The Beginning

Reading the first chapter of Writing Without Teachers by Peter Elbow reveals how important freewriting exercises are for putting thoughts on paper. Words must be written before they can be read, and not only does freewriting remove that fear of judgement, but it also gives more time to get thoughts down on paper where they won't be lost by a transition of thought. I've heard that thousands, or even millions, of thoughts cross through the mind every second. If this is true, then the more time spent finding the 'right' word means less time being able to process and be self-aware of each thought which translates into less information being communicated.

The supplemental example in class also showed that freewriting makes one feel as though writing is less of a chore and not just something that needs to get done. Sometimes properly saying what one means seems to conflict with the idea about whether the writing is understood. As long as the meaning has been communicated through writing, it doesn't matter how, correct? For the very purpose of writing to communicate, making writing a means to an end and not an end in itself.

Another idea implied and pressed into fragile minds is that writing must make sense and follow some particular orderly process. There is a reason Elbow named one section "Chaos and Disorientation" in the second chapter. Personally, I question this idea. The real world we live in may be a chaotic place or evenly an orderly place that is incomprehensible to finite minds. However, to assume that order can be made and then communicated in writing may be the big problem with conventional writing. Perhaps the differing assumption--that writing must be chaotic--gives the necessary insight into writing and can be applied by freewriting.

One's own inner voice can keep that inner voice from speaking. The Peter Elbow's quote speaks volumes,

. . . "If only I had education I could write." People with education say, "If only I had talent I could write." People with education and talent say, "If only I had self-discipline I could write." People with education, talent, and self-discipline--and there are plenty of them who can't write--say, "If only . . ." and don't know what to say next.

You already have opposition, so hearing and listening to those negative inner voices will not help writing or anything you do.

The last and probably most memorable word is cooking. If one cooks without burning some fish, learning to cook may take an exceedingly long time and feel like drudgery. While one might think they are taking the 'high-road,' they may fail to realize whether it is worthwhile. If it's not worthwhile, the tough and high road may not actually be the right road.

Freewriting is just one small tool helping people learn to write, yet it serves the purpose of writing, which serves the purpose of communication, which in turn serves your purpose of convincing, persuading, informing, or entertaining. Writing is not some gloomy end, but simply the beginning of a means to an end.

Elbow Wars

Elbow Wars

Rhetorical Theory and Practice makes me think of George Lucas's Star Wars. More specifically, Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers makes me think of the Jedi training scene in Empire Strikes Back where Yoda cautions Luke Skywalker that he must unlearn what he has learned. That seems to succinctly summarize the Elbow reading. Unlearn what we have learned. And I agree. And not just because Elbow's rhetoric is overly persuasive – which at times it can be – but more because as a writing consultant I have seen this method deployed with some degree of success on the entire gamut of writers.

There is more of a connection to Star Wars than you might think. Consider the following quote from the reading: "…but this voice is the force that will make a reader listen to you, the energy that drive the meanings through his thick skull… it's the only voice you've got. It's your only source of power" (6-7). Force? Energy? Source of power? Jedi Master indeed. That is not to say Elbow is not without paradox.

On page four, elbow asks of us to not evaluate our freewriting and then devotes the following forty three pages explaining how to do just that. It is my belief that Elbow does this in order to cement the importance of the spirit of the exercise – otherwise we would merely get hung up in revising in our heads as we put our thoughts on paper.

What I like about grad-school, and I realize that this class is designated as an undergrad course, is that students are encouraged to contribute to academic knowledge. This is a slight shift from the lecture-absorption paradigm pervasive in undergrad. We are encouraged to break a mold that is seen all too often in undergrad – when idea X is presented as the accepted model, end of discussion. Here, with Elbow, we are given a taste of academic freedom to explore the possibility that the things we thought we knew about academic writing – or just writing in general – may not necessarily be the best way to approach writing. We may not agree with him. He may not even be right (something he continually recuses himself of). But his point is a poignant one: challenge yourself to think from more than one perspective. An idea that aids us in our quest to contribute knowledge. An idea worth paying attention to.

    

Elbow 1-47

Reading Elbow was refreshing for me. I am not one to feel comfortable doing outlines before I even begin writing. How can a person outline something that hasn’t gotten a chance to fully mature during writing processes? I am one to feel uncomfortable writing without editing. His method of writing is a sharp contrast to the majority of the texts and teachers who insist first upon order before writing can proceed. Order can stifle creativity. Writing blocks usually occur with the stress and anxiety writing brings. Beginning writers could benefit greatly using these methods. It is harder to undo habits once formed. My child’s teacher in middle school sent home a paper for parents to review and sign. Her writing methods were similar to Elbow’s. She called it the 5 step writing process. The student first writes without and attention to editing or revisions. The following steps asked for the students to revise the writing and the 5th step called for a polished work free of mistakes. This is an excellent way to introduce students to feel free to express themselves and be creative first and worry about mistakes and such later. I’m wish that I would have scanned the paper prior to sending it back so I could share it with the class and keep it for future reference. If other teachers would follow that lead I feel that individuals would have an opportunity to become better writers with less stress and inhibition. I found myself going back and correcting glaring errors even in this blog. I am making a conscious effort not to but the habit is engrained and will be difficult to break.

Taking Ownership of One’s Voice.

Voice. This word is more than a simple term. Instead, voice is a realization of the uniqueness of each individual’s ability to write. In this week’s readings, Peter Elbow talks about the writing process and his issues with the standard way in which writing is taught. After reading this week’s chapters, I felt that Elbow was challenging his readers to claim ownership of their distinctive inner (writer’s) voice and that we need to grow in our acceptance of this ownership. Otherwise, he fears that we will lose our voice, our identity and be continually uncomfortable with writing. In this blog, I will try to explore this point.

In the first chapter, Elbow talks about the importance of free writing and its positive effects on all writers. He worries that students and adults have been well trained to constantly stop themselves from writing because they are too worried about making errors. Elbow believes that this fear (or even anxiety) of writing exists
“because schooling makes us obsessed with the ‘mistakes’ we make in writing. Many people are constantly thinking about spelling and grammar as they try to write. I am always thinking about the awkwardness, wordiness, and general mushiness of my natural verbal product… We also edit unacceptable thoughts and feelings” (5).
This quote caught my attention because he is not merely focused on mechanical errors. Elbow is stating that the writer has also allowed someone or one school system’s writing curriculum to devalue his or her opinions, the writer’s voice. He worries that writers have for too long neglected their voice and he reminds his readers that “In your natural way of producing words there is a sound, a texture, a rhythm- a voice- which is the main source of power in your writing” (6). Elbow wants the writer to realize that if he or she is having problems with writing, it is not because they are a poor grammar student, writer or indifferent person but that the writer is denying or not claiming ownership of their voice. He also states that
“Maybe you don’t like your voice; maybe people have made fun of it. But it’s the only voice you’ve got. It’s your only source of power. You better get back into it, no matter what you think of it. If you keep writing in it, it may change into something you like better. But if you abandon it, you’ll likely never have a voice and never be heard” (7).
Elbow wants his readers to claim ownership of their voice and he feels that freewriting exercises will enable and empower their voice.

In the second chapter, he builds upon his belief that every writer has a “natural way” of writing and argues that a writer must relinquish a foreign writing plan if she or he wishes to release their inner voice (6). Elbow writes that writers should “Think of writing then as a way to transmit a message but as a way to grow and cook a message… Writing is, in fact, a transaction with words whereby you free yourself from what you presently think, feel, and perceive” (15). In this statement, he is declaring that we must allow writing to just occur naturally and not allow our outer perceptions, fears or anxieties to interfere with our inner voice. Thus, we write so that we can allow ourselves to seek out all the dimensions of our voice. Elbow states that people believe one is “grown” after “he has a new idea, feeling, or perception he didn’t have before” (46). However, this thought is flawed because Elbow deems that “the new element was already in waiting” just waiting for the writer to acknowledge and claim that part of his or her voice (46). He also writes that “I can now see that a lot of my stuck situations in writing come from trying to write something that I won’t be able to write for another ten years: trying to avoid the voice and self I now have” (47). Elbow believes that if a writer wants to become the exact writer that he or she has always desired to be, the writer must fully embrace his or her voice.

I look forward to discussing this text with you all on Thursday. I really am enjoying reading the first two chapters of this book and feel that there are many golden nuggets of information in both chapters. There are several other quotes and points that I would like to discuss but I will wait to converse about these items till Thursday’s class.

Elbow, Chapter 1, "Freewriting Exercises"

When Dr. Kearney first directed us to freewrite on Thursday, I was unsure of what to expect from myself. For as long as I can remember, nearly all that I've written has been for a purpose other than my own pleasure. Granted, I have gotten pleasure from the simple act of writing itself, but did not write for pleasure alone. During the freewriting exercise, I felt lots of strange emotions- chaos, loss of control, even some emotional outpouring. It was unlike anything I had experienced in all my years of writing.

As a future educator, I believe to be effective, one must experience everything they expect of their students, firsthand. To use freewriting in a secondary classroom setting could be quite useful, but I cannot stop thinking of all the "baggage" that could potentially come with it. Unfortunately our society has spun out of control with political correctness and that very climate has overtaken many teacher's classrooms and pedagogies. We discussed in class if we were to receive a student's freewriting that contained harmful or inappropriate information and then being obligated to act. This may sound a bit crass, but personally, I don't want to know about my student's sex lives. Of course I will care for them, but their sex lives are the area of their lives that I'm least interested in. If you multiply an assignment by 100 students, the odds are in favor of getting at least one paper with something of a sexual or just generally awkward nature.

I appreciate Elbow's stance that if a student wants to share, they may, but that the general rule is that no one is required to share. I believe this truly allows the freewriting to be just that - free. If I know someone is going to be reading what I'm writing, I polish it up and make sure that it has all the makings of something I wouldn't be ashamed of claiming was from my own hand. With freewriting, I felt as though I could put anything on the screen and at the end, all I had to do was select "Do not save" and all would be well with the world.

One of my philosophies of teaching is to involve students with whatever means necessary. If that means that they need some warm-up freewriting time, then so be it. If we need to take a walk around the block and have them spread out on the lawn to get their creative juices flowing, let's do it. For a teacher to be effective, they must employ a variety of techniques to reach all levels and styles of learner and I believe freewriting will someday be used in my classroom.

The joint at the bend of the arm , chapter 1

I enjoyed reading Elbow's first chapter. It made me realize that all of those random journals I used in my English classes while in middle and high school actually had a point. They were not merely a scheme by the teacher used to torture those students who hated to write. On the flip side, in middle/high school, the journals were not necessarily"free". Often times, topics were used to help with the writing, but our writing was graded. This could explain why many students have an editing complex. We knew it was going to be read by someone and graded so, as not to appear incompetent, we tried to make it look error free. Overall, I agree with Elbow on his belief that free writing is a useful tool for discovering good bits of information within the babble...I can use it now (and in my future classroom) and appreciate the technique, but I wish, as a younger student, we had more of these incidences.

Express it!

Mr. Elbow likes to think outside of the box and I appreciate that. So often we tend to get into ruts which stifle human progression and show limits. But Elbow, like so many innovators takes a firm stand at questioning convention; that's what leads to progress.
I like the whole, "writing is alive" way of approaching composition. Elbow stresses to write and write. Allow writing to Synthesize. Something, in a not-so-understood part of language creates a synthesis of ideas, arguments, words and points-of-view. I really believe that we can't identify these operations; they are deep inside--very complex.
Mechanics definitely get in the way of flow; and flow is what it takes to effectively express. It is the same in music and speaking or writing. Language operates on a set of rules (grammar, inflextion, word choice, etc.). Too much thought put into the rules part and he writer chokes. Stope editing yourself! Let it out, Man! Let it out! That's expression and taht' the way we should have learned it a long time ago.