From the Writing and
Culture Seminar to
Writing in the Major
What students carry forward
Mary Jane Barnett, Ph.D.
Categories of interrelated skills
Process
Technique
Distancing?
The Writing Process
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Getting Started
Organization (especially topic sentences)
Theses
Development
Revision
Technique vs. Inspiration
This course is fundamentally about
writing and researching. Writing is an
art, of course, a way to organize and
clarify thoughts for yourself and a way
to present ideas and information to
others in a form to which they can
respond. In other words, it is thinking
(and feeling) through language. That’s
big! And the very best writing, of
course, requires inspiration, creativity,
even genius. That part is entirely up to
you!
3 techniques for getting started
1) Rhetorical Invention:
Definition
Testimony
Division
Comparison
Relationships
2) Free Writing:
Start writing. Allow yourself to investigate your subject without pausing to edit. If a thought
peters out, that’s OK. If a sentence remains incomplete or goes grammatically askew, that’s
OK. Don’t stop!
If a thought does seem to give out, break off. Skip a space or two. Start again from a different
direction.
If you don’t know how to start again, try circling a word in what you have already written.
Start from there.
Still cannot begin again? Try interrogating what you have already written. How? Why? In
what way? How does that work? So what?
3) Asking Good Questions
The challenge of getting started
Here are a few comments that students posted on the course blog:
For me, starting a writing assignment is always the hardest part. When
attempting to start, often times I would find myself procrastinating because I
would have no idea what to write about. And when I would come up with an
idea, I would write the idea on a word document as the thoughts would come
to me. The final product would almost always be a disorganized mess. I
would then spend hours trying to reformat my ideas into a logical essay.
Fortunately, I have found free writing to be an extremely useful tool because
it forces me to put my ideas down on paper. Once I have a rough idea of what
exactly I will be writing about it makes it so much easier to start writing. The
structure of the essay comes so much more naturally than it ever did before.
One more . . .
Many people think goodbyes are hardest part of a relationship, but I disagree
with this. I think getting to know someone is more difficult than anything.
Similarly, I find starting a new paper extremely difficult. Like all college students
I procrastinate. I think coming up with ideas in the shower or on walks between
classes and starting my paper the night before class is good enough. But I could
not be more wrong. Ideas come and go; one minute you have a great one and
the next minute you can’t remember it. I need to write my ideas down on
paper and explore them further before they vanish. Once it's on paper I may
realize that it’s not a very good idea, but it is not going anywhere. To often I
think I have a great topic for a paper, but when I finally sit down to write I
realize there is nothing interesting to write about. By writing everything down
however, I can work with the idea and make sure there is plenty for me to write
about. Even if my pre-writing is not logical, I can at least find the path my
writing should follow. Making sense and clarity can come later.
And one more … (note that these blog entries
don’t need to be perfect or polished to be
wonderful):
As much as I wish I could procrastinate and write my paper the night
before. I cant. I make too many grammar and spelling mistakes. Plus,
after some time to reflect on my writing, I change a lot of what I wrote.
I normally start a couple days before a paper is due and try to create at
least an outline or a thesis for my paper. Then, I write a really bad
draft! I revise my draft about three times before I turn it in. Form there
I revise my paper based on peer and professor input. Revision is crucial
to a paper, so I try not to worry if my draft is not good. As long as I have
ideas to work with, the paper will come together.
One
organizational
technique:
Beginning with the
scratch outline
rather than the
formal outline
Modeling Theses
Democracy is the next to the last
form of “warped society” that
Socrates describes.
Socrates argues that democracy
is an inferior form of government
for many reasons.
For Socrates a democracy is a
society in which a false if
universal equality has displaced
that moral division of civic
function on which the Ideal City
must be founded.
“Interstellar,” an outer-space
survivalist epic created by the director
Christopher Nolan and his brother
Jonathan, with whom he co-wrote the
screenplay, is ardently, even fervently
incomprehensible, a movie designed
to separate the civilians from the
geeks, with the geeks apparently the
target audience.
Review by David Denby, The New
Yorker
A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four
stories. Over the main entrance the words,
CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND
CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield,
the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY,
IDENTITY, STABILITY.
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Development: Cues from the peer review guide
1. In a single sentence, paraphrase the thesis of the paper.
2. Is the thesis clear to you? If not, why not?
3. Is the thesis focused, and substantial? In other words does it offer a general
view of the issue but also a view with some substance? Does it need a little
more how? Does it need a little more why? (The analytical edge!)
4. Ask two questions of the thesis. (This will give the writer an idea of what
you as the reader expect. Your questions might also provoke the writer to
develop the idea in a new way.) But just ask two honest questions:
Revision, perhaps the most important process
of all:
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Drafts
Peer editing days
Individual conferences
Feedback to papers from me includes editing suggestions, marginal
notes, and an often extended, typed endnote
• Revised submissions
• Grade of submission averaged with that original to guarantee
sufficient interest in the original
• Response to my feedback must include attention to organization,
content, and sentence, rather than simply small errors
Why I assign a research paper:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Students will have to write them in future courses.
It is a project in which technique and process become paramount.
It allows them to pursue their own curiosities, always a virtue.
It usually moves us clearly into the realm of nonfictional topics.
It is interesting to me because of the great variety of possible topics
It lets students rehearse skills they will use in future classes
The Research Process (and associated
techniques):
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3.
4.
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6.
Choosing a topic
Writing a prospectus
Finding and using resources (Library Day)
Writing an Annotated Bibliography
Paraphrasing and quoting (Avoiding plagiarism)
Presenting your initial work: group conferences,
3-to-4 pages of the draft due
1. Final Submission
The Prospectus
• Each student submits online a prospective research question
and 3-to-5 subsidiary questions.
• I reply with marginal comments and a side note. My almost
invariable response is “You need to get more specific.”
• They try to get more specific and often fail the first time around.
• I reply again, usually pushing them to get even more specific
and to ask questions that can be answered through research
and presented in 8-to-10 pages.
• Some prospectuses go through 3 or 4 rounds of this procedure
before full quota of points is awarded.
Finding and Using Resources, Library Day
Ask your department’s library liaison to create a
research guide
The Purdue OWL (online writing lab) also provides
guidance on research and citations, and it’s a good
resource for students in the future as well.
Distancing, or becoming alert to style an structure
For all course readings and papers, we consider not just what
something means, but also on how it means.
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Why do you like it!
What’s good about it?
How is the meaning supported by the style of the piece?
How is it organized?
How does it get a lot of information into a clearly structured
sentences? Does it vary sentence length and if so, to what end?
• How would you characterize the word choice in the piece,
especially the verbs?
Learning to write: a mega-process
As I was once told by the now retired Leona Fisher, the teaching of
writing is a group project. It doesn’t happen all at once or even in one
class. Those words stuck with me.
In the end, students may not take everything they have
learned with them from our Writing and Culture courses, but
they will take something--maybe process, maybe technique,
or maybe
even a new relation to their own writing.
But the process is cumulative—and Georgetown students do
generally become very good writers.