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Annotated Bibliography- Lacey Smith

Page history last edited by Lacey Smith 9 years, 4 months ago

 

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

 

By Lacey Smith, Free Right

 

 1. Elbow, Peter. "Freewriting." FREEWRITING by Peter Elbow (n.d.): n. pag. Center for Leaning, Teaching, Communication and Research. Oxford UP.           Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/wahlstrl/eng692/692%20pdf%20files%20ej/Freewriting.pdf>. 

 

     Peter Elbow illustrates the effectiveness of free writing on one’s writing, both personal and academic, through the improvement of his writing, as well as his students’. Elbow begins his article by stating: “The most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do free writing exercises regularly”. He continues by detailing the parameters to a free writing exercise and explains why such parameters are in place. Elbow’s goal, or motive, to his free writing exercise is for the writer to completely lose themselves in their writing through not agonizing about editing and simply writing without stopping. He explains that “your voice is damped out by all the interruptions, changes, and hesitations between the consciousness and the page,”. He argues that free writing allows one to naturally produce their personal voice—“which is the main source of power in [one’s] writing,”.  Yet, “editing, in itself, is not the problem”, because it is essential to edit one’s writing. But, Elbow argues that writing and editing occurring simultaneously is the issue because it does not allow for the natural flow of thought. Elbow claims that regularly practicing free writing makes “writing less blocked because words will come more easily,” and the overall issue he finds with this, as previously stated, is that writing loses it’s power and cohesion when the writer does not have the ability to simply sit down and write.  

 

 


2.  Fox, Deborah and Suhor, Charles. "Limitations Of Free Writing." The English Journal 75.8 (1986): 34-36. JSTOR. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/819077>.

 

     Deborah Fox and Charles Suhor start by explaining free writing and it’s importance. “Free writing is geared towards self-discovery or exploration of a topic,” which allows students to feel free to write without worry or complication. Fox and Suhor cite other authors who have written and conducted research on the topic of free writing. They simply compare each authors’ claims about free writing in order to show the reader that there is not one, considerably correct way to free write because everybody’s writing styles are different, therefore free writing helps each writer in their separate way. 

     Fox and Suhor then detail the historical context of free writing and how it “reached its peak of popularity during the neoprogressive movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when experimentation in new methods and content of English instruction was widespread.” They proceed to explain the “questions about free writing” that have been “raised by critics within the profession” in the late 1970’s. Fox and Suhor quote Charles Piltch who claimed that free writing within school settings may cause students who are “accustomed to free writing [to] resent having to revise or edit, and students will often write insincerely in spite of the invitation to compose with greater spontaneity.” Overall, Fox and Suhor simply want to draw attention to the differing of opinions through history when it comes to the topic of free writing as a way to introduce the research aspect of free writing. 

     Fox and Suhor choose to mainly focus on “Hillock’s meta-analysis of composition research,” in which his studies provide the effects of free writing as well as an emphasis on “grammar and mechanics but not as effective as using writing models, sentence combining, writing criteria, and inquiry.”  

     Overall, Fox and Suhor mention that the “use of free writing alone in a composition classroom will not automatically produce better writers.” However, free writing is simply a tool to be used to develop writing skills.

 

 


3. Marcus, Stephen. "Any Teacher a Writing Teacher? The Value of "Free Writing""JSTOR. Taylor & Francis Group, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.           <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu%3A2048%2Fstable%2Fpdfplus%2F27565338.pdf%3F%26acceptTC%3Dtrue%26jpdConfirm%3Dtrue>.

 

 

     Stephen Marcus begins his article by explaining the worries of teachers and teacher assistants concerning their students’ writing levels and skills. Marcus states that any teacher, not just English teachers, can use free writing exercises in order to open their students’ minds and help, not only with their writing, but also with their confidence in the classroom. He creates a space where each student knows that the “working rule is [to] ‘Get it down, don’t get it right,’” meaning he wants his students to focus on the voice and significance of their writing instead of concentrating on “spelling words correctly, grammar, punctuation, etc.”. Marcus justifies free writing by informing his readers that free writing exercises have “long been advocated in English education…[because] it aids in students’ becoming more fluent, in discovering their own voice, in topic selection, and from freeing them from premature editing of ideas and expressions.”

     As previously stated, Marcus does not only focus on the effects free writing has on writing, but also on the student as a whole. He claims that his students’ “discussions are more focused or informed” and he claims this is the result of what the free writing exercise allows students to do. “Even the worst students take some pleasure in the idea of uncorrected writing when they have been conditioned to expect and value their freedom to practice.” 

     Although about half of the article consists of Marcus detailing different free writing exercises, through these examples he emphasizes his main argument of the benefits of free writing within any subject of education. Lastly, Marcus states, “Free writing by itself will not produce a skilled and effortless prose writer. It is used most effectively in a comprehensive writing program which addresses students’ strengths and weaknesses with planned and coordinated strategies. Nevertheless, free writing activities…can prove instrumental in students’ becoming better writers precisely because they are using their skills outside the formal demands of an English class. It is the particular benefit of these activities that they provide students opportunities to write which won’t be judged and at the same time provide ways for the teacher to attend to the substance of the course.”

 


4. Reynolds, Mark. "Make Free Writing More Productive." College Composition and Communication. JSTOR. Web. 16 Nov.           2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/357825?ref=no-x-route:52267fcff6c139e8c38cf1cf8e335171>.

 

     Mark Reynolds expresses both the benefits and complications of free writing that he and other teachers have found. He explains, “many writing teachers have found free writing useful as a discovery exercise for helping students generate ideas… However…free writing is chaotic by nature and full of unusable material.” Reynolds continues and details “a series of questions, activities, and guidelines” that are devised to aid students in making their free writing more “productive and generative”. 

     Throughout the rest of the article, Reynolds details 20 separate exercises in response to one’s free writing, yet each exercise builds off of the prior exercise. An example of the first exercise is as follows: “Re-read your free writing and line through all unusable items: repeated words and phrases, extraneous items unrelated to anything, scribbling, doodles, or other “filler” clearly of no value.” After the first exercise, Reynolds describes further steps the reader should take in the process of revising their free writing in order to find a more focused topic, or also “a variety of ideas for possible topics”. 

     Altogether, Reynolds provides his readers with a detailed way to improve their writing while simultaneously supplying his readers with a system to “bring some order to the jumble of ideas in a free writing” and a method of how to productively use free writing. 

 

 


5. Romano, Tom. "The Power of Voice." EBSCO Host. Educational Leadership, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.           <http%3A%2F%2Fweb.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu%3A2048%2Fehost%2Fpdfviewer%2Fpdfviewer%3Fsid%3Dd528e34b-6e79-4f3d-a155-3abd5fe14cde%2540sessionmgr112%26vid%3D10%26hid%3D101>. 

 

   Tom Romano explores the importance of writing and what exactly defines “good writing”. Romano explains that the first step to “good writing” is through finding one’s own written voice. He says, “voice is the key to helping our students develop into writers… where students feel free to express themselves—where both error and accomplishment are natural, expected parts of learning”. Romano claims that free writing offers his students a way to accept their writing, and that once they accept their writing, then the possibilities are endless because “free writing…help[s] students develop the habit of writing without hesitation. Once students allow themselves to enter a flow of language, they begin thinking in a concentrated way that only systematic use of language makes possible… We put down words and those words lead to more words— maybe not the perfect words, but words that reflect thought, words that can be shaped to better communicate what we want to say, words that represent our voices.” Romano continues by explaining the quality of one’s voice as a writer through narrative, perception, surprise, and humor. In each category, he details its importance and also gives an example to further show the reader the substance of finding one’s voice.     

 

 

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