Undergraduates Writing with Power Intention Comfort
1. Writing with Intention Power Comfort Ilene D. Alexander, PhD University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning z.umn.edu/idaportal http://neh2.wordpress.com/2006/10/03/teamwork/
2. Demonstrating Learning – items from your course module Communicate in a clear, systematic and concise way for a range of different purposes and audiences Employing both written and oral presentation skills Apply knowledge to the solution of familiar and unfamiliar problems – writing to learn Demonstrate initiative and responsibility –intentionality and revision Manage and reflect on their own learning, including an awareness of personal learning styles – writing as a process Interact and negotiate effectively and impartially with individuals and groups in a variety of contexts – meaning making
3. Adult Learning think dialectically decision-making moves between objective/subjective, universal/specific employ practical logic attend to internal features of a given situation to reason contextually “in a deep and critical way”; inferential reasoning) “know how we know what we know” conscious of own/others’ learning, ability to adjust styles situationally; know grounds for decision-making engage in critical reflection assessing match between earlier rules/practices/practical theories and emerging understandings in “interpersonal, work and political lives” (Stephen Brookfield, 2000)
4. "I hate writing, I love having written.” - Dorothy Parker, writer of fiction, journalism
5. Writing with Power Writing with power also means getting power over your self and over the writing process: knowing what you are doing as you write; being in charge; having control; not feeling Stuck or helpless or intimidated. - Peter ElbowU Massachusetts-Amherst
6. Writing with Power & Intention Sometimes real world problems that compel us to communicate are economic. Other times the defects are political. Sometimes the challenges are social: the deportation to immigrants, the treatment of people with racial, ethnic, or physical differences. Sometimes the flaws are personal…. In all these cases, circumstances exist that call out for us to communicate with others. Understanding [what compels communication] is essential because without it we cannot effectively determine purpose.” http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/purpose.htm
7. Writing as Meaning Making And [Barbara Kamler] is right. Writing isn’t an activity that you do to whip up a study or report after understanding ideas and thinking up insights. Writing is the very route scholars take in order to think things through. As such, it isn’t such an extrinsic instrument, but an essential process in scholarly work. What is even more interesting, … is that writing is not only thinking, but it’s also forming your identity as a scholar. So today, I’m not just writing up my research proposal. I’ll be gathering the ideas accumulated from research, processing them and thinking them through. strugglingSCHOLAR blog: http://jcgosj.wordpress.com/
8. Writing as a Process http://stevendkrause.com/tprw/introduction.html
9. Read and Respond like a Real Reader Cleo Martin, U Iowa Responding to Student Writing
11. What, then, Is Feedback? a response from “real readers” to specific questions/actions learners can address/take in order to improve a learning artifact – a paper, poster, sculpture, diagnosis Feedback is Formative – (1) provokes, prods, sparks transformation, growth, development of work on an artifact and learning of the artifact creator; (2) provides specific information with a goal of moving a project ahead, improving the artifact that is being reviewed; (3) focuses on what the work can become as well as what it should become
12. What, then, Is Feedback? IT is NOT Evaluation, which is Summative(1) judgment that assesses, sums upvalue of finished artifact;(2) rests on specific criteria known to teachers & students ahead of evaluation;(3) situates the work relative to expectations
13. Why Is Feedback Important? Part of Meaning Making, which requires making private writing public, engaging in multiple retrievals of information, and using information in different ways Feedback joins with question asking, researching, and writing as a process to shape how humans actually make meaning and work to create/construct knowledge. Is the most important component of “inspiration” or “being lucky” or “finding one’s muse” Enhances problem solving skills for whatever new/next ill-defined moments we encounter as learners – so that we become more comfortable in writing, in problem-solving Video 1 : Example of bad feedback Video 2 : Example of good feedback http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/courses/fm/precept/module4/m4p2.htm
14. Writing with Audience, Purpose and Task in Mind – Consider Course Module Tutors Lila M. Smith
15. Effective Feedback Is Specific Revision – Content and Organization Where and why it’s needed Strategies for content development, overall organization and development of cohesive analysis / argument / knowledge construction Transitions Coherence Unity Surface Features Key sections, paragraphs, sentences Section, paragraph, sentence structures Conventions – of language, of citation style, of formatting Notice that this is dead last on my list – and Peter Elbows’ list!
17. Effective Feedback Is Specific Summarizing – Narrate, Compare Telling – What’s missing, not clear & ideas for clarifying, changing Showing – What could be better linked, organized, highlighted, backed up Pointing – Name what’s good & say why it’s good, Name the most effective change that could be made and suggest how/why
19. Good Questions / Questioning Open Ended Questions Asking for Information Diagnostic Questions Challenge Questions Extension Questions Combination Questions Priority Questions Action Questions Prediction Questions Generalizing and Summarizing Questions
20. With Team Writing: Pulling the Whole Thing Together Key Considerations Who will functionas and what will be roles of exec editor? Who will perform lead editor role for sections of the doc? After individuals gather feedback onindividually written segments of a team assignment, who will provide final feedback? Image: http://www.haringkids.com/book/sleep/teamwork.htm
21. Writing & Individual Resilience selection from Robert Boice’s How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency (1994
22. Write what you really think.Accept that you can do it. Ilene, via my great-great grandmother (right) and grandmother (left)
Notas del editor
Bit of backgroundWhere to find slides and resourcesWhat to be writing down / recording while we’re together today
Powerful words, ideas
Promoting Outstanding Writing For Excellence in Research – Texas A&M grad schoolFor Elbow, the phrase 'writing with power' has two meanings. The first meaning is probably what most of us think of, when we think about writing with power : powerful writing, of course! Written words that make a difference in readers' individual lives, or in the lives of entire communities. Writing with power makes us think of writing contained in such places as The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, religious texts, classical literature, and poetry.Yet Peter Elbow emphasizes a second meaning for this phrase, and it is this second meaning:"… writing with power also means getting power over yourself and over the writing process: knowing what you are doing as you write; being in charge; having control; not feeling stuck or helpless or intimidated. I am particularly interested in this second kind of power in writing and I have found that without it you seldom achieve the first kind.” (Elbow, 1998, p. viii)http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/writeshop/writeshop/elbow.html
Purpose – more than completing an assignment and also more than communicating something to a clientThe writing process actually starts before you pick up a pen or place your fingers on a keyboard. It begins with defining what you are writing, for whom you are writing, why you are writing, and which writing approach to use. Writing with Intention addresses these defining matters, which you need to consider every time you sit down to write.Quote: www.ces.sdsu.edu/Pages/Engine.aspx?id=57
Audience(s)Task(s)
What is your process? What might it become? Why make changes now? How and when to you get feedback on your writing, or do you skip this part? Why get or not get feedback?Where and from whom might you seek feedback?
Writing doesn’t happen without readersWhat happens when you’re reading – what is “good reading”? paraphrase, reread, make brief reminders of content/concepts through underlining and marginal notes consider audience, purpose, task of writer and your expectations for the text even before you read, then amend as you read ask questions, make predictions, hypothesize about what ideas will be pursued/developed as you read further ahead step beyond the text by reading with a purpose in mind – why do you need to read this, what will you contribute as a responder, what will you gain as a writer
But a response like this on the final page of an assignment without drafts or time for feedback (one day turn around) is not helpfulCompare to political scienceCritique vs Critical Care
How might you provide feedback to one another within your teams – and/or paired with another team – as you prepare to turn in the interim report?How might you get feedback – and from whom – on the weekly components of the individual report? And now wait “until later”?
How might you provide feedback to one another within your teams – and/or paired with another team – as you prepare to turn in the interim report?How might you get feedback – and from whom – on the weekly components of the individual report? And now wait “until later”?
When revising with teachers and assignments in mind – When working with one personLook at the rubric to set targets/goals/expectationsFocus on Ideas/Content and Organization FIRSTSurface Features – OWL at Purdue OR writing tutor Overall coherence – after revisions need to be sure there’s overall coherence
Elbow sample – at idaportal
Pointing sample – on idaportal
AudiencePurposeTaskFeedback Loop Widens here – more players, more documents and more contributors to larger documentsAs formative resources Your team Other teams Your client Your tutor
Coherence in overall organization, in voice/point of view, in formatting of components, in citation style, in sentence structuring, in meeting grammatical expectations
Attributes of Quick Starters Start before they’re readyIntegrate active participation into communication practices, overall philosophies and daily practicesProactive in seeking advice from colleagues/multiple mentors, collaborators, and significant othersWork with others to establish strategies for balance among / integration across the commitments in life, work, cultural/affinity groups, and local/global communityVerbalize general optimism – about students, peers, research, teachingSpend less time in the whine and procrastination and imposter modesThe New Faculty Member, 1992Boice Advice for New Faculty Members – “when you write daily, you start writing immediately because you remember what you were writing about the day before. This leads to impressive production. In one study participants who wrote daily wrote only twice as many hours as those who wrote occasionally in big blocks of time but wrote or revised tem times as many pages.” Be accountable to someone weekly: Boice 1989 article:Participants were divided into three groups: (a) The first group ("controls") did not change their writing habits, and continued to write occasionally in big blocks of time; in 1 year they wrote an average of 17 pages; (b) the second group wrote daily and kept a daily record; they averaged 64 pages; (c) the third group wrote daily, kept a daily record, and held themselves accountable to someone weekly; this group's average was 157 pages (Boice 1989:609).
None of us is a native writer – but we are storytellers, meaning makers, living within multiple social discourses, positioned to – and interested in – provoking knowledge production, for ourselves and others.Peter Elbow: Garbage in your head poisons you. Garbage on paper can safely be put in the wastepaper basket / Therefore, write, share, repeat