Dr. Jac's Guide to Writing with Depth

by Joyce Armstrong Carroll

Book Overview

Writers rule You rule when you have control over your writing. To gain control is to develop skill in ways to craft your writing to clarify your meaning. One way to develop that skill is to use Dr.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1888842385
• ISBN13: 9781888842388
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Absey & Company
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sooooooooooo useful

I feel like I should write a spectacularly insightful review about the book to show how useful it is (and at least come up with a better title than the one I've given this review), but I'm drawing blanks. My apologies for that! I can say, though, that this book made me and my students better writers. This is a collection of well-explained strategies to put into practice with your students. If you're using a Reading/Writing Workshop model of teaching, you should get Dr. JAC's Reading/Writing Workshop Primer too.

Ms. Carroll strives to make writing fun

Joyce Armstrong Carroll is the CoDirector of the New Jersey Writing Project in Texas. She has written several books on writing, mostly aimed at the K-12 population. Her writing is full of humor and is aimed at improving the quality of writing.Dr. JAC's Guide to Writing with Depth is meant to take up where other writing books leave off. Most people have learned the mechanics of writing, but few have an idea of what writing in depth is all about. Dr. JAC makes it easier...writing is never easy. She takes on what others fear to talk about, or just don't want to talk about. After all, these are the tricks that make for the best sellers! She tackles such subjects as humor; dialogue; setting; showing versus telling; repetition; and many other subjects that writers struggle to comprehend:"No one really wants to experience drowning, but if the writer crafts the experience by showing not telling then we experience the virtual reality of drowning. It works this way because of the sensory signals the words conjure, the brain makes a connection and consequently makes meaning. Since our senses are the primary information gatherers, constantly sending signals to the brain, Hobbs invites you to stimulate all five senses through the power of words. That way, after the brain has reconstructed and synthesized the signals, it identifies and we understand. Helping that connection equates good writing."Ms. Carroll strives to make writing fun. Her book is entertaining and accessible. Most importantly, she encourages us as writers to find our own style, or voice. This is a very powerful message in the midst of so many writing books that demand narrowly crafted rules, producing many books that are simply replicas of one another.Ms. Armstrong Carroll performs an invaluable service in the crafting of this highly useful writing, that of good, sound advice that most writers can understand and identify with. This reviewer means to keep this book within handy reach when writing. Ms. Carroll deserves a note of thanks for writing an honest "how to write" bible for those of us who are ready for the next level of writing expertise.Shelley GlodowskyReviewer

Add Depth to Your Writing

Dr. Jac's Guide to Writing With Depth reminds us that in a world of instant replay, televized wars, fast food and e-mail, we need literature that appeals to the senses, touches the emotions and helps us escape the madness. The book shows us how to develop and express our inner most thoughts in easily understood writing that is exciting and entertaining. Author Carroll helps us focus and strengthen our work by using anecdotes, comparison and contrast. This guide offers proven stratergies for developing deep writing, using coherence, sketching structure, practicing the craft and recognizing inspiration. It tells how to use sensual details, find a topic sentence and elaborate upon that sentence, so that it becomes a clear, framed picture. We learn how to let the reader know a character well in a few carefully chosen detailed sensuous sentences and how to enrich our characterization through precise dialogue. The book helps us create fresh work by avoiding cliches, by using original metaphors and similes, by including quotations, by exploring repetition, using memory and developing our own unique voice. Then writing becomes challenging, interesting, fun and potential writers of all ages can become published writers. Review by Maryanne Raphael, Writers World