Gary Robert Muschla - Practice Makes Perfect Mastering Writing

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Mastering Writing

Gary Robert Muschla

Copyright 2011 by Gary Robert Muschla. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-174838-4

MHID: 0-07-174838-5

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Part 1
Finding and Developing Ideas for Writing

Part 2
Writing the Draft

Part 3
Revision

Part 4
Proofreading

Learning to write is a challenging, multiskilled process. Students must learn how to identify, analyze, and develop ideas. They must learn how to compose sentences, build paragraphs, and express ideas within the standards of written English. They must discover their voice and learn how to say precisely what they want to say with fluency, clarity, and energy.

Practice Makes Perfect: Mastering Writing can be a valuable resource for developing writing skills. It can be used by both students and teachers. Students (working alone or with their parents) can complete the exercises and worksheets to improve their writing, while teachers will find the materials of the book to be useful for classroom instruction or to supplement their writing program.

The exercises and worksheets in this book provide students with meaningful writing assignments and activities. They will learn how to find and focus ideas for writing; how to write a draft; how to revise their writing; and how to proofread their work. This book, which is based on the stages of the writing process, will give students the practice they need to acquire the skills for effective composition and to grow as young writers.

Learning to write is a difficult task. It is my hope that you will find this book useful in that demanding and rewarding challenge.

Practice Makes Perfect: Mastering Writing is divided into four parts that concentrate on writing skills, from developing ideas to proofreading. The book includes exercises and worksheets. An answer key for the worksheets is included at the end of the book.

Part 1 Finding and Developing Ideas for Writing begins with the understanding that solid ideas are the foundation of good writing. Ideas are everywhere, and you simply need to learn how to identify and develop ideas for your writing. This part of the book includes information on idea development, six exercises, and a hundred reproducible worksheets designed to help you develop material for writing. The worksheets are broken down into seven sections: Personally Speaking, Friends, School, Out and About, At Your Leisure, Sports and Play, and Weird, Strange, and Unbelievable. Each worksheet, which serves as a prewriting activity, offers a topic and guidelines you can use to explore and develop the topic.

Part 2 Writing the Draft focuses on skills that will help you to write with competence and confidence. Along with information on the characteristics of good writing, fifteen exercises and twenty-two worksheets address topics such as using proper sentence structure; combining and varying sentences; constructing paragraphs; using active constructions, strong verbs, and effective transitions; and choosing a point of view.

Part 3 Revision focuses on skills and methods necessary for revising your writing. Three exercises, some Guidelines for Revision, and twenty-five worksheets are included. Worksheets, which include both fiction and nonfiction, show you the types of weak composition that can slip into your own writing. You are required to identify and revise the weaknesses on the worksheets.

Part 4 Proofreading examines the skills and methods necessary for proofreading your writing. Three exercises, some Guidelines for Proofreading, and twenty-five worksheets are included in this part of the book. The worksheets, both fiction and nonfiction, present you with the errors in mechanics you will find in your own writing. As you find and correct the errors on the worksheets, you will gain the critical skills necessary for proofreading your own work.