Writing as Inquiry Chapter One – College Comp I

Why do we write? Writing is a way of discovering: What you think What you know How to process To Think To Share Ideas/Information To Communicate

Beliefs about Writing Most of us have been taught about writing since 1 st grade. We have to be willing to unravel our prior beliefs Unlearning

In Your Journal… Turn to page 5 in your textbook. There you will find exercise 1.1 – This I Believe (and this I don’t) Follow the two steps given and begin working through your beliefs about writing. You have the next 10 minutes to begin your journaling exercise…

Rules about Journals/Fastwriting 1.There are no rules. 2.Don’t try to write badly, but give yourself permission to do so if necessary. 3.To the extent you can, think through writing rather than before it. 4.Keep your pen moving 5.If you run out of things to say, write about how weird it is to run out of things to say until new thoughts arrive. 6.Silence your internal critic to suspend judgment. 7.Don’t censor yourself.

In your journal… Explain what you mean exactly Explain fully Talk about when – find specific moments in your history. Share who is involved with influencing and convincing you.

Writing Beliefs… Allatonceness – writing is a process – we don’t practice the separate parts and then put them together – we practice all the parts at once – all- at-once-ness. Believing the you can learn to write well – Faith in your ability to become a better writer is key. From it grows the motivation to learn how to write well.

Habits of Mind Start with questions – not answers A lot of people think that writing is about recording what you already know, which accounts for those who choose familiar topics to write about when given the choice. More often then not, writing is about inquiry, not reporting information. It’s about discovery. It’s about finding the questions that lead to interesting answers.

Making the Familiar Strange Starting with ?s rather than answers changes everything - It means finding new ways to see what you’ve seen before. Questions open up the inquiry process, while quick answers close it down. When you discover what you think, you don’t cook up a thesis before you start – you discover the thesis as you explore. But to work the inquiry process demands something of us that most of us aren’t used to – suspending judgment.

Suspending Judgement Judgment is a reflex It is a habit Don’t rush to judgment, tolerate uncertainty while you explore your subject.

Be Willing to Write Badly We’ve talked about the cycle of writing We have to silence our critics while we get out the “stuff” we need to say. Then, we can work back through our words to clean up just how they are being said.

Searching for Surprise When we suspend judgment and silence our critics we can begin to find out what we truly think about a subject. Writing badly can cause us to find surprise in what we are truly thinking.

Exercise 1.2 A roomful of details…Page 11 – journal activity. As you write remember: Anything goes Don’t censor yourself Write everything down Be playful but stay focused

For the weekend… Review Chapter One, up through page 22, in your textbook – take notes on the material as you see fit. Complete exercises 1.3 & 1.4 Finish your journal entries if you did not get the chance to in class! Take the time! Be prepared to share out some of your material on Tuesday! (not anything you don’t wish to share)