Designed for secondary school English teachers who wish to improve their student's writing, this book offers a philosophy of writing and classroom strategies to make students comfortable with and interested in their own writing. Chapter 1 encourages teachers to set up a "safe," comfortable environment in which their students can create. Chapter 2 examines writing as a thinking process, while Chapter 3 advises teachers to write with their students, so that teachers remain connected with the writing process. Chapter 4 looks at the stages involved in creating writing, and Chapter 5 describes how the writing process works in one teacher's classroom. Chapter 6, written as a dialogue between two composition teachers, discusses ideas of writing by strict stages and the pitfalls of such a method. Chapter 7 examines how conferences between teacher and student affect student writing, and Chapter 8 looks at the problems posed by grading student writing, and offers a rationale for emphasizing the positive in student work. Chapter 9 offers suggestions for how students may interact with literature by writing. Chapter 10 proposes ways in which student essays and essay prompts can be made more interesting, while Chapter 11 disparages teachers who hold elitist attitudes about literature and writing. Chapter 12 advocates the sharing of writing to generate creative energy. (References, an index, and a table of contents are included.) (JC)