Elbow’s idealism is attractive because he makes himself accessible and identifiable with the writing student. He uses his failures in writing to relate to the average, struggling composition student. The free writing ideas presented are helpful; it is encouraging to hear someone as influential as Elbow endorsing the idea of “mess-making.” The problem I see with my students though is that they often never bother cleaning up the mess. The question I had during Tim’s presentation concerned evaluation. Elbow claims to only give positive feedback, so my question is how do students improve their writing? The article provided some insight in this area: “I stress my own conviction that the goodness or badness in a piece of writing is an ‘unknown’ and that the only trustworthy measuring instrument we have is the reactions of as many real readers as possible” (594).
The importance of finding one’s voice and really coming into the ensuing “sincerity” in one’s writing was powerful for me. I now understand this to be the key to expressive writing. Expressivism has always been attractive for me, but understanding its potential contribution to all aspects of writing is immense.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteAs regards students not bother to “clean up the mess:” Elbow relies a lot on peers sharing their writing with each other. He often relates writing to the fundamental need of one person to be understood by another, sometimes invoking the image of an infant and parents. The peer sharing—with its implied peer pressure—he sees as a way to motivate students to write in a way that is more than just a mess, but in way that is clearly understood. He also uses revision in the process so that one piece is peer reviewed more than once.
Elbow identifies both a generative mode and a critical mode in good writing. To him, they are very different psychological processes—but both are necessary. He stresses the generative, uncritical mode because of what he sees as a cultural prejuidice in favor of the critical mode.
So true, Eric. Students are terrible about cleaning up their work. Not to be an apologist for lazy teenagers, but I'm not sure they know how to go about it. I am often asked to proofread a paper which I have previously proofread. An awful lot of times, I note that most of the previous errors are still there. I'm left wondering if the student didn't agree with all the corrections, wasn't thorough enough to pick up all the corrections, or just didn't care. I think some high school students believe the whole process of writing is like magic - they all know someone who is good at it, but they have no idea how that person does it. Often the good writer doesn't really know how he or she does it. I honestly think the judgment of writing seems somewhat random to students. Maybe this is the fault of schools and teachers who are trying very hard to spare the student's feelings or are overwhelmed with the "mess." It must be strange for your writing to be fine one year and then next year be covered with red marks and given poor grades. One thing I'm sure of, if peer review of writing is to be useful, we must teach students to be critical thinkers and readers (not by offering negative comments).
ReplyDeleteI was not teachable as a student of writing because I thought I had to do it all perfectly, and I was defensive about what I knew I didn’t know. I was terrified of making the inevitable mistakes. It was terrifically freeing for me to discover I was allowed to have help. I tell my students about my failures and the process I now go through in writing a paper. I call a friend and read my rough draft to her to see if my ideas make sense. After I have written another draft, I have a teacher-friend edit for mistakes and clarity, and in the final draft, I have my printer husband proofread for typos and misspellings. Interestingly, I have gotten better at all phases as I have allowed myself to seek input. My students have also become more willing to work on successive drafts when they see that it is not a one-shot process, even for those of us who have been at it for a while. As Cathy says, many “students believe the whole process of writing is like magic - they all know someone who is good at it, but they have no idea how that person does it.” I think it helps them to see it’s not magic, it’s messy.
ReplyDeleteMany people seem to be attracted to Elbow or critical of him because they think he advocates lettin’ it all hang out. For me, his encouragements to be willing to make the mess were what I needed in learning how to put it all together.