So I wanted to include the fact that George loved dogs. I also love dogs, and wrote a book about them. So I chose to include the fact that George did not wear a wig, although he did put powder in his hair. For instance, I happen to be fascinated by what people wore. Often the choices a writer makes reflect who the writer is as a person.
I take kids through my research process, which included spending a week at Mount Vernon as a “visiting scholar.” I talk them through some of the decisions I had to make. I explain that I had to make a lot of choices about which facts about GW to include, and which ones I would have to leave out. It’s my 32-page biography of George Washington, alongside Ron Chernow’s 900-page biography on the same person. Here’s how I explain my own decision-making process to kids.
Faced with an overwhelming mound of research notes, young writers sometimes bung every fact they can into their essays or research papers, with little coherency or clarity.Īt school visits, I tell kids that professional writers often struggle with similar challenges, particularly making choices. Informational writing can be a struggle for many student writers. If you’re writing history, the first decision is-what story from the past will I choose to tell? Which facts will I include, and which ones will I leave out? Where will I begin, in order to hook my reader? And finally-what voice will I use? Objective? Dramatic? Funny? Nonfiction writers also make a lot of choices. Fiction writers make many choices before setting pen to paper: What is my setting? When does my story take place? Will the point of view be first person? Close third? Will my narrator be reliable, or not? So much of writing is about making choices. She joins us today with a mini-lesson about all the choices that go into creating a work of nonfiction. She loves visiting schools and presenting to kids of all ages. Other recent nonfiction titles include Why’d They Wear That?, Bugged: How Insects Changed History, and Poop Happened: A History of the World from the Bottom Up. Good morning! Ready for your Monday Morning Warm-Up? Stop by Jo’s blog for that, and then come back here, ready to work on some nonfiction because today’s Teachers Write guest author is Sarah Albee! Sarah writes nonfiction books for kids in grades K-9, including POISON: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines and George Washington, First President.
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