Riddles!

For a quick and easy writing assignment, ask young writers to think of and write a list of clues for a mystery object or person. The details of each clue should be specific, without actually naming the object/person.

Writers can choose their own topics, or you can gather objects (not people!) and place them in bags.

Here is one example by a young writer:

What Am I?

I puncture arms and legs. 

I help to keep people healthy. 

I make children scream. 

I am used to sew. 

After doctors and nurses use me in their offices, I make people feel sick for a few days after I am used. 

Sometimes, people use me to remove splinters. 

Like a vampire, I suck vials of blood. 

What am I? 

A needle

To challenge older writers, suggest they write their riddle as a paragraph, varying the way they begin each sentence. The goal is to keep the riddle from sounding "listy."

Monotony and Music in Writing

This sentence has five words. This is five words too. Five word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the symbols, and sounds that say listen to this, it is important.     ~Make Your Words Work, Gary Provost, 55                                                         

I love that paragraph, and I love to use it to show students what changing the lengths of sentences (or not) accomplishes.

 

Provost goes on. He writes one paragraph with long sentences, then another with short sentences. Both sound monotonous. The third one he writes with varying sentence lengths—short, medium, and long—to satisfy the reader.

Try this with your children.

1.    Read aloud Provost’s paragraph a couple of times. Really listen to the monotony at the beginning and the music at the end. Discuss with your students what they hear and observe.

2.    Invite your children to write a paragraph three times. The first time they will stuff it with short sentences, the second time they will fill it with long sentences, and the third time they will carefully craft a variety of sentences, trying to achieve a rhythm that satisfies.

3.    Ask your children to read their paragraphs aloud, so they can hear the rhythm they have (or haven’t) created.

4.    Discuss their observations.

5.    Please share the results in the comments.

How to Teach How-to Writing

Who: Elementary-aged students

What: Students practice procedural writing, an exercise that will make them think carefully and choose words purposefully. 

How:
You can keep it easy and give students a pre-writing sheet to follow. (I wrote the handout for kids who will make a top tab book for their portfolder. If your students aren't making one, it doesn't matter how many steps they write.)

Or you can extend the lesson and choose from the following activities.

Pre-writing

1. Watch the Sesame Street video to see what can happen when our instructions are vague. Nothing educational here...just fun.

2. Read mentor texts, such as How to Blow a Bubblegum Bubble or How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World or Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love or How to Teach a Slug to Read. Browse the juvenile section at the library to find more options.

3. If you have more than one student, invite them to choose a scenario from the list below (or one of their own).  Ask Student #1 to verbally give Student #2 step-by-step instructions to accomplish the task, stopping after each step to allow Student #2 to dramatize it.  To avoid misunderstandings, Student #1 will likely need to tweak the instructions. Change roles, allowing Student #2 to give instructions. (If you have one student, you can be Student #2.)

 Scenarios:

• I want to enjoy a bowl of ice cream right now, but I’m not sure what to do.  Help me! 
• I feel like I have a fever.  I think I should take my temperature, but I’m not sure how to do it.  Will you help me?
• I just got out of my pajamas and need to put on my pants.  How do I do that? 
• My recipe calls for an egg.  It doesn't seem right to drop the whole thing into the bowl.  What should I do?

4. Do a science experiment to practice procedural writing. When I taught at a homeschooling co-op, I performed the following experiment. It caught the students' attention and produced lively writing.

Put water into a clear 35-mm plastic film canister, filling about one-third of it. Set the canister on a tray in a place where you don't mind a bit of a mess. Drop half of an Alka-Seltzer tablet into the water, close the lid tightly, and get out of the way. Warning: expect an explosion.        ~from Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz! by Janet Parks Chahrour, 13.

5. Gather ideas on a pre-writing sheet.

Questions to consider for drafting:
Will I write a paragraph or a longer piece?

What will be the style of my piece? Will I stick to the facts? Will I use a creative setting or character?

Will I write in first, second, or third person?

How will I introduce my piece? Will I write a question, make a statement, tell a little story, or do something else?  Will I write a sentence, a paragraph, or something in between?

Will my instructions be simple, or will they be specific, descriptive, and detailed?

Will I number my steps, or will I use transitional words and phrases to move the steps fluidly from one to the next (to begin, first, next, after, then, at the same time, meanwhile, finally, at last...). 

How will I close my piece?

A Paragraph by a Young Student

Pulling your teeth hurts, but at least you get money for them. First you fetch a piece of string and tie one end of the string around the doorknob. Next you tie the other end of the string around your tooth. Then you slam the door. Now your tooth is hanging from the door by a piece of string. Pulling your teeth hurts, but if you get a dollar for each one ($20 in all) who cares about the pain!

 I'd love to see the topics your students choose. Please share them in the comments.

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Frog and Toad: Showing Vs. Telling

English teachers are famous for advising, "Show; don't tell!" But what does that mean?

I'll show you with examples from Harry Noden's Image Grammar (29).

Telling: Maxine is nervous.

Showing: Maxine glances at the midnight moon shadows from one side of the dark alleyway to the other, biting her nails as rivulets of perspiration soak her eyebrows.

Telling: She loved her daughter.

Showing: She kissed three-year-old Carrie softly on the cheek and tucked in the covers as Carrie slept.

Notice the word choices--glances, alleyway, biting, rivulets of perspiration, soak, kissed, tucked. Notice the pictures of nervousness and love painted without a single mention of either word.

Look at your students' writing. What do they tend to do--tell or show?  If they lean to the telling side, chances are their writing is general, bland, ho-hum. They're content to write, "It was ________!" (Fill in the blank with fun, cool, awesome, boring, or just about any other adjective.) Encourage them to include details and strong verbs, giving the reader a concrete picture. Done well, the reader will be able to infer whatever it is the writer is trying to show.

Recently, Frog and Toad helped us punctuate dialogue and experiment with synonyms. Now, for one last lesson, they're lending us some telling sentences to transform.

From Frog and Toad Are Friends:

One day in summer Frog was not feeling well.

Toad thought and thought.

Toad was getting colder and colder.

Frog and Toad sat out on the porch, feeling sad together.

They sat there, feeling happy together.

Ask students to write new sentences that do not directly mention the underlined words. For instance, how can they describe a day in summer without saying the word day or summer? How can they portray not feeling well without writing those words? To test their success, they can read their sentence(s) to someone. Can the person guess the gist of the original sentence(s)?

That accomplished, have students add pizzazz to an old writing piece with good old-fashioned showing.  It'll make English teachers around the world smile, leap, and dance. In other words, they'll be happy!

As always, share your students' best examples in the comments.

• For more practice, feel free to use the sheet here.
• For another showing vs. telling lesson, see this one based on Roald Dahl's Mr. Twit.

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Two Stories, One Pattern

Who: Writers in the elementary years

What: After analyzing the parts of a story in two similar picture books, students write their own story with the same pattern.

How: 

1. If necessary, review the parts of a story, specifically character, setting, problem (or conflict), and plot. (These are not complicated stories, so the discussion can be brief and basic.)

2. Give students a story map.

3. Read The Enormous Carrot by Vladimir Vagin and discuss with students each of the blocks in column 1. Students fill in the boxes as thoroughly as possible. (Think of this as a note-taking or prewriting exercise. Complete sentences are not necessary.) 

For the "Anything else?" block, take time to appreciate anything unique the authors did in telling their stories (e.g. alliteration, repetition, smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest, etc.).

4. Read Berlioz, the Bear by Jan Brett and fill in the second column. 

5. Notice with your students that, while these stories have differences, they are fundamentally the same. What are the differences? What are the similarities? Are your students aware of other authors who have used the same pattern to tell their stories?

6. Now it's time for students to brainstorm a story of their own. Invite them to begin mapping their story in the third column.

7. Write, revise, and edit the story, preparing it to share with others.

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An Olympic Project

With a week down and a week to go in the Sochi Olympic Games, are you ready for your kids to research and write about them?

When the Games were in China, I certainly was. To justify the many hours in the basement watching TV, I asked my girls to work together on an alphabet project. Their task was to think of a relevant topic for each letter of the alphabet, divvy up the letters, research and write short pieces about their topics, and display the finished pieces on a tri-fold display board.

My passive observers suddenly became active learners. They were required to think, observe, research, write and revise, cooperate, and display their learning creatively.

To help you begin, I've listed the topics my girls chose to highlight. The words in bold are applicable for any Olympic Games.

A rchery: a brief explanation of the sport and some of the winners in 2008

B ird's Nest Stadium: information about the size and cost of the stadium, and the time it took to construct it; a picture of the stadium

C eremonies: a description of the opening ceremony

D ecathlon: an outline of the two days of events

E questrian: a brief explanation of the sport

F encing: bullet points explaining the event as well as a picture of the gold medalist

G ymnastics: descriptions of four events

H istory: a short story of a fictional man who won the first games in 776 BC

I nspiring story: a true story highlighting the humility of one of the athletes during competition

J ohnson, Shawn: a short biography of this admired gymnast

K ey competitors: short biographies of favorite competitors in the Games

L ocation:  interesting information about China, including language, currency, time difference, population, famous landmarks, and popular religions

M otto: the motto of the Olympics

N ow and then: a Venn diagram comparing the original and 2008 Olympic Games

O ath: the oaths that the competitors and judges must pledge

P helps, Michael: a short biography of this accomplished swimmer

Q ualification: the process athletes go through to compete in the Olympics

R ings: a drawing of the Olympic Rings

S ponsors: two descriptions of commercials

T riathlon: a brief explanation of the event

U nderwater sports: a bulleted list of interesting information

V ictories: the medal count for the top three countries

W ater cube: a brief introduction to the location where the water sports occurred

eX tra special Olympics: a brief introduction to the Special Olympics, including its beginnings

Y ip yip hooray: a sentence telling how many world records and how many Olympic records were broken

Z illions of fans: quotes from friends (gleaned through e-mail) about which of the games is their favorite and why

Too much to accomplish in the next week or two? Invite another family to work with you. Or adapt the project to fit your students and the time you have available. (One possibility is to use the letters from SOCHI OLYMPICS, WINTER OLYMPICS, or simply OLYMPICS.) The point isn't to re-create what we did but to connect learning with current events. And to have something to show for all those hours in front of the flat-screen.

A Vision for Writing

Please, please share this vision for writing with your students. Spectacular! You might even need a tissue.

Diary of a Critter

Who: Students in the elementary years

What: Write a diary from the perspective of a critter, as Doreen Cronin did in Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Fly, and Diary of a Spider.

How:
1. Simply enjoy Cronin's books: the illustrations, the humor, the brilliant use of personification. (If you want to review personification or show your students examples of personification in movies, watch the video below. While you're at it, do a little Editing-on-the-Go and see if you can spot a spelling and grammar error. Tsk. Tsk.)

2. Notice similarities in each of the books. We'll start with the obvious: they are all diaries. (Phew, I'm glad we figured that one out!) They are written in first person. They mix fiction and non-fiction. (One excellent example is the June 7 entry of Diary of a Fly. Fly is nervously anticipating his first day of school (fiction) when he asks (fiction): "What if I'm the only one who eats regurgitated food?" (non-fiction). They have scrapbook pages, including pictures and captions. Anything else?

3. Brainstorm possible critters to study. Actually, anything non-human will be fine. Find books and websites about the topic. Read and study, recording interesting and important information on this sheet*. I recommend setting sources aside when it's time to write. Otherwise, it's very tempting to use another person's words with minor tweaking here and there.

4. Plan the diary. This sheet* might be helpful.

*I found these sheets at Writing Fix. For some students, they provide needed support. If your students can run with their ideas, no props necessary, by all means let them. Don't mush them into a mold.

5. Revisit the planning sheet (or first draft). Ask questions for revision. Is the order of the entries logical? Can any words be strengthened?  Can any sentences be reworded to make them flow better? Have you read the entries aloud to hear how they sound? Are there any words or sentences that confuse you or make you stumble?

6. Check the conventions: spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. 

7. Ready the text for sharing with others (illustrations, a fun scrapbook page, a cool font, whatever will announce to potential readers that they must pick it up).

I'd love to see your favorite entry in the comments. Please share!

Note: Although the planning sheets come from Writing Fix, I did not take this lesson from there. It came from my own thinker. : )

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A Poem of Excuses

Who: Students in the elementary grades

What: Joining poet Bruce Lansky, children gripe, groan, and grumble as they write their best excuses for why they can't write a poem.

How: 

1. Show Lansky's poem to your students, so they can read it aloud and count the excuses. (It must have been one of those "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" days to write a poem!)

Here is Lansky's poem:

I Can't Write a Poem

Forget it.
You must be kidding.
I'm still half asleep.
My eyes keep closing.
My brain isn't working.
I don't have a pencil.
I don't have any paper.
My desk is wobbly.
I don't know what to write about.
And besides, I don't even know how to write a poem.
I've got a headache. I need to see the nurse.
Time's up? Uh oh!
All I have is this dumb list of excuses.
You like it? Really? No kidding.
Thanks a lot. Would you like to see another one?

-Bruce Lansky

2. Set students loose to outdo Lansky's excuses with doozies of their own. If it helps to have a planning sheet, you can find one here.

3. Include your students' best excuses in the comments. I may need one or two of them if I ever have to write a poem.

Note: I found the original lesson here.

Freewriting

Freewriting, like journaling, is an excellent way to spritz some WD-40 on stiff writing fingers and loosen the rust. Peter Elbow, writer and writing teacher, explains freewriting this way:

Freewriting teaches you to write without thinking about writing.  We can usually speak without thinking about speech–without thinking about how to form words in the mouth and pronounce them and the rules of syntax we unconsciously obey–and as a result we can give undivided attention to what we say.  Not so writing.  Or at least most people are considerably distracted from their meaning by considerations of spelling, grammar, rules, errors.  Most people experience an awkward and sometimes paralyzing translating process in writing: “Let’s see, how shall I say this.”  Freewriting helps you learn to just say it. Regular freewriting helps make the writing process transparent (Writing with Power, 15).

It’s very simple.  Simply set aside some time–five or ten minutes is a good starting length–and begin writing.  Don’t stop writing for the entire time.  If you come to the end of a sentence and can’t think of the next one, write what you’re thinking even if it’s “I’m stuck” or “I can’t think of anything else to say.”  A new thought will soon come to you.  As Elbow says, you don’t have to worry about paragraphs or punctuation (although I wouldn't recommend sloppiness for the sake of sloppiness).  They are not your primary concern; content is.

When my girls were young, one of my mantras was, “It’s the process, not the product,” a subtitle from an art book I saw at the library. This helped me survive many messy projects which the girls loved, and it kept me from feeling guilty when I needed to throw away some of their thousand finger paintings or drawings.  It is the same with freewriting.  You may not end up with any masterpieces, and maybe the entire collection will eventually be tossed, but this simple exercise may  also free you to experiment with language, refine your thinking, and find your voice.  It may even hold the seeds of a strong essay or poem or story.

Try it. See what you think. Then explain it to your children, grab some paper, set the timer, and begin freewriting together. See what they think!

Remember, hands off the conventions (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.). If you see a repeated error that puts you on the verge of seizures, make note of it somewhere else and teach the skill apart from the freewrite. We really don't want the fear of mistakes to get in the way of free writing.

How to Get Started
One easy way to begin is to give students a composition book. Entitle the first several pages "Topic Pool" (or something more creative but similar). As interesting ideas emerge, add them to the list for those days when the writing well is dry. A simple glance at the pages may fill it up again. These archives are a good place to start.

On the subsequent pages of the composition book, students can write the date and a simple title--before or after the writing is completed.

Other Ideas

Some students may want to keep track of word counts to see if they are able to increase their output.

Freewriting at least a couple of times a week will help students develop a strong habit.

Some students may prefer typing their freewrites.  That's fine, except that it's more tempting to self-edit. The goal is to keep thoughts flowing, silencing the inner critic that wants to jam the process. 

Journaling

Journaling is a non-threatening way to get students to write because they can write about a topic of interest without worrying about the technical aspects. Cindy at Love2Learn2Day has a new product: Journaling with Top 10 Lists. Here you will find prompts to prime the writer's pump, and spaces to brainstorm topics and write journal entries.

Check out the link and see what you think! And, in case you're wondering, I get nothing for sending you there. : )

Circular Stories

Who: Elementary-aged writers

What: Write a circular story, using Laura Numeroff's If You Give... books as a model.

How:

1. Read several If You Give... books. Since they all follow the same pattern of cause and effect, beginning and ending in the same place, it won't take long to get a feel for the structure of these books.

2. Brainstorm possible characters and adventures. Students can use an Interactive Circle Plot Diagram to plan the story or a simple sheet like this one. The planning phase is very important.

3. Chances are, the story won't work out perfectly during the planning stage, so revision will be essential for reworking the details.  Perfect. It's during revision that writing begins to flourish, so let the revision happen in earnest.

Student Example

If You Take a Cheetah to the Mall

If you take a cheetah to the mall, he'll want to buy some foamy shampoo. When you give him the shampoo, he'll want to take a shower. When he is finished, he'll dry himself off with a big towel. Then he'll roll himself up in the towel and walk around and bump into things. When he bumps into the walls and corners, he'll get cuts and bruises. Then he'll notice his fur is getting smelly and dirty. And, chances are, if his fur gets smelly and dirty, he'll want to go back to the mall and get some more shampoo.

4. If you want to tie grammar into this assignment, teach your students AAAWWUBBIS clauses. See this post for more information.

5. Make the finished story into an illustrated book.

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Writing in Threes

Who: Students in elementary or middle school

What: Writing three paragraphs (or longer, if you choose) about related topics

How: For this assignment, tell your students to think in 3’s:  3 friends, 3 presidents, 3 favorite Bible passages, Father/Son/Holy Spirit, 3 characters in a favorite book, 3 favorite books, 3 favorite holidays, 3 inventions of Benjamin Franklin, 3 types of rocks…..  Whatever interests your children—fiction or non-fiction—can be the subject of this assignment.  They may even want to incorporate whatever they’re currently studying.

This would be a good follow-up assignment to Important Things, giving students additional practice with paragraph writing. Teach (or remind them) about the basic structure of a paragraph (topic sentence, supporting sentences, clincher sentence). Encourage them to focus their content, omitting anything from their paragraph which doesn't support the topic sentence.

Of course, it is not necessary to lock kids into a format. If they already have a "feel" for a paragraph--or if you simply want them to have the freedom to write without restraint--allow them to experiment and be creative. You can always address glaring issues when they revise and edit.

The final copy can be as simple as three paragraphs on a page or as creative as a filmstrip book, which you can find at the portfolder tutorial.

A Sample from Three Different Restaurants:

Applebees
One of my favorite restaurants is Applebees. Their chicken fingers and fries are scrumptious. The kids' meals are hot. I like their activity books with tic-tac-toe and word searches. I like their drinks like lemonade, unsweetened iced tea, which Daddy drinks with a pit pat of sugar, and soda.  Sometimes it is quiet. I don't like when people smoke and drink beer at the bar. Applebees is a very delicious restaurant.

A Sample from Three Different Friends:

Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn, a helpful, kind friend, goes to the same church as I do. She is 8 years old, and she has red hair which usually has a headband in it. She rushes so quickly I think she could outrun her dog whose name is Casey. I enjoy playing tag and Jr. Monopoly with her on Tuesday nights.

Which "3" did your student choose? Feel free to leave a sample paragraph in the comments.

Important Things

Who: Young or reluctant elementary-aged writers

What: Follow Margaret Wise Brown's pattern from The Important Book in which she illustrates a helpful structure for paragraph writing.

1. Read The Important Book or click the above book cover to see sample pages.

            “The important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it.  It’s like a little shovel, you hold it in your hand, you can put it in your mouth, it isn’t flat, it’s hollow, and it spoons things up.  But the important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it.

            The important thing about a daisy is that it is white.  It is yellow in the middle, it has long white petals, and bees sit on it, it has a ticklish smell, it grows in green fields, and there are always lots of daisies.  But the important thing about a daisy is that it is white.”

2. Observe the pattern Brown uses. (See #4.)

3. Choose a topic. Brainstorm reasons you think your topic is important. Use this webbing tool to organize your initial thoughts.

4. Imitate Brown's pattern, but make one adjustment. In Brown's paragraphs, her middle sentence--the one that tells why the object is important--is one long string, separated by commas. I recommend writing separate sentences with periods.

A template would look like this:

The important thing about _____________________ is ________________________.

Detail #1

Detail #2

Detail #3

But the most important thing about _____________________ is ___________________.

Write a minimum of three of your very best details.

5. Revise and edit! Are the sentences in logical order? Does one flow well into the next? Are the words spelled correctly? Spruce up the paragraphs to make them your very best.

6. Share one of your important paragraphs in the comments.

Student samples:

The important thing about God is that He has power over Satan. He is unchangeable and holy. He loves and protects us from Satan. He is majestic and perfect. He wants us to love him and he gave us the Bible so we can read it. He sent his only Son to die for us on a cross and save us from our sins. But the important thing about God is that He has power over Satan.

The important thing about Grandmom and Pop pop is that they are fun to be with. They like to cuddle with us when they're watching TV and Eagles' games. Pop pop sometimes sneaks us candy when Grandmom is not looking and he always has long prayers! Grandmom always has a good meal ready when we get there on Thursdays and after we have a fill of TV Grandmom takes us on in a game of Nines. Every time we go there they spoil us and give us more graham cracker pudding than we should have. But the important thing about Grandmom and Pop pop is that they are fun to be with.

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Writing Metaphors

"Happiness is a warm puppy."      
~ Charles M. Schulz

1. Watch Charlie Brown and his friends sweetly sing metaphors in their song "Happiness Is...." (The song begins at 1:30.)  

A metaphor, if you need a refresher, is a comparison between two nouns without using "like" or "as." In this assignment, students compare an abstract term with concrete images.

2. Brainstorm words to transform into metaphors. Here is a start: spring, summer, fall, winter, fear, happiness, disgusted, sad, scared, exciting, soft, rough, sweet, salty, fast, noisy, quiet, any color....
                     
3. Allow students the pleasure of writing sensory-rich images for their word(s). Help them, if necessary, by encouraging them "to use color, sounds, actions, and sensations of touch and smell in their metaphors" (Any Child Can Write 76).

Some student examples:

• Noisy is screaming kids in the street playing with their friends.
• Noisy is lions roaring in the zoo because they are mad about being in a cage.
• Red is a yummy Red Delicious apple being cut up and sliced into a pan, cooked for applesauce, and dumped on a cake.
• Red is an enormous firetruck racing down the street to get to a fire.
• Green is a tree that waves as the wind whistles through its leaves.
• Orange is a juicy fruit that when you take a bite it splashes onto your face.

• Autumn is colorful leaves falling to the ground.

If you like pre-writing sheets, here's one.

This idea was prompted by Harvey S. Wiener in Any Child Can Write, 75-77.

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I Know What I Like, a Pattern to Follow

Norma Simon wrote I Know What I Like, a picture book with a very specific pattern.

The first set goes like this:

I like to make pudding.

I like to make pictures.

I like to make faces.

But I don't like to make my bed or pick up in my room. (I do it anyway.)

The rest are like it.

I like to (verb)....

I like to (same verb)....

I like to (same verb)....

But I don't like to (same verb)....

After reading the book together, talk about the pattern: three likes followed by a don't like. (If you can't find a copy of this out-of-print book, you can still easily do the assignment. The prewriting sheet will help you.)

Under Set 1 on the prewriting sheet, write an example together. If you have a student new to writing, the sentences can be simple like Simon's. For students who can do more, encourage longer, more detailed sentences.

Here is one student's example:

I like to make fresh chocolate chip cookies (and eat them).

I like to make up funny jokes that make me laugh so hard I cry.

I like to make whoopie pies with aunt Elisabeth because we don't see her very often and she makes great whoopie pies!  I like it because sometimes Poppop sticks M & M's in them when Grandmom is not looking because if she is he is in big time trouble!

I don't like to make "awkward scenes" in the grocery store because that turns my mom hot pink and I throw a fit and sooner or later my bottom starts hurting from that spanking! Well, I have never done it, but I also don't want to try.

Invite your children to work on the other three sets.

If appropriate, push your writers beyond their first draft. Revising their writing will polish it, making it shine a little brighter.

Please post an "I like/I don't like" set in the comments.

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