Descriptions - Janet Goodwyn

This is the third book in the Modes of Writing series which aims to bring a wide range of writing to the attention of students aged 14 and upwards. The three anthologies are Narratives, Arguments and Descriptions. Narratives is a collection of stories, anecdotes, tales, con-dc strips, myths, fables and letters, all of which depend on the linking of events and states of mind in a sequence. Arguments includes everything from letters by Groucho Marx to a letter from a parent to a headteacher about uniforms; from cartoons to the beginning of novels; from advertisements to travel writing. Descriptions covers the range of writing which attempts to stay close to things in the world by describing, narrating, commenting. There is a degree of overlap between the volumes which is brought out in the activities which accompany each of the texts in the anthologies. By looking at modes of writing, rather than at themes or authors, the series draws attention to types of language. In this way each volume promotes work on the differing possibilities open to the writer in lively, productive and entertaining ways.