidence in your own
writing.
HOW DO I START?
You’ve already started. Now that you’ve started, you should try
as many experiences as you like. Some can take as little as a few
minutes, while others may stretch over days or weeks. Many of
these experiences can be repeated over and over, and you will
continue to learn new things each time.
Just like a musician, you may choose to “play” the same piece
over and over, and find you become more deeply familiar with a
particular writing experience each time around. The learning is
always in the doing.
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
I have been writing seriously for more than twenty-five years and
teaching for twenty. I am certain that everyone can learn to
write, but to achieve this the writer must be in charge of their
own learning.
This book is here to give shape to your practice, and encourage
you to work purposefully toward increased proficiency.
While you will quite quickly amass experience, it’s important to
recognize that there is no terminal expertise in writing. You
will get a little better every time you do it, but you will never
reach a finish line after which you will cease to improve.
This is one of the best things about writing with purpose and
writing through different experiences.
May as well keep going by next figuring out who you are as a
writer.
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )