The Writer's Journey, Volume 1
“(My) student gained confidence as a writer!”
“My son gained…time management skills. The course helped him better organize ideas and concepts in his writing.”
“I am a middle school teacher, and I was quite impressed with it.”
Also available: The Writer’s Journey, Volume 2 (grades 8–10)
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Grades 6-8
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$55.00
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Semester-long CD-ROM course, required text sold separately
Feeling adventurous? Then accept the challenge and depart on The Writer’s Journey! Slay the dragons of dull language and disorganization, so you can seize the treasure: writing that grabs your readers’ attention with well-chosen details. On this journey, you will delve into concepts such as vivid diction, controlling purpose, audience awareness, and lively voice while studying examples of descriptive, expressive, and narrative writing in the accompanying Mercury Reader for Developing Writers (sold separately). Each interactive lesson offers electronic flashcards, crosswords, quizzes, and Web links to help you practice skills and select writing topics of personal interest while meeting national and state standards. You will experience eight stages of the writer’s journey (including prewriting, drafting, and editing) as you write sensory descriptions, comparisons, dialectical journals, poems, autobiographical incidents, and short stories. With the help of an accompanying Web site, your mentor can assist you using additional guidelines, answer keys, and supplementary materials. Developed with SoftChalk LessonBuilder, 2009 SIAA CODie Award winner for “Best Education Technology Solution for Productivity/Creativity.”
- Course objectives
- Syllabus

- Sample lesson
- Pretest: Take this test to see if you need to take the course.

Required text (sold separately)
- The Mercury Reader for Developing Writers, a collection specially arranged for Duke TIP users only available at Pearson Education for $30.39.To order by phone, call (800) 947-7700. You must refer to ISBN-10: 0536143803 when you place the order. Price is subject to change.
Recommended materials
For the final unit in The Writer’s Journey, Volume 1, a handbook on grammar and sentence variety is recommended. This handbook will also be used for The Writer’s Journey, Volume 2, forthcoming in 2008.
Click on the textbook titles below to see availability and compare prices of new and/or used copies of the textbook at various online booksellers. Students can also purchase this textbook at a local bookstore, or they can likely find a copy in their school or public library. The price in parentheses is the list price for a new copy of the textbook; that price is subject to change.
- The Art of Styling Sentences (4th edition), by Ann Longknife, Ph.D., & K.D. Sullivan: ISBN 0764121812 ($8.95)
Other handbooks of style can be substituted, such as
- Barron's Painless Grammar ISBN-10: 0812097815 ($8.95)
- Grammar for Middle School: A Sentence-Composing Approach — A Student Worktext by John Killgallon and Jenny Killgallon: ISBN-10: 0325009562 ($12.00)
- The Little, Brown Compact Handbook (5th edition), by Jane E. Aaron: ISBN 0321104951 ($50.00)
- The Elements of Style Illustrated (4th edition), by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White: ISBN-10: 1594200696 ($24.95)
System requirements
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