Drawing on Experience: The Fundamentals of Good Writing

Drawing on Experience is a writing generator, designed to help non-native students of English develop, practice, and refine writing skills. Drawing on Experience is flexible enough that it can be used in secondary, college, and adult ESOL programs at a wide range of proficiency levels. The pedagogy behind this innovative text uses drawings (which students produce in the text) as the basis for all subsequent writing activities. Broad, interesting chapter themes give students the freedom to be as creative as possible in their writing. This text gives students step-by-step information on the writing process and offers many opportunities for them to further develop their writing skills. Additional Highlights Drawing on Experience uses a non-prescriptive approach to writing that addresses the language skills students already possess when they start the course and provides them a framework from which they can expand their vocabulary and grammar to improve their writing skills. Because of this approach, Drawing on Experience is unique in that it can be used in beginning through intermediate courses. Drawing on Experience takes the creative approach of using student-generated drawings as the springboard for developing ideas, refining topics, and practicing writing skills. Chapters 1-2 of Drawing on Experience take students through a step-by-step journey of the writing process where they learn to explore personal attitudes toward writing as well as more mechanical skills such as finding topic sentences, inserting and deleting material, and so on. Chapters 3-10 are designed to provide students with ample opportunities to practice their eveloping writing skills. Most of these chapters also include a specific writing focus, such as organizing, finding a main point, punctuation, and so on.