Early on What a Writer Needs, Ralph Fletcher discusses writing-as-discovery (21). I loved that he includes this section because I think that writing-as-discovery is a particular skill in writing that needs to be explicitly taught.
I usually discuss writing-as-discovery with my students when we talk about how to write an introduction. Some writers get so hung up on making their introduction perfect, it freezes them before they even start writing (which is why I really liked Fletcher’s title for this chapter “Freezing to the Face”). I was one of these writers: I was so intent on coming up with the perfect introduction that I would waste hours trying to get my introduction just right, with an brilliant thesis, and then by the time I finished writing the rest of my paper, what I actually said in the paper was far different from what I thought and didn’t match my introduction at all. I’d have to go back and rewrite my introduction. It took me until I got to be about a junior in college before I figured out that I should write my introduction last. I wish someone would have told me that, or at the very least, suggested it to me as a way to help me get started—when I think about how many late nights I spent agonizing over introductions, I want to cry.
My point is that I figured out what I wanted to say by actually writing it out—what Fletcher terms “writing-as-discovery”—and I think that is an invaluable skill to teach our students. Whenever I tell my students to just get a general idea for a thesis and then forget about the introduction until the end, they look at me like I just told them I want to kill their pets. However, when they give it a try, they find they write much better papers. Sometimes it just takes someone pointing out the obvious to get a person moving in the right direction.
I agree. If writing is discovery, than sometimes, you might stumble into the perfect introduction and sometimes, you might just be better writing to see where it takes you. Either way, I think it is wise that you let your students "unfreeze" themselves so they can get to the act of writing more quickly. Why torture the student who tortures themselves over writing the perfect introduction and therefore, turn someone off from the act of writing, keeping them away from self discovery or universal platitudes they may find within their writing.
ReplyDelete-Lisa
I think it speaks volumes that by the time your students come to your classroom, they are already firmly entrenched in the idea that they HAVE to begin writing at the introduction. You state that writing-as-discovery is something that must be explicitly taught, but I can't help but wonder: if students were never instructed with "THE" writing process instead of learning in a way that encourages student writers to each find and develop their own individual process, would they would still need the emphasis you mention in your example? If a student was never taught that he must start with the introduction, where would he start writing? Might he start right in the middle of his essay? It makes me think perhaps students need to deconstruct the restrictive ideas they are taught about how "this is writing, and if you don't do it this way, you're doing it wrong." I don't know if this makes any sense or not, as I'm having one of those moments where what I'm thinking doesn't want to be put into words. But I can't help but think that writing-as-discovery is only natural, and that what is learned in school suffocates that natural inclination.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Personally, it is much easier for me to get in the flow of writing. Even if I think I know exactly what I want to write, the idea usually changes as I write. I think the revising process is easier when thinking of writing as discovering because you can shape the paper into what you really wrote about and not try to force it to fit into your original idea.
ReplyDeleteWow! This is so true. I have re-written so many introductions, realizing that my paper, essay or story morphs completely by the end. It's through the journey or process that we discover what we are really trying to say, which sort of makes sense. How can you know where you're going before you get there?
ReplyDeleteI had a discussion with one of my roommates just a day or two ago on this very topic. He was talking about how he always gets bogged down in trying to write an introduction but had just recently taken to working on the body first before going back and finishing it. He liked this approach because it made it easier to calculate where to end papers with a set length. I suggested to him that it might also be better because he might not know exactly what he was going to write when he wrote the introduction first and that by writing it later he could make sure that it reflected the product he had decided on. I think this was quite helpful for him, as it probably has been for your students.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! Though most of the time, if I'm writing an argument for a class, I find that I need the introduction to be what I want right away, and it gets me going on the paper. But when it comes to my creative writing, if I can just get myself to just get going and try not to focus on the beginning, I can often get a good flow going. It's always getting started that is the hardest part, and I feel like if I can just do that, even if it's note "the perfect start", I can USUALLY keep going. Unfortunately, however, I was never taught "writing-as-discovery" until my junior year of college when I came to the UI. Before that, it always seemed like you had to know where you were going with the story. The problem is, sometimes that still really hard to break out of.
ReplyDeleteI think it makes total sense that students (including myself) want to begin with the beginning. After all, that's how most of the stories and books they've read have been set up. It just makes linear sense to us. It kind of reminds me of when I first learned that movies aren't shot in sequence. Isn't that crazy? It makes even more sense that an essay would not be writing sequentially--many times the author has no idea where the piece is going until s/he gets there! Thanks for your post! -Jessica
ReplyDeleteIt's funny reading your post and all these comments, because I feel like I am the exact opposite. I HAVE to start at the beginning. I feel like if I don't write my introduction I have no idea what to argue in my paper - it's like a blueprint that I absolutely need in order to continue.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I completely agree with you. The majority of people are not like me, and even after I've written my intro sometimes I'll write the second or third or fourth body paragraph before I'll write the first one. Being constrained is awful in an essay format - the best writing comes out of freedom.