Ralph Wahlstrom,
Lecture Notes on Peter Elbow’s Writing With Power
Section I, Chapters 1-6
Elbow says (xxiv) “I have grown more confident in my belief that it helps to try for as much generating as possible at the start of a writing project, and push away negative criticism till later.”
He lists behaviors to avoid at the beginning if possible:
These are premature revising behaviors. The first task is to get a lot of material written
read p. xxvi Mike Rose’s research on writers who are stuck. They tend to try very hard to follow the rules they learned from teachers.
Don’t over-think the process
Elbow makes three general assumptions in the book:
1. Writing calls on two skills: creating and criticizing—Elbow suggests we separate these
first, write freely and uncritically; then adopt a critical frame of mind and revise
2. Virtually everyone has access to inherent skill in language—learn to tap into this skill
3. Creativity and structure are both important. Elbow offers ways to combine these.
(10) Don’t start revising until you have more good stuff than you can use. This comes about through invention—brainstorming, freewriting, clustering, mapping, etc.
(12) intuition and conscious control need not be at odds. Each can work with the other at the right moments.
“Freewriting is the easiest way to get words on paper and the best all-around practice in writing that I know” (13).
(14) Benefits of Freewriting -
you learn to get on with it
it’s a great warm-up
you learn to write when you don’t feel like writing
you write without thinking about writing
it’s a useful outlet for thoughts, feelings
it’s generative – helps you discover topics
Finally, it improves your writing (15)
Almost magically, freewriting brings coherence to your writing.
Read p.17-18, A hunch about resistance
“The essential human act at the heart of writing is the act of giving” (20)
Elbow says that the act of giving is neglected in most writing instruction. Writers tend to understand this; teachers tend not to.
. . . to realize that there is something else useful to do with a piece of writing besides getting feedback on it.
Publishing is sharing – publishing can take many forms
Best if you’re short on time or already have a lot to say about a subject
The first half is for fast writing without worrying about organization, language, correctness or precision
The second half is for revising
Start by thinking of audience and purpose
Write down everything you can think of that might pertain to the writing task
Write fast. Don’t worry about organization, paragraphing, wording, spelling, grammar, presentation, etc.
Just write. If you can’t think of a word, put the wrong one in or a blank space ______.
Even so, keep yourself on task, on line
Don’t repeat too much
note ideas that appear, tangential topics and such, let them in, and move on
Tolerate mistakes—don’t get sidetracked
Stopping is a distraction
(29) Revising time is for revising only. The “raw writing” is done.
Read passage, bottom, p.29
Ch. 5, p. 32 Quick Revising –“The point of quick revising is to turn out a clean, clear, professional draft without taking as much time as you would need for major rethinking and reorganizing. It is a clean-and-polish operation, not a growing and transforming one.
Best used when the results don’t matter too much.
(38) Do the raw writing
be detached—emphasize cutting
keep your audience and purpose clearly in mind
mark the good passages
figure out the main point
put the good passages in order- maybe outline
add pieces that are missing
write out a draft without the beginning
write a beginning – write a conclusion
tighten and clarify by cutting—read aloud
get rid of mistakes in grammar and usage
Ch. 6 (39) The Dangerous Method: Trying to Write it right the first time
This is a tempting but unwise approach. Do it only if absolutely necessary and at your own peril.
first, have a clear meaning in your head before you start
Once you have that, an outline can help. Outlines are best used when you already have a concrete sense of your topic and material
You may need to mull it over for a while, let go, before beginning to write
Discuss the topic with someone, argue
Establish a clear audience and what effect you hope to have on it
Increase the pressure on yourself
The Dangerous Method Depends on everything going smoothly
It is a rigid, non-creative process
It must be done slowly, meticulously
(43) The lesson—There are uses for the dangerous method, but it is constricting, smothering.
Let yourself write things wrong. Eventually you will find what you’re looking for, and you won’t have to settle.
Advice- page 44 Read
“At some point, before you finish revising any piece of writing, you should figure out and state clearly for yourself exactly what you are trying to say.”
Practice methods for getting your meaning clear in advance.