Elbow’s Return!

After reading this week’s assignment, I thought that this chapter best summarizes the role of peer review and writer’s groups. In the first part of this blog, I will discuss this idea. In the second part of this blog, I will address Elbow’s initial belief that everyone can write and is a writer.

Peer review is an excellent technique because it allows the writer to actually receive authentic feedback from numerous sources. Elbow states that “The goal is for the writer to come as close as possible to being able to see and experience his own words through seven or more people” (77). I love this quote because it highlights Elbow’s whole point on the teacherless writing class. We have discussed at great length this idea but Elbow’s statement best captures the essence of this process. Student writers often highly disdain writing because the paper is only going to be read by one person, the teacher, the extreme authority figure whose red pen annihilates their work and controls their academic future. Elbow believes that if students are going to fall in love with writing again, the teacher must be removed and the student’s audience (who are also a group of fellow writers) must reign. Students respond positively to peer review or writing groups because they get the chance to experience an audience’s reaction. He or she can actually see what statements or parts work well and which parts are confusing or ill received. Basically, Elbow believes that peer review allows the writer to see how a potential audience will react to his or her paper (book, article, etc.).

What is most interesting about this chapter is the fact that Elbow’s suggestion is nothing new. All great authors or authoress have discussed how they had a community, a group or a selection of readers. One famous example is Jane Austen. Jane Austen is noted for having a community of readers. Elbow writes that “you [the writer] need to keep getting it from the same people so that they get better at transmitting their experience and you [the writer] get better at hearing them” (77). Jane Austen’s community of readers never changed and some Austen of scholars believe that this community’s influence aided in the cultivation of Austen’s mature voice. What is most interesting about Austen is that she was never formally educated. Yes, she read a lot and yes, her father and mother did give her a rudimentary education but she was raised to be a potential wife and mother, not an authoress. Thus, if Austen, whose works are still cherished to this day, is a writer, why are students not called author or writer? Austen was and is a great writer because she took common experience and added emotional elements to these ordinary events. Indeed, Elbow writes “But writing is also a transaction with other people. Writing is not just getting things down on paper it is getting things inside someone else’s head. If you wish to improve your writing you must also learn to do more business with other people” (76). Thus, Austen’s career highlights this point. This point should encourage our students. They are writers and they have experiences with people that they can rely on when writing. After all, the point is not “whether the writing is good or bad, right or wrong: ask whether it worked or didn’t work” (80). Hence, Elbow’s initial point that all students are writers is true. Peer review or writing groups encourage students to have “more business with other people” to see what “worked or didn’t worked” (76, 80).

There were several other quotes that I thought were very important in this chapter.

“Writing is a string you send out to connect yourself with other consciousnesses but usually you never have the opportunity to feel anything at the other end” (77).
Explains why peer review techniques are actually needed in the classroom.

“ Do you want to learn how to write or protect your feelings” (78). Free yourself from burdens and embrace your pen.

“Hearing your own words out loud gives you the vicarious experience of being someone else. Reading your words out loud stresses what is most important: writing is really a voice spread out over time, not marks spread out in space” (82). Once again, this supports the whole purpose of peer review and writing groups.

“It’s more important to learn what actually got through to a real reader than what might get through to an ideal reader” (83). Idealized readers can harm us as we write but if we have an actual audience in mind, they will aid our work’s purpose, aim, language and usage of specific examples.

“Telling is like looking inside yourself to see what you can report. Showing is like installing a window in the top of your head and then taking a bow so the writer can see for himself” (92). Does anyone else remember the show and tell days at school??? I use to love those days. This quote perfectly summarizes once again the need for peer review experiences (real readers) in the classroom and its positive affect on a writer and work.

Cannot wait to talk about this chapter on Thursday! This was really an insightful chapter!