What a Writer Needs: Ralph Fletcher

Ralph Fletcher describes his growth as a writer and gives tips on how to improve writing. First, Fletcher discusses the importance of mentors, taking risks, and having a real love for words. Then, he focuses on more of the skills, or as he calls it ö craft, of writing.

He describes the importance of detail, and says "writing becomes beautiful when it becomes specific." In the same chapter he offers the "single most important suggestion" in the book ö the bigger the issue, the smaller you write. In other words, you give small, concrete details when tackling bigger issues.

I found the chapter on voice valuable, partly because it discussed plagiarism. Older students, when given a research assignment, just pick out "a clump of words", dump them on the paper, and are surprised when teachers accuse them of plagiarism. This makes sense ö students need more time to really learn the information, talk about the information, and make it their own before they begin to write. Only then, will they find their voice in the material, not the original author's voice. He also suggests that teachers spend time to read expository material and share techniques that work with students, such as humor, question / answer, diagrams, interview, fantasy. He describes his own process when writing an expository article. It takes him five days to complete the writing because he spends four days reading, then talks with friends, and then writes the paper on the fifth day. I think that following a similar process would combat plagiarism in schools. Students just can't write in their own voice until they thoroughly understand information.

Fletcher says that he is a little wary of prewriting exercises, but believes a timeline can be useful for students to find a focus. They draw a timeline and then circle the most important part of the experience. By focusing, the writer can then go deeper and be descriptive about that one part, rather than relating the whole experience.

I would recommend this book to teachers, especially those in middle school grades or early high school. I think the book was one of the most interesting that I had read about writing ö he provided many examples from his own personal writing and chose interesting student examples to illustrate points.