Have you ever seen a nonfiction essay cloaked in letters, lists, or emails? If you answered yes to this question, you have read an essay written in the hermit crab essay technique. What is a Hermit Crab Essay? The hermit crab essay is a nonfiction essay style where a writer will adopt an existing form to contain their writing. These forms can be a number of things including emails, recipes, to do lists, and field guides. The hermit crab essay was first discussed in the Tell it Slant textbook by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola. Miller and Paola go into more depth in their book, but I’m going to give you the basics and an accompanying worksheet, so you can try this style out yourself. Note that for this blog post, I will be using Brenda Miller’s famous hermit crab essay “I Regret to Inform You” as my example piece. How to Construct a Hermit Crab Essay Unlike a braided essay, writing a hermit crab essay is relatively simple once you nail down the form you want to take. I’ve included a worksheet below that you can download from my resource library that can help you begin outlining your own essay. The key to constructing a hermit crab essay is deciding what “shell” you want to inhabit and how that relates to your theme. There are many different forms you can hide in like emails, recipes, to do lists, and field guides. In Miller’s essay, she tackles all the forms of rejection in our lives by using rejection letters. Another good idea could be the recipe for the perfect man and how that changes over the course of an essay. Once you select the theme of your essay, it is simply building an outline from there. Using your theme and “shell”, you pick out experiences that relate to this and compound them until you finish the essay. It is really that simple! More Inspiration and Examples For more information on the hermit crab essay technique, I recommend reading Brenda Miller’s article, “The Shared Space Between the Reader and Writer” on Brevity. You can find an essay written as a multiple choice test in this writer’s portfolio. Conclusion I hope you find this post about writing hermit crab essays useful for your own writing. They are fun and unique, making them a nice style when you want something fresh. If hermit crab essays aren’t your thing, you can also check out my post on “How to Write a Braided Essay.”
In the wide world of writing prompts, the options are slim for creative nonfiction writers. Even the relevant prompts are often jumbled together with essay and fictional prompts, making it hard for writers to find what they really want. But not to worry. I present one whole hefty list of prompts just for creative nonfiction […]
There were innumerable notable essays written between 1961 and today. However, even though it’s a crazy idea to attempt to make a top ten list of the pieces that shaped the era, that’s what we do at Flavorpill — so go with it, and tell us what we…
Fiction and nonfiction whale books. List includes books for young kids, approximately age 3-8.
Teach your students to write organized paragraphs and essays using
A blog about education and Christian school education. I am a Kindergarten teacher providing resources for other teachers.
Crime stories captivate us. Crime stories draw us in through a sense of horror and mystery. And crime stories are excellent tools to engage students in the classroom. Through this project, students can research infamous criminals and crime stories as a research project or research essay to compi
From Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros to Class by Stephanie Land, here are the best new books out in November 2023 to add to your reading list.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A GLAMOUR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - A hilarious new essay collection from Samantha Irby "engages readers with her characteristic combination of laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt passages and plenty of awkward experiences.... Quietly Hostile will delight established fans and newcomers alike (Parade). "Brilliant and one of the funniest people I've ever read." --Roxane Gay - "The king of sparkling misanthropy and tender, loving dread." --Jia Tolentino"Absolutely hilarious.... If you are feeling down, or you feel like you haven't read anything you've loved in a long time, all you need is Samantha Irby.... She will make you laugh on every page." --Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, on The Today Show Samantha Irby's career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts. Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now--anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes. Relatable, poignant, and uproarious, once again, Irby is the tonic we all need to get by. A BEST BOOK from Vogue, Esquire, PopSugar, Glamour, The Skimm, and more
Want to add some nonfiction to your book club's rotation? Start here with 25 of the best nonfiction suggestions for your book club.
Teaching Text Structure can be difficult. Here are some tips for making learning text structure simple.
From memoirs to essays to research on topics relevant to women, these books are must-reads for every woman.
In a recent residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts (great place, check it out!), our workshop leader had us do a daily exercise from cartoonist Lynda Barry: Divide the paper into four sections, …
Having a good stack of picture books is so much fun, but one that is full of nonfiction picture books is a true delight! Check out this book list of children's nonfiction books!
Are you looking for fun and meaningful activities for teaching Into the Wild? This list has everything you need to create an engaging unit!
25 Must-Read Nonfiction Book's Visual Summary: [A Thread] 🧵 1) The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal [Brianna Wiest, Renate Graßtat] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal
Good writing is about well-chosen nouns and strong verbs, not adjectives and adverbs. What constitutes a tired verb? Here’s what to look for:
Looking for websites that pay you to write? Check out this ultimate list of 50 websites that pay writers $50-$100 per article.
