The
prewriting/invention strategies discussed in Chapter 7 of Lindemann have been
around for some time, I’m guessing – from the 70s at least, with some dating
back to Aristotle. Why was I not given any
of these tools in Freshman Comp?? It’s
not like I attended college back when dinosaurs roamed the earth; I just
received my BA in winter of 2014! To think
of all the time wasted staring at an empty page or a blank document, when I
could have had the means to generate ideas and build meaningful content,
instead of well worded b.s. I’m a bit
miffed.
More importantly, why aren’t more Freshman
Comp professors teaching their students these techniques? I’ve read several journal articles recently
that recommend as much as 85% of one’s writing time be spent in prewriting. That’s yuuuge, as The Donald would say, and
it is information that is not being communicated to undergrads. In four semesters as a SIL, only one
professor has emphasized invention as an important step in the writing
process. As teachers and SILs, we need
to become proselytes of prewriting and preach it!
I share your amazement that pre-writing is not emphasized as it should be in classrooms. Maybe teachers don't quite know how to demonstrate various pre-writing techniques, or maybe they don't quite know how to allocate the appropriate classroom time to get maximum results. I'm pleased that you realize the importance of pre-writing; I'm sure that as an SIL and as a teacher, you will provide a great service to your students by emphasizing this aspect of the writing process. They will be lucky to have you, and I'm sure you'll do a better job teaching writing now that you've had this epiphany!
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