Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process

Peter Elbow (Professor of English, Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

ISBN 10: 0195120183 / ISBN 13: 9780195120189

Published by Oxford University Press Inc, United States, New York, 1998

About this Item

Writing with Power is a guide for the student writing an essay, the professional writer working on a story, or the manager writing a memo for a tight deadline. As Elbow explains, "Writing with power doesn't just mean getting power over readers. It means getting power over yourself and over the writing process: knowing what you are doing as you write; figuring out what you really mean; being in charge, having control; not feeling stuck or helpless or intimidated. I am particularly interested in this second kind of power in writing, and I have found that without it you seldom achieve the first kind". For the second edition, Elbow has written a new introduction in which he discusses in detail the "mysterious" dimensions of "Writing with Power" - voice, quality and bad writing, wrongness and felt sense, and sharing written work with others. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Seller Inventory # GOR006501176

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, United States, New York
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195120183
• ISBN 13: 9780195120189
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Fair
• Weight: 299 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A classic handbook for anyone who needs to write, Writing With Power speaks to everyone who has wrestled with words while seeking to gain power with them. Here, Peter Elbow emphasizes that the essential activities underlying good writing and the essential exercises promoting it are really not difficult at all.

Employing a cookbook approach, Elbow provides the reader (and writer) with various recipes: for getting words down on paper, for revising, for dealing with an audience, for getting feedback on a piece of writing, and still other recipes for approaching the mystery of power in writing. In a new introduction, he offers his reflections on the original edition, discusses the responses from people who have followed his techniques, how his methods may differ from other processes, and how his original topics are still pertinent to today's writer. By taking risks and embracing mistakes, Elbow hopes the writer may somehow find a hold on the creative process and be able to heighten two mentalities--the production of writing and the revision of it.

From students and teachers to novelists and poets, Writing with Power reminds us that we can celebrate the uses of mystery, chaos, nonplanning, and magic, while achieving analysis, conscious control, explicitness, and care in whatever it is we set down on paper.

About the Author

Peter Elbow is Professor of English and Director of the writing program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.