Post #2 -- Heather

I very much enjoyed this third chapter of the Bedford Guide. I've done so many different kinds of writing in my life -- legal, creative, academic -- but have never really examined my particular writing process when engaging with any of those styles (types?)  I have never been an outliner, although I recognize, especially having survived law school, the value of a good outline.  I have always much preferred freewriting as the launchpad for any writing project.  I've always found it easier to respond to something, as opposed to feeling the pressure of creating something from whole cloth, so the process of freewriting for a specified period of time to produce something to which I can respond (review and revise) is appealing. I've been very deliberate, in my public policy career, to try to always provide something to which colleagues can respond, instead of asking them to produce something new.  I like the suggestion, expressed in Chapter Three, of using a short freewriting time to help the writing center student to loosen up and generate some ideas. I worry though, as I think of my students at the prison, that it will be particularly difficult for some of them to embrace freewriting, because of the constraints around them. But perhaps the idea of freewriting will be even more appealing because it allows a freedom within those constraints.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2019 at 9:12 PM

    Heather’s discussion about freewriting really resonated with me. I appreciated her reasoning for why freewriting is so helpful, and I agree. It is more settling to have something to respond to or revise, than having to generate something from scratch. Additionally, it allows me to get all my thoughts out—the thoughts that are trapped inside my head until they are typed onto the page. This helps to alleviate my feelings of being overwhelmed by a mishmash of ideas.

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