9/26/2011: Creative Writing and Research

We used the methods narrated in "Composing 'Teacher Training' " both to brainstorm a (pretend - maybe possible?) creative writing project.

Writing process as discovery: Following Pope's process, we - responded to a journal prompt, did some clustering and freewriting, talked about what how we might focus the piece and suggested doing some "focused" freewriting.    Although we didn't complete Pope's whole process - we discussed how after writing some "episodes" or "scenes" that helped to suggest what her focus might be, she engaged in what is more commonly recognized as research by visiting (and observing in detail) the setting for her piece, interviewing people who have a different perspective on the same material or have important information; and connecting her work to theories/facts/other research associated with her piece.

Throughout the "real" research part of her process, Pope continued to write - to journal (reflect on, plan, assess  and gather ideas); cluster (open up ideas & identifty categories associated with a central concept); freewrite (create associative, unedited sequences of writing related to an idea or focus) and talk to peers and advisors and "experts"  (to gather more ideas, assess or validate her current plans and writing, envision new ideas for focus, organization & development).  Her writing process was recursive - in that it looped through as series of practices for generating, organizing, articulating, and evaluating (deciding whether she liked them) ideas.  After she had a draft - she continued to loop back through her writing process as she revised - and perhaps most importantly - she "watched herself think."

What Cook says about creative writing as a process.  The essay is written in 4 sections - if you can state the main point of each section (with a quote to support it) you will have some ideas fo the controversies surrounding creative writing as a research process, and what current theorists state as what it "does".

What we will do in class on Thursday. We will start class by reviewing the Sample Senior Writing Seminar syllabus - so you can think about  how this course sets you up to do that course.  We are then going to turn to the remaining research methods - and you will identify which method you want to "take the lead on."  We will also create the rubric for the presentations, finish up discussion of Cook and creative writing as a research method, and set up for the next class - where we will begin a discussion of discourse analysis.

Read: Cook (195) in Griffin
Blog 5:  For your blog you can:
1.  Describe the research/writing process associated with a particular creative writing text in a genre that you are considering doing your senior seminar project in.  It can be a creative work of your choice - or one of the four texts I previewed (available in the Writing Center at the front desk).
or
2.  Describe the research/writing process (make a writing/research plan) you would use to complete the creative project we started in class.  Begin with the steps we covered [writing to a prompt, discussion with peers, clustering, talk with peers, freewriting (more talk) . . . .] and go from there.  You can use the pattern described in Pope's essay on composing "Teacher Training" - or you can write something that more characteristic of how you write & what you would do to get the best results.