Prison Voices Work Book

Character study – Many of the authors describe themselves and their lives before they came to prison and during the time they’ve spent inside. What do you learn about them as people? What do you learn about their characters? Think about all the words and phrases that describe people. Think about making notes about your first impressions of the authors as you begin to read their text and see if your ideas about them change as you read through their texts. Do any of the authors have characteristics in common with other authors in the book? With people you know? With you?

Other ideas – as you work through these pages, you may have other ideas about writing you can do, or you might be inspired by the text to explore different kinds of writing. Use this section to jot down ideas you might want to work on.

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New words – the last lined page of this workbook may be useful for you to write down any new words you come across as you read Prison Voices. If, as you’re reading, you’re not sure what a word means, try to continue reading and see if you can figure out its meaning from the context (the other words and ideas around the word you don’t know). When you can, look the word up and make note of it on the last page.

You can also use this last page to jot down any ideas you might have for other writing you’d like to do – or do write down words, ideas or images that appeal to you, or that make you think, as you go along. You can also, of course, use your own notebook or journal to keep track of your ideas and new words.