Chaotic Writing

I’ve bucked every stage model writing tract I’ve ever received in my life…luckily the Flowers and Hayes piece was a tremendous comfort.

Usually, my thoughts are channeled into some idea, visual, or perspective. Sometimes, I preface an essay by adopting the role of the character that would speak these words. Other times, I visualize myself in a lecture hall, mouthing the words that my fingers type out. Even my college essays begin with brain-vomit, which I scoop and mop into a somewhat-competent, academic-ish paper. My best moments, though, are when my entire paper is imagined as a guiding, inspirational scene (this essay will look something like a villain snowmobiling through the Arctic listening to John Mayer). Any notion of distinct prewriting, writing, and rewriting stages fail at the base of my chaotic mental mountaintop. 

I figured this was foreign to “good” writing practice. But, even if it is to the stage model, it is not to the brain. Flowers and Hayes write, “In the act of writing, people recreate…their own goals in the light of what they learn.” This was incredibly relatable. I don’t enjoy goal-setting. It takes time and forethought, yes, but it also assumes that I have any goals at all. My brain, again, is a landfill. I love the idea of reframing goal-setting as an ongoing process of discovery. As I write, I learn about my own thoughts and perspective. When pen strikes paper, my brain factory flips on. I discover my own knowledge and perspective, then frame it with my prompt, and only after these things are discovered and affirmed can I begin to set working goals.

Flowers and Hayes weren’t only kind to me, though. They exposed my favorite unconscious shortcut: redefining prompts. Directions are clear, but they are filtered through our mind…like sandpaper, we take the main parts, but discard what’s rough. So, when my awesome professor tells me to describe my writing process, show how it differs from novice writers, and explain what it looks like in different mediums, I really hear her asking me to define my own writing process and explain how that shapes me as a teacher. Maybe this is because I read the Flowers and Hayes piece through a teacher’s lens or because I’ve determined that she thinks self-reflection is more important than the multi-modal application. This could be true…or it could be wrong. In my reception of the directions, I’ve made the task fit my understanding, but don’t respond in the most accurate way. I could even miss out on valuable discovery, unavailable to me since I never flipped on a certain switch in the brain factory.

So, how does that differ from novice writers? Well, novice writers might not be unconsciously fluent. It could still take time to type certain words. Maybe, supporting a claim with evidence is still a struggle. When the foundations of the practice are missing, the writing process is a toil toward basic communication standards. A more experienced writer does these things unconsciously. Style, tone, word choice, sentence length, paragraphs, citing sources, and spelling require no thought, freeing their brain up to take on goal-setting, evaluating, and critical thinking. 

This also has implications for education. The mode of communication should not be a barrier for a student's expression. We do not scrap writing, doing a disservice to them and everyone around them. But, we can offer alternative projects! All children are communicators, but not everyone is a writer. Showing their comprehension may be easier in doing a short film, speech, drawing, online graphic, blog, poem, sculpture, social media post, tiktok, interview, or debate. Novice writers can still present detailed, articulate, profound ideas in other mediums. Instead of taking a writer and drilling them until they have mastered the essay, we could allow them to learn writing (and many other things) through interaction with alternative projects.

Tutor Mashup!

 

Hey everyone, 

My name is Collin, and I'm super excited to work with you all! I made a little graphic here, which is graced by photos of my favorite albums, books, memes, meals, and people. What you won't see there is that I'm a third-year English Education student at UWM, I grew up in Neenah, I love playing basketball on campus, music is the coolest thing ever, I'll occasionally play chess with people (I used to be obsessed...), and oatmeal is one of the greatest foods of all time (it's true).

I also have a passion for writing. There's something about sharp, concise, engaging, and persuasive writing that appeals to me. I really started loving writing as a freshman in high school, so I started a sports blog with my friend. Quickly, it became my passion. I joined established websites (Burnt Orange Nation, Prep Hoops, Brew Hoop) and started to actually make money. It was awesome. I was already becoming a sports journalist...which is exactly what I wanted to do as an adult. 

Although my love of sports faded (not completely...but a little) I still wanted to participate in the literacy community. I decided to transition to teaching, and I'm so glad I did! Interacting with students is amazing, so discussing literature and writing with you all should be a blast.