I really enjoyed this chapter. Lindemann makes a great case for rewriting and I loved the quote she included from Bernard de Voto: "the best reason for putting anything down on paper is that one may then change it" (190). If students were taught more that writing is a process and not a one-time deal that is expected to yield perfect results, I believe they would be much more successful and at ease with writing. In my own experience growing up, there was not nearly enough emphasis or opportunity given for rewriting in school. If anything, I was taught not to draft and that revision was something to do on your own time after the grade was given. This makes no sense, I am now seeing. It put too much pressure on me as I thought I had to master each essay the first time around. Lindemann's suggestions for growth by taking time with a project and working it through, by doing multiple drafts and looking at each from different angles, is a much more viable option for people learning to write and write well. When she says that 30% of our teaching should be rewriting-focused, I was at first amazed at the high percentage. But by the time I got to the end of the chapter and thought about how I want to teach in my own classroom I would have to say I agree that rewriting, drafting, brainstorming, etc., should take a good chunk of our time because it is what helps us achieve good writing. More importantly, it is what helps us get to the heart of what we want to say and how to say it.
One idea that Lindemann gives that I especially like and want to emulate in my teaching is the idea of student-generated criteria for grading. "Instead of legislating these stylistic do's and don't's, we can encourage the class to develop its own guidelines" (208). This will build confidence in writers who might be intimidated by the the thought of having illegible red marks all over their papers from the teacher. Giving students the chance to be part of a peer review system also builds trust and the knowledge that whatever grade their paper gets is based on more than just one person's opinion of what makes good writing. Giving them the chance to work on their papers together as a process will also help students understand why they are receiving the grade they get because they will have had multiple sources of feedback.
Laurie, I agree with so much of this, especially your point about building more time into class time for rewriting. It took me a long time to see writing as a process. Because of this, it is one of the points that I'm hypersensitive about and try to make explicit to my students. They have so much anxiety about writing, and I think you pinpointed why: so many feel they have to get it right the first time. This is why I appreciate Lindemann so much; she gives good, practical guidance such as this chapter and suggestions on increasing focus on rewriting processes.
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