Like to Write?  Nonfiction Writing Workshop for Beginners back to opening page

 

Reading Assignments


The readings chosen for this sequence will vary from time to time.  They are all presented as links to the pages of other web sites, and you are to respect the copyrights of these authors and their publishers.  The web offers a valuable source of material, although, understandable, most writers do not choose to post entire essays and stories.  On the Hints and Links web page  Hints and LInks  you will see links to several "E-Libraries" mostly offering out of copyright material.  Make use of these, but remember, it is important that you read current material.  By subscribing to the magazines I am linking you to, you will assure yourself of the opportunity to do this.  It is always better to see the print version of an article, preferably in its original setting.  When you see that, you get an idea of how much printed space words can fill, how easy or difficult it is on the eye to read certain texts, and how editors choose to present them.

The texts I have chosen are not to be viewed as absolute "models" for your writing.  I am fully aware that some of them are a bit  wordy and even difficult.  Even these, however, offer valuable examples of how material can be structured. 

The thing I most want you to observe is how these articles/essays/stories start out.  Without exception them move right into the text.  Boldly.  They do not start "cute."  Above all, they set up the pattern the text that follows with use.

So read as much as you can.  Subscribe to the magazines that impress you. 

If you wish to be a writer, you should first become a reader.

And remember.  A writer does not just read things that he or she likes.  No, no, no.  A writer reads to learn, as well as for pleasure.
 



 

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