Writing without teachers
Peter Elbow (Author)
"In Writing Without Teachers, well-known advocate of innovative teaching methods Peter Elbow outlines a practical program for learning how to write. His approach is especially helpful to people who get 'stuck' or blocked in their writing, and is equally useful for writing fiction, poetry, and essays, as well as reports, lectures, and memos. The core of Elbow's thinking is a challenge against traditional writing methods. Instead of editing and outlining material in the initial steps of the writing process, Elbow celebrates non-stop or free uncensored writing, without editorial checkpoints first, followed much later by the editorial process. This approach turns the focus towards encouraging ways of developing confidence and inspiration through free writing, multiple drafts, diaries, and notes. Elbow guides the reader through his metaphor of writing as 'cooking:' his term for heating up the creative process where the subconscious bubbles up to the surface and the writing gets good. 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Writing Without Teachers. In this edition, Elbow reexamines his program and the subsequent influence his techniques have had on writers, students, and teachers. This invaluable guide will benefit anyone, whether in the classroom, boardroom, or living room, who has ever had trouble writing"--Provided by publisher
eBook, English, 1998
Second edition View all formats and editions
Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 1998
Programmed instructional materials
1 online resource
9780190262815, 9780199766369, 9781322974286, 0190262818, 0199766363, 1322974284
727645834
1. Freewriting Exercises. How freewriting exercises help
Freewriting and garbage
Keep a freewriting diary
Using freewriting exercises for finding subjects to write about
Producing a finished piece of writing
2. The Process of Writing-Growing. Autobiographical digression
It makes a difference in practice
Growing
Start writing and keep writing
Chaos and disorientation
Emerging center of gravity
Editing
Growing as a developmental process
3. The Process of Writing-Cooking. Cooking as interaction between people
Cooking as interaction between ideas
Cooking as interaction between words and ideas, between immersion and perspective
Cooking as interaction between metaphors
Cooking as interaction between genres and modes
Cooking as interaction between you and symbols on paper
Noncooking
Desperation writing
The goal is cooking
Cooking and energy
Goodness and badness
Why the old, wrong model of writing persists
Conclusion
4. The Teacherless Writing Class. Setting up the class
Giving movies of your mind
Further advice to readers
Advice to the writer on listening
The class process
5. Thoughts on the Teacherless Writing Class. How I came to this approach
Huh?
Why the teacherless class helps make writing easier
Why the teacherless class helps make writing better
People learn from the truth, even though the truth is a mess
The process of learning writing
What about grammar?
The yogurt model
Subjective bullshit
Multiple-choice diary
Appendix Essay: The Doubting Game and the Believing Game-An Analysis of the Intellectual Enterprise
The monopoly of the doubting game
The truth about meaning and words
Short digression on the New Critics
Why the doubting game doesn't work with assertions of meaning
The believing muscle
Meaning-making as gestalt-making
The myth of the laboratory rat
Believing and doubting as dialetics
The two dialectics as games
The believing game in action: fighting the itch for closure
The two games as reinforcers of different character traits
Fears of the believing game
Speculations on the history of the believing game
Conclusion: the interdependence of the two games
Appendix: A Couple of Notes to Myself
Works Cited
A Few Books to Help with Correct Usage
Reminders to Keep in View
During a Teacherless Writing Class