^Expanding Horizons Writing Cliffhangers

Cliffhangers are story points which leave the reader in suspense. I recommend writing cliffhang-ers as a way of engaging students in the writing process. In this exercise students take three steps recommended by writing educators toward effective writing. First, they develop raw written ma-terial during several minutes of nonstop freewriting (Elbow, 1981). Second, they reread material, searching until they find a focus to develop further (Murray, 1987). Third, they publish a book when finished (Calkins, 1986)