IN YOUR OWN WORDS: A Beginner's Guide to Writing

by Sylvia Cassedy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 10, 1979

Cassedy's too-general guide covers everything from the proper form for a business letter to imagery and metrics in poetry. ""Your own words"" are the only contribution of your own that ""you"" will make to the mechanical exercises she assigns. They include rewriting the Phaethon myth with a modern setting, simulating a hero tale, building a story around a description of an object, and simply filling in a prescribed outline of a ghost story. (""Write about a stranger whose mysterious dress and behavior are explained only at the very end when it is revealed that he is paying an annual call at the scene of his death."") To Cassedy, it seems, ""using your imagination"" means adding the fanciful details. Her advice on letters, book reports, and other mundane projects is unobjectionable but commonplace, and if the sections on poetry are the most valuable in the book, that is due chiefly to the quality and aptness of the examples she cites.

Pub Date: Aug. 10, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION