The way to write [antikvár]

Preface Learning to write is like learning to swim or ice-skate. It takes some elementary understanding of what you are doing when you write (or swim or skate). But understanding alone won't produce even the barest kind of competence. Neither will the mechanical performance of unrelated, unmotivated drills or exercises. Only basic understanding combined with intelligent practice can help the student acquire the skills and "know-how" he must have if he is to meet his needs to express himself and to communicate with his fellows. It is precisely this kind of understanding and practice that The Way to Write aims to provide. Into this completely revised and enlarged edition of The Way to Write we have incorporated the experiences and suggestions that thousands of pupils and teachers the country over have generously shared with us. They have supported and strengthened our belief in the essential soundness and workability of the following fundamental ideas and procedures embodied in The Way to Write: 1. Writing can be taught simply,' logically, step by step. Students like this method. It is orderly. It makes sense to them. 2. Students write best when they feel that what they have to say has some importance to them and to others. Throughout, we have tried to give students the feeling that what they say and how they say it really matters to themselves and to their readers. 3. Learning to write poses many emotional, intellectual, and technical problems for the student. We have tried to help him solve these problems as he meets them—not as we think he ought to meet them. 4. Because high school students are basically rational individuals, they learn to write and to speak better and faster when they understand what they are doing and why. We have, there-