Toastmasters for writing?

March 19, 2010 9:11 PM

Is there something like Toastmasters for writing, specifically the functional, everyday kind?

I'd like to improve my everyday writing skills, so I can be more confident that I'm expressing myself clearly in a well-organized way. I'd like to find some group (online or off) that can help me do this with exercises and feedback, sort of like Toastmasters does for people who want to improve their public speaking skills.

posted by cosmic.osmo to education (3 answers total)

The absence of answers suggests that there is not. I'm jumping in to say that there should be. Great idea.
posted by unclejeffy at 7:55 AM on March 20, 2010

+1, sounds like a really good idea. I found some guides for teachers of writing on Amazon, but they were for little kids. Perhaps there's some pedagogical guides for college teaching that would be helpful? I'll look around.

If anyone wants a workbook for academic articles, I think Writing your journal article in 12 weeks by W.L. Belcher is interesting and well suited for a writing group.

Is anyone interested in working on this as a group project? I can already think of several Toastmaster-ish writing activities.
posted by parkerjackson at 8:19 AM on March 20, 2010

If anyone wants to take my idea and run with it, feel free. I'd be a willing participant, but I don't have the time right now to create a program like this.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 9:25 AM on March 20, 2010