Suggested
Questions for Blog Post #3 (feel free to choose one): How does the case study in
“Crossing Cultures” bring to mind experiences you have had as a teacher of second language writers
and/or a writer in a second language yourself?
How does the writing process chapter apply to your
own work as a writer and a writing teacher?
What are your most and least favorite phases of the writing process and
why? What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of your own writing
process? Of your classroom and writing center students’ writing processes?
In answer to the second series of questions:
ReplyDeleteOne of quirks I have in the writing process is assuming the reader shares the same general basic knowledge as me and can therefore jump off from the same starting point. “Starting in scene” is a piece of advice that a beloved novelist gave me, and it still seems to be my most dominant departure point when I write. This methodology is probably not helpful in crafting analytical student papers, but maybe I can use it as a tutoring tool.
What I mean to say is that since my writing style is “write to find my answer and let editing organize it later,” I often find that I have no idea what I want to argue until I’m at least halfway through the essay. When I have finally written the argumentative point, I become more of an excavator than anything else; backtracking through my prose (or, the “scene” I jump off from) for salient supporting ideas and proof. I guess this can be characterized as the “drafting” portion mentioned in the book, but since the excavation is cutting and pasting from disparate giant walls of text, it seems be a combination of “drafting” and like “clustering.”
Since I have encountered a lot of summarizing and very few claims in the papers I’ve seen this year, I’m wondering if framing my tutoring work as an “excavation” makes the search for relevant information in a student paper more pointed. When presented with a wall of text that says nothing new, perhaps I could ask the student to help me dissect the scene and remove the bare bones of the idea so we could jump forward.
Also. Grammar is a huge weakness of mine--I've been writing so stylistically for so long that I need practice with all the rules.
(As an aside, am I the only one that feel sort of bad for the students when they realize they need to delete 2/3 of what they’ve written? It’s one of the most satisfying parts of my own editing process, but I see hate seeing their faces fall when they see the word count dropping.)
I agree that writing takes place in stages. Even though for each writer the stages may happen at different moments, we can still talk about them and analyze strategies at the stage we're at as well as the stages that may follow. It is hard to see my writing as some sort of a linear progression in the sense of moving from prewriting to drafting and revising. Very often the "prewriting" stage does not take place on paper but in my head. As soon as I find out I will have to write a paper in a class, my mind goes alert to what I hear and read in that class and, either consciously or not, I start storing info in my mind. That info quietly brews until it blows out like a storm in the form of an idea. I guess that's what they call inspiration. It may seem like something comes out of nothing but it's not so simple - a lot of processes are going on like staying focused, storing info without knowing if it's relevant or not, brainstorming right before sleep or maybe even during (who knows?). All that I consider part of the writing process. Then I start writing from the moment I got "inspired" and write about a specific idea - freewriting. Sometimes the moment of inspiration happens in the middle of reading something. If so, I stop reading and immediately start writing trying not to lose the thread of my thoughts. As I do this, usually other thoughts are born and so on. Then, depending if I still have time till the deadline, I either let that rest or go ahead and shape it by forming a thesis. That helps me gain focus and coherence. I search for more evidence to support my claims. This can be tough and may take time depending on how well I know my material. That's why pay attention in class. If not, this can be my least favorite stage. It's pretty technical - looking for support. Then I write the intro and conclusion. Sometimes I write those in between stages. It really varies. Ideas, hence writing are unpredictable. As the Guide says there is no one recipe for writing. So I am not sure how my own writing process can serve as a model to others. But I think it definitely helps being aware of a process happening so as to look at another writer's work and be able to tell at which one of your own stages that writer may be at and so if I was him/her, what would I most probably do next and how?
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your "prewriting" process, though I also think I'm prewriting all of the time, constantly taking in data and ideas that I can never be sure when they might be useful and come out the other end. I used to be so envious of people who seemed to know so much stuff that they were able to put into their work. "How did they know that? How were they able to connect those pieces?" Aging/living has been a godsend in that regard. :)
DeleteSide note, sometimes I feel like school happens to early. Or that somehow young persons should focus more on reading with relish, annotating vigorously, and engage in gap years, before asked to cogently write about things. I'm not sure exactly what this utopia would look like, but I like my fantasy worlds. :)
DeleteI saw a lot of my own habits in the Bedford Guide's description of the writing process. I do a whole lot of research early on in the process in order to get as wide of an understanding of a topic as is possible. After the research, I try to build a structure for the essay (I typically have a premise for the essay going in). This is part outline/part ranty free-writing. Eventually, I've generated enough content to start really putting the pieces together. I'll type up my up-until-now handwritten notes, and do line edits as I go. Then there's some storyboarding on my wall with notecards, recording voice memos, and printing and editing drafts again by hand. This may seem like a messy process to some, but it has worked well for me over the years.
ReplyDeleteWithin the Writing Center, I think I can help students to try out some seemingly wacko drafting and revising strategies. Plotting n essay on an empty wall has been unexpectedly helpful and intuitive to me, and I feel that many college and graduate students do not feel like they have permission to approach writing and editing in an unorthodox way.
I think we discussed this before at some point (?), but your creative liberties with the writing process are pretty inspiring. I am especially drawn to this idea of storyboarding a paper so that you can visualize your argument -- and of recording voice memos for later incorporation. Not only are these methods, as you put it, unorthodox, but they sound like fun and they cater to different learning styles (visual, auditory, etc.) in a way that could make paper-writing less intimidating for some of the students we tutor.
Delete- Cassandra
I would love to see what one of your storyboards looks like. How much of your process includes pencil and paper? Is there something about hand writing your notes and recording your voice that helps to pull your thinking together? I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who tries to edit as I go. I hope that you save your "ranty free-writing." Is this step also handwritten? One of the things that we discussed in a book history class that I took a few years ago is how these traces of the writing process are becoming harder to preserve. Technology becomes obsolete so digital records can be harder to recover. Professors that I had in library school also questioned the durability of the digital. Someday there will be scholars who will be grateful for the trail you're leaving.
DeleteInteresting that in my approaches to teaching writing course, prof Aldrich did a book talk on a writing pedagogy book (of which I've unfortunately already forgotten the title and author). He outlines the direction writing pedagogy had taken: product oriented > process oriented > post process > post pedagogy. Aldrich discussed the idea of post process as being a state of rigid process directives such that we read about for today (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing). She didn't go into depth on the theory, but I found it interesting. Though I understand the desire and see the benefit in defining and recreating the writing process, to do so does seem rather capitalistic, which I find bemusing. Since most of my work is creative and I've always worked so intuitively, my process couldn't be cut clearly into steps, though all of the above mentioned steps are probably there.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the rigid prescription for the writing process is better suited for academic writing because academic writing is, well, rigid. It makes sense to me that since your work is creative you should take a more creative approach to how it gets done, and feel your way to the end product instead of checking boxes off a list.
DeleteSince two of the students I'm tutoring this semester are English Language Learners, "Crossing Cultures" and our "Possible Transfer-Based Problems" handout really resonated this week. In particular, "Possible Transfer-Based Problems You Might Observe When Working With Chinese Students" reminded me of my years as an undergraduate peer tutor when at least two-thirds of our appointments were with Chinese international students. Almost all of the issues covered in the handout were transfer problems I remember encountering, and it was fascinating to learn specific reasons behind them (for example, that phrasing questions is difficult because in Chinese they're signaled with tone rather than word order).
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated the observations in "Crossing Cultures" about difficulties posed to international students by a U.S.-based curriculum. This kind of ethnocentrism, as the guide points out, saddles students with the task of (sometimes extensive) extra research, and can even affect pupils from the U.S. who don't have the presumed expertise. As a Jewish kid in a Catholic town, for instance, I recall struggling with an exam question about Christian symbolism because our teacher had assumed we were all well-versed in the New Testament. Creating a space of cross-cultural reciprocity -- rather than of crash courses in mainstream American culture -- seems like an admirable goal for a writing center.
- Cassandra (Cassie)
Yes, one can accuse US curriculum of being ethnocentric but it is also not reasonable to expect that someone could live and study in a foreign country without experiencing its culture be it in the form of "culture shock." I remember when I made the decision to come to the US I took care to get informed about the country. It would be slightly irresponsible not to. On the other hand, US instructors should be cognizant, more and more so as globalization accelerates, of the presence of international students. Once I had us look at Adam and Eve pics in class and I made sure to explain what the Biblical story actually is. I know US students were like "duuhhh" but still...Once a Chinese student was looking up sth on Wikipedia to get quickly oriented in class. Use of technology can help if instructors allow it. Both parties can try and meet halfway.
ReplyDeleteI took my first writing class as a graduate student last fall and it was the first time the idea of writing a shitty first draft was presented to me. It blew my mind. I went into the class with the goal of being able to write better first drafts and instead I was being taught to write worse first drafts. I now have less trouble starting my writing projects and because of that I procrastinate less and I am able to lose myself in the writing process more easily. I rather enjoy global editing, and I find that it is the most rewarding part of writing. Once I read through all of my ideas and organize them I have a much better sense of what I'm trying to say and how I want to say it. What I need to get better at is sentence level revision. My grammar and punctuation is not as big of a problem as clarity of message. I'm constantly asking myself, how can I say this more clearly (but still sound smart because... come on this is academia). To the chagrin of my PI, I still haven't quite mastered this aspect of writing.
ReplyDeleteAfter getting to know one of my students, she informed me that she was coached in high school to be able to write first drafts to near perfection as training for the AP literature exam. I'm interested to see how she approaches the editing process once we get there - so far we have only worked on brainstorming ideas for her projects. Are her first drafts going to be beautiful? Will she be open to editing or will it offend her? I know that I need to be careful in how I approach editing her papers and I'm hoping it wont take long to find a successful approach that works for her.
ReplyDeleteI have the most difficulty with drafting. I've always revised as I was writing, but now that I am engaged in more complicated projects, this no longer seems to work for me. Reading and pre-writing easily become procrastination; I never feel ready to begin drafting. Breaking a paper up into sections and allowing myself to write in a non-linear way has helped. The Peter Elbow quote in the Bedford Guide, "Meaning is not where you start, but what you end up with," fits my best experiences of writing. My ideas don't seem to coalesce until I've been writing for some time. Once I get going though, my writing flows and I find myself enjoying the work.
In my classroom, I share my regrets with students. I wish that I had practiced better writing habits earlier in my academic career. Highly caffeinated, late-night writing sessions can only work for so long. I am encouraging my current class to pre-write, giving them class time to do so. So far I've avoided the tyranny of outlines, but the next time I have them pre-write, I will offer them options other than free-writing. I am also trying to emphasize revision more than I did previously, providing more guidance and greater incentive for revision.