[huck von finn]

Now here is a subject on which we agree!

It's much more important than politics. I teach English Comp. I and English Comp. II. I have taught creative writing, which is much more familiar to me.

Students learn writing by writing and re-writing, and on this we can agree. That's so nice. It's so much more familiar and a lot like the way I grew up.

But the research paper writing class is a little stupid. It's great that they learn how to summarize an article and how to quote; and it's great that they learn how to paraphrase (if you go by the text). But they don't actually learn anything until they're set loose in the libraries to do some real research. I know that in my own case, I never learned about research until I was forced to do it on my own and then publish what I found and wrote. (And these were few. I don't want to sound like a genius--I was not.)
Literary fiction was a different story.

But I am interested in what you have found.

[Quix]

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

EDIT, EDIT, EDIT.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE SOME MORE.

EDIT, EDIT, EDIT SOME MORE.

. . .

Get diverse feedback from the range in your audience.

Learn to inhabit the skin as much as possible--at least the minds of your readers, potential readers.

Write with heart and purpose or don't bother.

Condense where possible, practical, fitting--which is usually a lot.

Or, as one book I used in China put it . . .

1. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.
2. SAY IT WELL.
3. STOP WHEN YOU HAVE.

I should go to bed.

Appreciate the writing dialogue stuff. Much better to go to sleep on than the other. I hate the other sorts of exchanges. I just refuse to run from them in my older years.