"Let's keep this in perspective," writes Jeff Anderson." The Common Core State Standards are a guiding document." Anderson cautions readers to look beyond such artificial boundaries and dive into pedagogy, process, content knowledge, and research that reveals best practices for teaching writing. Educators, he notes, need to look deeply at how best practice can apply to standards rather than how the standards apply to best practice. A good start is defining writing--what it is and isn't. Writing isn't a kit or a program, test preparation, memorizing parts of speech, or something separate from reading. Writing is a transaction between writers and readers, a skill that can be learned, and an igniter of passion and freedom. "Writers need to be heard right now," the author writes, "right here in their words, discovering and becoming. Meet them there and no list of standards or high-stakes test will be out of the reach."