ABSTRACT
Close writers will “try on” techniques and traits when they can envision the possibility and perceive the need in their own writing. Writing teachers have been using mentor texts for years. Mentor texts provide a scaffold for young writers in their zone of proximal development. Mentor texts can help students break out of patterns that they over rely on or that limit their growth as writers. Categorizing mentor texts helps group new information with prior knowledge in an organized way, making it easier to retrieve information and use it more efficiently. Using a selection of comics and graphic novels as mentor texts would be a tremendous support for many students. Space is limited, and the authors need to convey their ideas with an economy of precise words, important details, thoughtful transitions of time and place, and an organized event sequence.
