The advice that stands out most in chapter 14, “Teaching Rewriting”, is the idea of de-emphasizing editing and highlighting revision while teaching composition to students. It advises that writers should edit at the end of the rewriting process.
I noticed last night as I was banging out a few paragraphs of my Literacy Autobiography that I was becoming distracted by my many spelling, capitalization and typing problems. Stopping to edit my errors lessened my speed, fluency and artistry.
The chapter and the book emphasize the importance of lowering the affective filter of students while teaching them to write better. This means that writers will write better if they feel more confident about their ability to perform task. In the past I walked behind my students as they wrote in a large computer lab making editing type comments. I can see now that this was not a good idea and that my time could be used better by conferencing with individual students as the others composed.
On Monday Dr. Cauthen asked for metaphors related to writing. I have one: tennis. One reason Roger Federer can beat almost everyone is because, unlike lesser players, he doesn’t watch his shot after he hits it. He knows where the target is and tries to hit it there. He focuses on the process of hitting and this reduces his fear about the outcome of the shot. If he misses he revises his aim a little more inside the court and repeats the process of hitting. If her were fearful of missing each shot and of losing the match he would not be as fluent or graceful. He would be paralyzed by fear of failure.
I would serve my students best if I taught them ways to improve their invention and revision skills: to guide them through the process of good writing; and like Federer be fearless while focusing on the process rather than the outcome.
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