Dear class,

I hope you all have had a great first week of classes. I will try, as often as I can, to post some recaps of our class discussions here on the blog for you to look over as a refresher.  (Please note, however, that I may not have time to do so for every class period.)  I will also provide reminders of homework assignments/readings.

As for our class:  I hope you enjoyed the freewriting experience.  Even if you didn’t come away with a particularly great piece of writing or insight, there is definite merit in thinking about the model and method of freewriting.

On that note, some of the takeaway ideas we discussed were:

• The differences/gaps between certain modes of verbal expression such as
  1. speaking and writing
  2. writing and thinking
  3. thinking and reading
• Elbow’s concept of an “internal editor”: that aspect of our selves (our mind, ego, psyche, etc.) watching over our shoulders as we write and as we think, incessantly making judgments and evaluations upon what we produce.  Freewriting is meant to overcome this urge for constant editing.
• The notion of “garbage”: the idea (rightly or wrongly) supposing that our minds are chock-full of irrelevent nonsense.
• The linkage implictly expressed in Elbow’s essay between freewriting and freethinking (or between writing and freedom more broadly construed).

Please consider these various ideas as you read Frederick Douglass’ literacy narrative (found under the “Readings” tab) for Tuesday, and come ready to discuss the text.  Because it is a bit more intensive, I am also posting in advance your reading for Thursday (Walter Ong, “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought”).  While not a difficult text to read per se, it is more scholarly, and a little more dense, so I would recommend taking a preemptive look at it. If you have any general questions ahead of next week, please feel free to reach out and let me know.

Until then!