Write to Learn

Anyone who is serious about becoming a writer, non-fiction or fiction, should get this book, write in it, highlight the points and study it like they are taking his course. He starts you out with writing to yourself. Then takes you through each step of the process of preparing what you wrote for the reader. Murray talks to you like are sitting in front of you. You feel like he can hear your questions, answers them, and then shows you what he is talking about. The most important part of the whole book is Chapter 9, "'Read' as a Writer". He analyzes today's writers as a writer, a major step to really understanding the craft.Other writing books tell you about practice sessions, structure, and voice. Murray shows you how to do the work.Yes it is a very...book, but weather it is a textbook or not, it is a book of valuable information for those of us who can't work at the Boston Globe or go to Harvard--yet our passion to write is very real.

Author, Donald M, Murray, practices what he teaches: he writes with a singular voice. I could picture him talking to me in an earnest, friendly way. I liked the way he led us through his process of writing an article about his grandmother. I also enjoyed reading drafts of his students writings and their finished, successful product. I was enticed to keep reading and therefore learning. The book has widespread application. My nephew, a college professor, used this as his favorite textbook, yet I adapted the information easily for younger students. It works for both enthusiastic or reticent writers. I was going to purchase a later edition at our local college bookstore, but found the topics written about were too controversial for my taste and too adult for me to use to teach younger students. "Write to Learn", 2nd edition, is more than a textbook. It is a LIVING book!

I read this book for a college english class. We used the book for its every facet, and I got a lot out of it. The book is divided into chapter like sections that made the writing process seem less complicated. His personal writing style appealed to me as I read through the chapters on the begining of the writing process. I recomend this book to anyone with the urge to become a better, more creative, writer, and to anyone with the money to do so. This book is a small paper back...i don't understand the price ($35.00!).

Possibly written as a college text, Write To Learn is for every adult writer, and for teachers working with children, adults, beginning and advanced writers alike. The daunting, mysterious process of writing successful texts in many genres is presented in easy-to-follow steps with short examples. The book is specific, detailed, based on actual writers' struggles, thankfully short, and worth every dollar. I left this book with the feeling that writing is fun and for everyone.

I read the second edition of this wonderful book in preparation for creating a user guide for a software program based on its principles. The book was so effective I used the techniques in it to write the guide. Murray's method actually addresses the creative process, rather than the usual "find a quiet well-lit room and have plenty of paper handy" type of writing advice. Before you know it, you're drawn into trying his techniques and they work