Crafting Truth

ISBN: 0205586457

Author: Ballenger, Bruce

Condition: New

Crafting Truth introduces the reader to the craft of creative nonfiction by showing them models from the best nonfiction writers and offering plentiful exercises to help them more artfully tell true stories.

• Contains plentiful and imaginative exercises. Since student writers improve by doing rather than just knowing, Crafting Truth encourages students to actively apply the guidance they absorb about the craft of writing through numerous writing exercises. | Makes extensive use of wide and varied excerpts. Unlike conventional anthologies, the book uses brief excerpts to allow students to analyze more published material. This makes it possible to quickly see how Truman Capote, James Baldwin, and Annie Dillard each handle the crafting of scene or dialogue - all within a single study session. | Provides close studies of relevant parts of larger works. Through carefully selected excerpts,students are taught to do much closer reading than they could do if faced with full-length pieces. | Includes examples of more experimental material. While focusing largely on canonical work in creative nonfiction, Crafting Truth also features experimental forms like the radio essay and the fictional memoir. | Provides a complete introduction to the form and theory of creative nonfiction. The introduction covers key aspects of the craft, such as research, reflection, scene, motive, truth-telling, character, tension, and point of view. | Includes a concise anthology of longer selections by contemporary creative nonfiction writers. Understanding that to fully appreciate nonfiction narratives, writers must also study larger works, the anthology in Part 4 provides students with the opportunity to apply the skills they are learning through the excerpts to 7 more complete narratives.