Drafting Advice

22 Ways to Start Writing, by Donald Murray

A Note On Rhetoric From Lindemann

Lindemann asserts that language is way in which humans are able to communicate and identify themselves with other individuals (53). While rhetoric may be a necessary skill, should there be more value place on verbal rhetoric or written rhetoric? At one point in history, there was more weight placed on the spoken word; then the focus switched to written. Which is more important, written or verbal, or should one possess the skill to successfully master both? The ability to express one's self successfully, whether it be verbally or written form, are they a choice. I think not. There are some students who are more comfortable writing their ideas than they are speaking, and there are those student who excel in public speaking. However, ultimately, I do require that my students are capable of expressing complex thoughts in the form of writing as well as speaking.

Invention Through the Writing Process

            Amy Hodges’ piece really spoke to me in terms of giving my students a fresh way to begin inventing and generating ideas for the essay that is an upcoming project for them.  Many of the students expressed having a blockage about where to begin and what they should be writing about.  I really enjoyed the entire section titled, “Inventing and Generating Drafts.”   I would routinely just discuss with the students various means of brainstorming and how to use a freewrite as starting point.  This reading really hits home and I now have more ammo to give my students to put in their success gun.  I intend to incorporate this excerpt into my current lessons discussing means of generating ideas

Lindemann Reading

In chapter seven (Prewriting Techniques) Lindemann has a section on Journals and how having students use them can be tricky. She discusses the pros and cons; grading journals could hinder students from truly writing what they feel, on the other hand not having them graded or looked over could cause students to not put forth an effort to utilize this type of prewriting technique. This mirrors the discussion we had in class about having students present a piece of writing on the first day of class so the instructor can get a sense of the writing styles, strength, weakness, etc. If the students are told its graded, pressure is on, if not graded no one cares what they write. It appears that these two techniques are a catch 22, either you lose or you lose, unless someone has a possible effective solution I don’t know about, if so please share.

Using "Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis" had some interesting points. However,  I don't agree with argument that posts to Facebook are not driven by those attempting to enlighten or liberate. Many use the network to voice opinions that no one has the desire to listen to otherwise. They are most often the individuals who use the network to push their political and religious beliefs, so I hide their news feed accordingly. I don't want to read about "Jesus woke me up this morning" while I'm trying to advance to the next level in Candy Crush. The thing I do like about Facebook is the ability to filter opinions I do not agree with. It's kind of like that old adage, "Don't talk about religion and politics at a party," but what is proper these days? Maybe I'm one the "older adults" that just doesn't understand. I use Facebook to play games and keep in touch with old friends and acquaintances.  After reading the article, on a more positive note, I don't think I can ever log onto Facebook and not approach it from a rhetorical perspective. Drats!

FB Rant --

I found the article “Using Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis” to be interesting. I know for me, Facebook has played a very interesting anomaly in my life because I have very polarized views of it. To one degree, I don’t like it, and I feel that it is an awful thing, and yet, when I think about it a second time, I have a tremendous amount of respect for what it represents.

Why I don’t like Facebook:  Because of time constraints, this answer will be short and underdeveloped but…

I feel that Facebook is systematically creating a generation of narcissists who have a superficial perspective of reality. I feel that more than not, Facebook creates a passive compliance among its users, and it does little to empower them. How is this you ask?  Well by the very nature of the program, the website is sets up to make its users seek validation. You post a picture you, you get a like. You post a comment, you get a like. The more comments and photos you post, the more likes you get (regardless of how significant or insignificant you posts are). This is classic conditioning at its best. With respects to the narcissistic aspect of my argument, since users are constantly seeking validation (and because to some degree they are constantly getting validated), users develop a skewed perspective of what’s important. My thought is, you post a picture of your food, you get a like, now this equates to your dinner is now important. This idea then correlates with the idea that each aspect of your life becomes important because every aspect of your life is getting validation. This leads to notions of “it is all about me!” We are all mini celebrities now. With respects to my comment about the passive voice… Since people can now voice their opinion about everything, I don’t feel like people have that “raisin in the sun effect” exemplified in Langston Hughes’ poem…. Without pent up frustration, how can we instigate change?*

*Now I know that around the world there have been social movements which began because of social media, to that I say that is the exception, not the rule. 

Why I think Facebook is a powerful tool:

On the other side of things, I appreciate what Facebook is capable of being. When I was a freshman in college , I remember my philosophy teacher made us go through a short exercise.  He asked us to raise our hands if he we know who are parents are, and if we could share stories about them. All kids in the class raised their hands. Then, he asked us to raise our hands if we knew who are grandparents were, and if we could share stories about them.  Three quarters of the class put their hands up. He repeated the exercise and asked us to do the same with our great grandparents.  Only 4 people out of 30 + people put their hands up. I remember being blown back by the fact that we feel our lives are sooo important, and we feel so “connected to our personal history”, yet just after only two generations, most of us we will be forgotten, just like our great grandparents, and our history will clumped in to broad generalized statements. This is where Facebook comes in to the picture. With the emergence of Facebook, I feel like that my Facebook profile can be my legacy to my family. Every aspect of my profile is a representation of me and my life. The picture’s I post and the comments I share are the key to understanding who I am as a person… They define my personality, my hopes, my dreams, my aspiration… my everything.

Steeped within these two views is where I get stuck on whether I think Facebook can/ should be used in the classroom. Although I feel that Facebook, in all of its facets, can be used for a rhetorical analysis, I feel just about anything can be used for a rhetorical analysis. –I’m one of those people that feel that almost anything that we encounter is an argument, and that it is working to push an agenda. Because I am not comfortable on where I sit with Facebook, I can’t determine whether it is socially responsible to use Facebook in the class. I feel like, by using Facebook in the class it’s validating everything I feel is wrong with it (along with what I like about it). … I know, I know… I know that the counter argument is that by using Facebook in the classroom a teacher can guide the discussion and “enlighten” students of the underlying factors exhibited by Facebook, but I feel a teacher presents the data, and it’s up to the student to reach their own conclusions… But that’s exactly where part of my problem lies, if I’m not comfortable with their potential conclusions, then how can I comfortably say I am being socially responsible? This is why I may not use Facebook in my classroom. 

Writing and Teaching Writing: What I Want/Need to Know

Why do students need to have a voice when writing? And if they have a voice, should the teacher then criticize it? If not, then the teacher’s criticizing the mechanics and structure of the writing. If so, then who is the teacher to criticize the student’s voice?

What I want to know is why schools spend so much time using fairytales as prompts to teach children to read and write, then expect us to abandon creativity/imagination in favor of academic discourse. It's like the Peter Pan syndrome – no room for mature writers in the land of imagination. The importance of content, structure, proper language, a writer's etiquette, takes precedence over authentic voice.

What I want to know about teaching writing is what type of discourse is going to provide my students with the best chance of being a successful academic writer. I am torn between what I'm learning in terms of alternative discourses to teaching writing. That is my number one issue. I read that the expressive pedagogy is great and allows an authentic voice but what usefulness other than writing differently does this serve? When they move on to the next writing class and the teacher has no experience or is in direct opposition, how will it affect the student? I just wonder if it is not the status quo and so many of the institutional level abhor this type of writing, again what is the purpose?

Why does English as a department carry a stigma that no one who majors in this field will get a job/took the easy way out?

Why is teaching (specifically in college) so political/competitive? Why don't college professors work together more often rather than seclude themselves?

What's more important: research, publication, or teaching?

How important is knowing grammar/MLA as a teacher in composition?

Should you take a year or any amount of time off between MA and PhD to teach? Will this better your chances of getting into a PhD program?

How do you write/teach to write dialogue?

What history (of writing) is most important to cover? What theories are there on writing? There are literary theories on how to analyze literature – what is there for the act of writing itself? Do they overlap – modernism, postmodernism, structuralism, etc.

Please summarize Bartholomae/Elbow debate – where does it stand now?

More insight as to why some of the articles are important for students – and more other words more feedback.

Samples of successful thesis prospectus

Samples of literacy biographies

I would like to know how to work with students who have a phobia of writing. I find the getting the ball rolling often begins with the opening sentence: I want to get the audience’s attention in the first line. Sometimes it's a difficult task when the topic is very complex. Should we encourage “one-liners,” opening sentences and skills for developing something that catches the eye and ear?

Providing student feedback

Evaluating students writing/grading

How do I write creatively?/Creative writing instruction

ESL students: do I grade them on form or just content?/Best way to teach composition to ESL students

Practice with process

How can I help students organize writing

How to get students to deepen analysis

Teaching students to revise and take it seriously

Helping students invest in writing

Helping students to brainstorm on their own

Challenging writers to write more and more often

I need to know my students. I need to become familiar with their – his and her – writing. I want to want to need to read and “grade” their writing. I want to not feel like spending all, most, of my time is a burden. Why should I decide to be this person – join this morally ambiguous and egotistic elitist field – not to conform, to upset, destroy (Cixous) and reinvent.

I want to know the best way to break the mold of the five paragraph essay for younger students. Alternative forms of essays.

I want to know how to grade creative writing pieces. It seems completely subjective.

I want to know what the new “big thing” is in composition studies. Is it all on multi modality in writing across texts?

How to teach conclusion paragraphs

Syntax

Effectively connect paragraphs?

Is there anyway a rather what is the way to help students writing without it sounding like you? Or another way, how do you not default into “Well this is what I would say”?

Can you or should you reward weaker writers for relatively significant improvements in writing even if it's not near as good as some of the strongest students? And if you should, how?

FB

Ooo ooo ooo!!! I liked this piece, I really liked it. Maybe because I worked in digital strategy for two years and all we focused on was the rhetorical approaches you could take with social media (as it helped our clients brand themselves online to complement/supplemental traditional marketing). I also find it ridiculous that many people/teachers/scholars/intellects (or so called intellects - btw I was once told if you have to say you are 'intellectual' then you are not actually 'intellectual' - END.RANT.) cannot seem to find the significance of analyzing social media platforms from an academic standpoint. It is after all composition - digital composition - digital AND public composition.

First I would like to turn your attention to the quote in Mathison-Fife's first paragraph:

"Literacy practices that fall outside the realm of traditional academic writing, like Facebook, can easily be seen as a threat to print literacy by teachers, especially when they sneak into the classroom uninvited as students check their Facebook profiles instead of participating in class discussions and activities" (1).

I, of course, understand where these teachers are coming from - but I think they wrongly accuse FACEBOOK as the culprit. Would they not be just as frustrated if their students were reading a comic book instead of participating in class discussion? What about a young adult novel? Or any novel, or piece of print literature that was not relevant for their class? When I was in high school I was the student that would read a different book inside of my text book to make it look like I was reading for class when in fact I was re-reading The Crucible or any of Sarah Dessen's disgustingly mushy young adult novels (I admit it...).

Overall it just seems like there is a negative perception of Facebook because it is what students are spending a majority of their timing doing - thus Facebook is deemed as a "distraction" when in reality students are going to be distracted by SOMETHING to avoid doing work whether it's Facebook or books. What we need to focus on is exactly what Mathison-Fife is - taking the things students are spending their time on and incorporate it into class. This is a way to engage them, make them think critically in class, and also make them think critically outside of class.

Invention Throughout the Writing Process

Amy Hodges' essay,  "Invention Throughout the Writing Process,"  caused me to consider different ways to think about writing. I particularly liked the idea of writing down five things that I had written well, as a way to remember my success as a writer. I am one of those students who suffers from writer's block from time to time, so  I found the idea of writing down things I had written well,  a positive way to help alleviate some of the stress I put myself through when I am writing a paper.



I also liked Hodges' idea about  "questioning yourself" as you write,  as a way to bring authenticity and greater depth to one's writing. The concept of  "questioning yourself,"  also provides a way to give accountability for the choices one makes as a writer. These are some things I believe are very useful to a beginning as well an experienced writer, because if nothing else, it forces the writer to think about his or invention, in a different way, and opens the work to many possibilities.

Why is Academic Writing So Academic?

By Joshua Rothman.

Going Home Again

As I was reading Richard Rodriquez's essay,  "Going Home Again,"  I was struck by the underlying sadness of the piece. Why is it, I kept asking myself, that becoming an academic can separate you from those you love the most? In Rodriquez's case, we see both the sacrifice that he makes by becoming an academic, as well as the estrangement that he feels from his family. His family, he believes can not understand the world he lives in as an academic, but it almost seems as though, on some level, that Rodriquez does not want them to. He seems to delight in some ways,  in the distance that stands between him and his family. Rodriquez also seems equally embarrassed by his family, as well as nostalgic for the a time that he felt close to them, prior to his academic life.



One of the things that puzzled me the most when I was reading the essay, was Rodriguez's need to separate himself from his native language. While I understand that he believes it is essential for him to separate himself from both his culture and language, in order to succeed as an academic, I do not buy it. It seems disingenuous to me. As a doctoral student, he must realize the importance of learning a second language, Why doesn't he realize that the world of academia, which he in fact reveres, believes that the ability to speak and write in Spanish is important? By severing his ties to Spanish, I believe in a real sense, he is severing a part of himself. And it is a part of himself that is viable not only to the  world of academia, but more significantly to himself. Rodriquez's ability to speak Spanish would only add to his role as a scholar, not subtract from it.

Sondra's Statistics

Sup Sondra.

You surprised me with your skill in shifting my senses when it came to your study. I at first felt satiated by your stability in suggesting that statistics were so highly significant in the steps of composition. I even used the word "insanity" in my script in the margins aside the several goals you listed were the substance of your survey of students. However, upon staring at the sketches that encompassed the break down of time spent and words used in Tony's composition process I realized how substantial these scores were.

By the end of your study I was speeding through the sentences, underlining words, shaking my head in sympathy. I am a stew of the multi vs. single draft student. And as an aspiring scholar and teacher I see how understanding the assortment of student systems is important to note so that we can supply a pedagogical soup for all.

Secondly, (and lastly) I would like to squabble with your seemingly opinionated statement that the students faced struggles when not relating to the subject matter of the prompt. Often times, we shape composition prompts to soothe the student's soul because they feel they can relate. This many times proves successful, but I suspect that assigning prompts that summon students to step up spurs their surge to success both as scribes and as critical thinkers.

Sincerely,
Michelle

Thanks L

Great. Thank you, Lindemann, for presenting different ways of composing academic works. I am not being sarcastic*. I agree that there is something a bit curious about forcing students to write in an argumentative voice, that there is only one way, that there are sides to be taken. Coming from a reader who pushes away competition like the bubonic plague, and who accepts collaboration (see my Student Research Day abstract here) and open mindedness like the homies from Creed, I think that in a way argumentation in academic papers is a necessary evil/not evil but necessary.

Sure you (the student - the prof - the writer- what have you) are writing as if what you are saying is the correct and ultimate "right" but how would we prove any points if we were not to make a stand? And is taking an argumentative state not helping writers with self assurance, self esteem, self projection? Stating an argument in papers where teachers ask you to answer a prompt is inevitable. There will always be other "sides" and there will always be other "ways" of doing, thinking and theorizing, which is why many times we teach students to use terms such as "many people think..." or "often times we..." so that it is not so set in stone. So that the argument we are making is not also a claim to our superiority.

That is all.

*I was totes being sarcastic.

RdRqRdRqPLL

I found the article “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers” to be very interesting. While reading this week’s article, it reminded me of the blog I did last week regarding pre-writing, and many of the struggles that I identified as being part of my pre-writing/writing process. --Like Tony, while writing, I constantly stop to reread what I am writing,  I often times read out loud what I wrote to develop a rhythm, and to develop my ideas, etc….  I guess that, per this article, I would be considered an unskilled writer. Now that Tony and my “problem” is identified, the question now begs, how did we become unskilled writers, and how do we fix it? Some of the other questions that come to mind:

• ·         Like Tony, I spoke two languages growing up, English and Spanish. I wonder if the fact that we are dual language speakers, maybe even the fact that it’s particularly English and Spanish, influenced how we developed as a writers
• ·         I’m not sure how far this teaching pedagogy goes back, but when I was growing up and I was learning to spell, my teacher’s instructed me to sound out the words that I was spelling. This, I think, could have set the precedent for the way I learned language: sound out the words, sound out the phrases, and sound out your essay.
• ·         The other big question that comes to mind, is it worth fixing? Although it takes me a long time to get something down on paper, the job gets done.

Wyche's "Time, Tools, and Talismans"

This reading was especially helpful to me because I had an instant "that's me" when I was reading the article.  I don't ever do prewriting and typically write just one draft and that's the one I turn in.. it's served me well so far, but I feel, perhaps, inspired to test out the technique of prewriting to see if I could improve-- maybe develop some rituals to help me out when I get writer's block.  One thing that stuck out to me was when the article mentioned how studying in front of the TV is distracting and that's something I'm guilty of; in fact, I am currently doing some reading and writing this blog post while watching an NCIS marathon.  Oopsies.

Urban Minorities with Education do Face Alienation

During the class session, I chose the Mike Rose group to participate in versus the Rodriguez group.  I felt a close connection to both authors in terms of their experiences, but after reading the Rodriguez piece closer I see many similarities to his feelings about being alienated.  Getting an education and becoming one of "them" is akin to no longer staying true to my roots.  I see and experience this type of alienation quite often.  I don't know or have not taken a close enough look to figure out why this occurs to me.  For me however, I don't see this from my family as he talked about.  I see it more with friends of friends who have no idea of my background or my youth.  If I were to analyze and reflect, I would surmise that their alienation has a lot to do with my appearance and my slips of intellectual bits of conversation that takes them aback.  I believe that perhaps these things convince them that our lives are vastly different and have nothing in common and the distancing commences.  I've heard countless stories (mainly from women) who's family would say "just because you are going to college, you're still no better than I am."  These utterances would come from parents, spouses, siblings, and other family members. I think that this would be an interesting theory to test as a project of some sort.  I think the study would have to study both the "educated" and the "less educated" ( not trying to sound better than thou) to see where the disjunction lies.  To discover the how and why from both sides seems possible with a large enough pool of respondents. 

Required Reading

As I read Lindemann's chapter on prewritten techniques, I found myself questioning the teaching styles of instructors I have had in the past. I can only recall one occasion when a teacher used one of the chapter's  prewriting techniques and told me to step away from an essay for at least a day before revising. This article, though I am aware that there are many different teaching styles, should be required reading for all writing instructors to add to their toolbox.

Blog On!

I'm usually one of those kind of people who struggles to do any pre-writing because I tend to want to go back and correct my writing, and I also want to go back and reread what I just wrote and see if it makes sense. Even as I attempt to do a free free write for this assignment, I find myself going back and seconds after typing a word or sentence and correcting it. Even though I am consciously trying to avoid going back and changing my work, if I stop my fingers from moving for a second, I slip into old habits. I think I may be one of those who may benefit from the suggestions Dr. Cauthen mentioned, that when writing on a computer, cover the screen, so as to avoid interrupting your writing process and to keep thoughts fluid. I remember once, in my early years of school, I had a teacher that said that one of the essential aspects of classic Greek rhetoric was the  style of a speech. Because of this, rhetoricians would create their speech as they go, see how it sounds, and if it sounds right (i.e. the right style), they say it from the beginning again, and commit it to memory... if its bad, they start over until they hear the right voice in their head, and they have the rigtht style.  I think that's the way I write, and I recognize that it is very unsophisticated... but I've been doing it for years. I wish I could preplan, prewrite, and make take advantage of those tools, but every time I try to do any of those, I find much of it useless because its usually inconsistant with my voice at the time.....Some exercises we read about it tonight reading seemed like that had potential. I'll try a few of them for my next writing assignment.

Op-Blog: Response to Composing as a Woman (As Opposed to a Man)

As I flipped the pages of this text I felt myself falling deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole of frustration. On the very first page I made an "Ugh" annotation because of Elizabeth Flynn's statement on the so called "feminization" of writing". What the fuck does that even mean? I know what she means, it's just frustrating to me. Let me expand: It seems that this text was meant to differentiate the writing process of a woman compared to that of a man. The issue with this, especially coming from a feminist writer, is that this notion is the very antithesis to gender equality. Saying composition studies is undergoing a feminization is doing the exact opposite of what women and feminists world wide are fighting (should be fighting, think they are fighting). She is making writing something to be conquered when it is not that, women are not that. Additionally, throughout the article Flynn notes men vs. women prewriting processes as well as content. Unfortch for her I myself as a woman use prewriting processes that men use as well as write about the same content and write in the same voice as she claims men do. This is true for many of my women friends and colleagues (and vice versa for men to women). As with many feminist writers, I think Flynn needs to reassess her goals because she comes off as half submissive and half sexist (I realize that is way too strong of a word for what I'm trying to convey) in an attempt to prove women are different than men in writing processes. THE. END.

Your First Blog Post

Feel free to write about anything in the reading so far that you'd like to talk more about (it can be more than one thing if you want, or an extended discussion/rant about just one piece of the reading).