The Reading-Writing Connection
Reading Next (2004) and Writing Next (2007) have documented the importance of the reading-writing connection. Both reports affirm that students’ reading and writing abilities are complimentary and growth in one skill inevitably leads to growth in the other (i.e., students become better readers by strengthening their writing skills and vice-versa). This point is further emphasized by author Francine Prose, who noted in her book, “Reading Like a Writer” (2006), that long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, aspiring writers learned to write by reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries. “What writers know is that, ultimately, we learn to write by practice, hard work, by repeated trial and error, success and failure, and from the books we admire,” she wrote.
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