Peter Elbow Writing With Power

In case anyone has been absent on a day that someone gave their presentation on Peter Elbow, I have written down all of the presentations I have heard so far. Feel free to take some of the notes you forgot. I believe that we will be having a test/quiz on this soon after the presentations are over.

Freewriting 

• get ideas down on paper
• process not the product
• get the bad ideas out, find the good ones
• single most powerful practice
• wrestle your ideas
• it is like putting the snake in a bottle, wrestling a steer to the floor, getting the demon off your 

Sharing

• opens the door to new ideas
• sharing is rare because they may sound dumb
• it takes courage to perform because you may get rude comments
• when you are writing sometimes you hold back
• reading out loud is risky but it is different from giving someone your paper because it is your tone and you accept the fact that this is your writing

Direct Writing Process

• writing memos
• use when you do not know what to write and eliminate bad stuff
• do not worry about what you are writing
• don't be repetitive
• when brainstorming, keep writing, do not stop
• keep identifying the main facts
1. divide time in half
2. fast writing
3. revise it at the end

The Dangerous Method

• Get meaning clear in head before idea
• outline
• converse/discussion
• take a break
• no pressure
• strategy when time is short

Priming the Pump

• helps you fuel your ideas
• you can write about someones life
• metaphors help you think about things more creative
• mostly metaphorically questions

Open Ended Wriing

• non stop freewriting
• find your main focus
• when you feel like you're done enough, collect your main ideas
• freewriting is like a ship, and you want to get on land because you are los at sea

Loop Writing Process

• very fun and easy
• for boring essays/topics
• voyage out
1. helps you get started 
2. write your thoughts down
3. after research, do your 2nd draft
4. dialogues scenes, portraits
5. read everything over again
• on your way home
1. organize and revise
2. bringing you back into your topic

Writing Without Thinking

• speeches and notes help out a lot

1. write about your feelings
2. produce random thoughts on the go
3. comparisons of your day (how it went, what you did, etc...)
4. keep your thoughts on a paper

• don't give up, keep growing
• avoid confusion
• JUST BE A TREE

Revising with Feedback

• feedback helps with the focus of writing
• 4 types of feedback

1. lots of feedback- when you get feedback from the audience, just listen to them and understand their opinion
2. reading feedback- the definition is basically in the name....
3. little feedback- you know what your idea is, so you don't really take in consideration of what the audience thinks
4. minimal feedback- just spell checking, and grammar errors.

• Peter Elbow uses and empty room analogy- all these pieces you want to convey to an audience, but you can't do it on your own. Ask for other peoples opinions, such as your parents.
• TRANSFORMATION not TRANSACTION

Other People

• shows the dangerous and safe audience

1. dangerous audience- you are afraid to write for them because of what they might say, so you don'r really write to your full potential
• AVOID THE DANGEROUS AUDIENCE
1. safe audience- you write to your family and your friends you trust with much confidence because you are comfortable around them

• the non-audience is just in your head. 
• No matter who you write for or talk to, keep your mind positive and focused
• Ask yourself these three questions in your head:

1. Is the audience safe or dangerous?
2. Is the effect quantity or quality?
3. Is the audience real or just in my head?

Audience Focusing Force

• An audience is like a magnetic field- when you are far away, you have no connection; but as you come closer, you start to focus more towards them.
• Two types of writing:

1. Get it Right Writing- You write for yourself (YANG)
• Audience has no influence on your writing.
• Writing you actually care about
• You express honesty and ORIGINALITY
1. Get the Result- portray on the audience right from the start (YIN)
• Be on their point of view, not on your point of view
• Really, all you want to do is GET IT DOWN, TURN IT IN, AND you'll never see it AGAIN!
• Audience Orientated

• This is really all about Balance - Yang is free and relaxed, while Yin is more mysterious and dorky.; but together, they make the perfect working couple!

The Last Step

• Steps for the end of your revising:

1. Pick someone who can revise your whole paper
2. put all the attentions towards grammar until the end of the paper
3. LEARN GRAMMAR
4. Learn from your mistakes if you frequently do the same mistakes.
5. GRAMMAR IS IMPORTANT
6. GRAMMAR=GLAMOUR

That is all of the notes. Yay!