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A review by shawntowner
The Writer's Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing by John Warner
5.0
The replacement for They Say, I Say is finally here. Not that TSIS is particularly bad or anything. It's useful for academic writing, but it's not fun. It doesn't spark joy for writing. Warner's book goes beyond templates and structures to focus on the experiences of writing. It's a book that is practical in the sense that you could use it for self-study or type up the writing tasks and use them in assignments for a course. All the writing experiences in the book emphasize audience awareness and a real purpose for writing. Many of the writing tasks in the book are common assignments (summary, rhetorical analysis, descriptive essay) but Warner frames them and presents them as writing experiences to be explored rather than essays to be typed. This framing, along with the fact that these assignments are open-ended and value student choice (instead of being writing prompts), creates a writing and teaching environment that values the writer just as much as the assignment.
This book reminds me of Georgia Heard's Writing Towards Home in that it's a book that you can pick up, turn to any chapter, and find a writing experience worth engaging in. It could easily become the basis for an engaging first-year comp curriculum. I wish it included readings (or links/QR codes to suggested reading), like some editions of TSIS or more traditional writing textbooks like Everyone's an Author do. Warner emphasizes the connection between reading and writing and the importance of learning from mentor texts, but the burden of finding those texts is up to the reader. That's fine, as a don't believe this book is meant to be a standalone textbook, but for teachers looking for a course text, keep in mind that you'll probably have to find some readings to accompany the writing experiences you use from this book.
This book reminds me of Georgia Heard's Writing Towards Home in that it's a book that you can pick up, turn to any chapter, and find a writing experience worth engaging in. It could easily become the basis for an engaging first-year comp curriculum. I wish it included readings (or links/QR codes to suggested reading), like some editions of TSIS or more traditional writing textbooks like Everyone's an Author do. Warner emphasizes the connection between reading and writing and the importance of learning from mentor texts, but the burden of finding those texts is up to the reader. That's fine, as a don't believe this book is meant to be a standalone textbook, but for teachers looking for a course text, keep in mind that you'll probably have to find some readings to accompany the writing experiences you use from this book.