All around us, whatever the season, plants are going through their cycle of reproduction. This week, tune in to that cycle by discovering the seeds which are being produced in your selected area. You will produce a brief imagined biography of a plant.

Plants have many ways of reproducing; seeds are only one of them. During your observation period(s) this week, look around at the plants that occupy your selected spot. Since you began visiting them several weeks ago, they have advanced in their growth. Some will be nearing the reproductive peak, while others will be relatively farther away. Even in early spring, some plants are expending themselves quite fully, while others are much earlier in their reproductive cycle. Don't forget that trees are plants; look at them as well.

See if you can tell which plants are older, which ones are younger. What gives you that idea? Size, height, a certain shagginess? Find one that seems relatively old and see if you can detect where its seeds are produced. Find another plant, one that seems relatively young. Do you have any idea where its seeds will be produced?

In this observation, you may want to use more senses than sight. Sniff the plants; touch them. What information do you gain this way, which you cannot gain by only looking?

After you have finished your observation for the week, consult a reference librarian about basic botany. Locate a book that shows the range of ways that plants spread and reproduce. Find at least one description of a plant that you examined. Copy the words that describe its reproductive parts into your journal.

Write a short biography of your selected plant, imagining it from a seed to a dead stalk. You may write this in first person ("I") as though you are the plant speaking, or in third person ("it") if you prefer. Make the descriptions as vivid as possible. Use as many of the scientific terms for the parts of the plant as you can.

In your first draft, you will probably write chronologically-from seed to stalk. This is one of the easiest organizing principles for writing. However, it may not be the most effective for your piece. After you have finished, consider if there is another possible starting point. Imagine that you are creating a film, with flashbacks and flashforwards. Break chronology and move your descriptions around. Notice that you will then have to create some transition or other indicator to your reader, so that we can follow what is happening.

Similarly in other forms of writing, the most obvious organizing principle may not be the only, or even the best, one. Revision means more than just proofreading. It means considering all ways in which the work can be changed and improved-and that can include overall structure as well as individual words and phrases.