Thursday, all day, I found myself reminding my students to “think before you write”! Ironically enough, they found that amusing. They responded with, “Of course we do!” After grading 500 essays over the last week, I beg to differ….
Dr. Cauthen wrote on the board the other night “First thought, best thought” (Elbow?). I am not quite sure I buy into that one just yet, but I do think that clustering and free writing enable students to get their thoughts out on the table, even if their thoughts are chaotic. Over the years, I have found that this technique enables their thoughts to form and become concrete. I prefer the clusters over free writing. Many students simply rewrite their free write without any revisions and wonder why they can’t expand. Nevertheless, prewriting, in some form or another, enables students to work through possibilities and (hopefully) find a way to express their ideas effectively. In a timed writing setting, I do tell my students to ALWAYS begin with an outline. I give them this analogy: If you need to run a bunch of errands in your city, you would think of all the things you need to do in a cluster. However, when you actually get ready to drive, you need to put things in order to be most efficient with time and fuel. This is why an outline is most efficient when you are being timed, clusters are chaotic.
On Friday, an AP student asked if the AP exam requires that students pre-write for their essay portion. I answered “no.” They quickly responded with, “Why do you always make us do an outline?” I responded with this: “There once was a time when you simply wrote whatever you wanted and it was beautiful. Then, you needed to have form and organization, and because of this, you began to think and put together your ideas. Your teacher required clusters, journalsand free writes to help you with this. As time moved forward, you needed to produce skilled work with critical thinking. Your thoughts became more complex and you needed to pre-write to make sure they make sense, so your teacher required outlines. These are the skills that have been drilled into you. They are automatic. They are a voice in your head. And on the day of your AP exam, you will do all these things without a teacher asking you because they make sense, because they work, and because they help.” Although I am not 100% sure, I think they were convinced.
"First Thought; Worst Thought"
ReplyDeleteAlthough I, too, am convinced, I'm not a 100% sure that I am; that is, I am certain of only one thing: uncertainty; nevertheless, this is what I've got to say:
I do agree with the axiom that the first thought is the best thought, but only if you're an artisan of composition: an artist. There are very few who are truly talented enough and who've thoroughly invested the time and effort to study (the craft of) composition. And there are even fewer who don't ever even have to.
Those prodigies who naturally excel at anything and everything they do(or almost everything they do, or at least one thing they do!) - presumably unlike me and you - are those whose first thoughts are the best thoughts, but I suspect that many of them would admit that they, too, must (because they cannot trust [i.e., none of us are perfect]) think before they write.
That said, there are times when I've been sufficiently inspired (by my Muse? ~whatever it or whomever she may be) to compose something - a song, a poem, an idea, anything - right there on the spot with very little, if any, prewriting or revising involved, where the idea and its expression seem to simply flow from me effortlessly, where I'm flexible and present enough to "discover form at every stage [however minute] of composing" (132 Lindemann), where form follows function because it is not contrived; rather, it is derived, derived via discovery, and we must Seek if we're to Find, and in Seeking is the Thinking and in Thinking is the Thought (the The First Thought as opposed to the "first thought").
Regardless, even considering those too few times when I've been sufficiently inspired to compose something spontaneously, most of the time I need to think before I write because it's pretty apparent when I haven't (I'm as impulsive and as impetuous as I am creative)!
So here's to Thinking... Lemme me buy the First Think! This Thinks for You!