Prewriting Annotations Transcribed

 I took my annotations and highlights from chapter seven and transcribed them here.  I actually wanted to just post photos of each page and my annotations so you could see the page and have more context to my annotations, but my writing is scrawl.  I sometime couldn’t read it as I was doing this and that was frustrating.  I frustrate myself a lot.  Anyways-  the bold headings are the subsections to the chapter to help with clarity.  The italics are my comments. 

Chapter 7: Prewriting Techniques

“This is the first requirement for good writing: truth; not the truth…but some kind of truth - a connection between the things written about, the words used in the writing, and the author’s real experience in the world he knows well- whether in fact or dream or imagination” – Ken Macrorie

“Prewriting” = “Invention”

Various techniques… “some use pictures, talk or pantomime to generate ideas…”

“As a rule, the more time students spend on a variety of prewriting activities, the more successful the paper will be”    -  not sure > possibly better, possibly cluttered, and crowded or too narrow

Perception Excercises

“Assignments involving argumentation can begin with impromptu debates, which might then be worked into brief written dialogues and from there into more formal kinds of discourse. Similarly, students can translate reading assignments, pictures, or music from one medium to another, then to a third and finally to a written form.  The assumption behind these activities is that similar principles govern communication in various media. When students practice the ‘language’ of pictorial art, of gesture, and of music, they also learn principles that reinforce their use of the spoken and written word.  Furthermore, in responding to cartoons, music, and pantomime, students become more sensitive observers of their world”   -   multimodal & multiwriting techniques à however, difference is -always end in “written” production

**fact- reality- necessity for equal analysis, consumption, & production

Brainstorming and Clustering

-lists

-cluster diagrams

-diagrams

analogies for understanding à  one becomes many, and many are one—the process of division by analysis & whole & parts, etc.

Freewriting

“Elbow recommends that students freewrite at least three times a week. Freewritings, he insists, should never be graded.” à never graded? à but what about seen? à  “leave on my desk before you leave” “you can place your freewrites in this locked cabinet…” lol no but seriously, voluntary basis?

 “…leaving students free to let their own language take charge of the page..”à 1) set ?’s 2) student made? 3) partner made? 4) each round new kind? 5) all

Journals

“Journals… record experiences and observations meant only to be read by their authors…” à to personal? Risk losing audience à abstract vs concrete

hmm.. I treat journals as my space

“Grading individual entries in journals is counterproductive because it discourages provisional thinking and regular practice with writing.  Journal offer students a place to write without fear of making mistakes or facing criticism for what they have to say”

à what am I really asking for? Practiced writing? Or thought/idea invention?

“When I read a set of journals, occasionally I’ll come across an entry full of obscenities. They’re meant to shock m. Generally, I ignore them first time around…”  à NOOOOOO à comment/talk back/talk with

free form criticism, but also need for academic/respected support—is this going somewhere productive or new? where next?—help me build!!!

Heuristics

-topoi

-“enthymemes on all matters”

-“heuristics prompt thinking by means of questions”

-5 “w”s

- Burke’s Pentadàexpanded 1) by student 2) by prompt 3) by…

-the “work”

- the “audience”

-summary of techniques= brainstorming, clustering, freewriting, answering questions

-3 perspectives- particle, wave, field

-6 concepts- particle, wave, field, contrast, variation, and distribution

Models

Artists? Stealing like a writer? --- Bishop

“Third, in discussing any model, the fouc should be primarily on how the writer solves problems” à how & what à BUT, rather we should emphasize the RELATIONSHIP between how and what