Freewrites
Freewrites

“Most productive writers share the
feeling that the first draft (and
most…that follow) is an opportunity
to discover what they have to say and
how they can best say it”—from the
Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own
Manuscript, Donald Murray
4 Stages of Writing

 1. Pre-Writing
 Generating Ideas
 2. Writing
 3. Revising
 Re-think, re-considering, re-writing
 4. Editing
 Correcting grammar and mechanics
Types of Pre-Writing
 1. Brainstorming: identify topics and narrow them-top
to-bottom)
 2. Clustering: as devised by Gabriele Rico, it is
uncensored brainstorming and doodling, circling
 3. Questioning: how did this event influence me?, what
did I learn?, and the journalistic questions
 4. Keeping a Journal: record observations, impressions,
reactions to a piece of literature, or incidents
 5. Freewriting: write for 10-15 minutes on a given topic
William Faulkner
“A writer needs
three things,
experience,
observation, and
imagination.”
Prompt: What
other qualities or
skills does a good
writer need?
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Put the argument into a concrete shape, into an
image, some hard phrase, round and solid as a
ball, which they can see and handle and carry
home with them, and the cause is half won”—
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Discussion Question: Analyze what each word or
phrase suggests about an effective argument
Peter Singer
a central part
“That’s
of philosophy, of
ethics. What do I owe
to strangers? What do I
owe to my family?
What is it to live a
good life? Those are
questions which we
face as individuals.”
Prompt: Analyze and
answer these 3
questions
Thomas Jefferson

 “Our liberty depends
on the freedom of the
press, and that cannot
be limited without
being lost.”
 Discussion: Analyze.
Do you
agree/disagree? To
what degree?
Mikhail Bakunin

 “The first revolt is against
the supreme tyranny of
theology, of the phantom
of God. As long as we
have a master in heaven,
we will be slaves on
earth.”
 Discussion: Is there a
connection between
organized religion and
oppression?
Frantz Kafka

“Every revolution
evaporates and
leaves behind only
the slime of a new
bureaucracy.”
Discussion:
Analyze. Is this the
inevitable
conclusion of
revolutions?
Matthew Arnold

“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can.
That is the only secret of style”—Matthew Arnold
Discussion Question: What are some keys to effective
speech and speech giving?
Rhetorical Analysis:
President Barack Obama
Rhetorically
analyze President
Barack Obama’s
“A More Perfect
Union” for its (1)
message, (2)
devices, (3)
audience, and (4)
effectiveness
Rhetorical Analysis:
President Barack Obama
Rhetorically
analyze President
Barack Obama’s
“Words Matter”
for its (1) message,
(2) devices, (3)
audience, and (4)
effectiveness
Zora Neale Hurston
is
“Research
formalized
curiosity. It is
poking and prying
with a purpose.”—
Zora Neale Hurston
Discussion Question:
What is your
purpose in your
research paper?
George Orwell
“When I sit down to write a
 book, I do not say to myself,
‘I am going to produce a
work of art.’ I write because
there is some lie that I want
to expose, some fact to which
I want to draw attention, and
my initial concern is to get a
hearing”—George Orwell,
“Why I Write”
Discussion Question: To what
do you want to draw
attention in your research
paper?
Wilson Mizner
you steal from one
“Ifauthor
it’s plagiarism;
if you steal from
many, it’s research”—
Wilson Mizner
Discussion Question:
Analyze Mizner’s
claim. In what sense
is this true? In what
sense is this false?