Thinking about rules of writing from our 9/1 lesson plan and the ones you wrote on the Google Doc is a way for us to consider how writing gets done. What rules are there? What do we need to know before we write?

That is one way to think about writing, but I don’t think it is as helpful to worry about primarily. Rather than adhering finely to a set list of rules, I want you to think about considering the full rhetorical situation. That is: what is your purpose? Who is your audience? What constraints do you face to do this writing? (e.g., deadline, the genre of writing that is expected, amount of space you have to write, logistics for circulation).

For your first draft of your Literacy Narrative, the rhetorical situation would include information like the following:

• purpose is to explore your history as a language user, reader, and writer in ways how it shaped your identity and your feelings about language and literacy
• audience is me and your classmates; possibly others if you imagine writing this for other readers, too.
• Constraints include following our rubric for what I expect to see (e.g., word count, making sure you write about literacy as well as speaking, using examples), deadline of 9/15, working in Microsoft Word and what you can and can’t do there, and other circumstances in your life.

Once you have a sense of the rhetorical situation, it is time to figure out the full context of how you’ll do your writing:

1. the process we use for going from ideas to words on page (and back again to ideas and back to words and so on).
2. the practice you will develop to get you into a space to do some writing, reading, revising, etc. (e.g., the time you will write, the place you will write, the sounds you want to hear, the ways you’ll nourish your body)

On the next page of this module, we will explore the writing process in more detail.

However, before we do, comment below on a previous rhetorical situation you might have been in or are in now. Be sure to list your purpose, the audience, and any constraints you were under when you wrote or spoke in this rhetorical situation as well as a brief reflection on how your speech or writing went once you did it.

You can do:

• a time where you had to write a text/message or prepare to speak to a boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other, a family member, a friend about something important.
• a time where you had to navigate a difficult situation at your job or a place you volunteer at.
• a memorable school assignment
• an essay/article/post you wrote online somewhere (e.g., a newsletter article, a school newspaper, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, TikTok)

Once you have commented below on your rhetorical situation, click the button below to continue.

If there is one thing we know pretty confidently in my field of rhetoric and composition, it is that to improve your writing you have to consider all aspects of the writing process and not just when the final words hit the page.

There’s no one way to do it, but here are some general stages that typically are useful to think through that I want to share. But before I do, what stages of writing would you name and how would you define them?

On a separate piece of paper or on an application on your device, take 1-2 minutes to map out the full process of how you write from the moment you are thinking through ideas all the way to the point of sharing a final version with some readers.

Once you are finished, open up our class Slack and post the stages of your typical writing process it into our #writing-practice-and-process channel.

Keep the conversation going as much as you want or can!

After that, comment below with a “I posted to Slack” or if you had trouble “I had an issue posting.” If the latter, post your response in the comment section instead of on Slack (I’ll be in touch with you once I see that you had an issue posting to help out).

After you have posted to Slack and posted your comment below, click the button below to continue:

Here’s my non-official list of possible writing process stages writers tend to use:

• exploring – just getting stuff down. No plans necessarily, just start scribbling in different places. Perhaps this also extends from notes you took on reading you have done. No pressure, just see where your mind takes you (e.g., you could try “freewriting” where you don’t stop typing even when you have nothing meaningful to write).
• planning – getting organized. It seems some writers swear by outlines, flow charts, concept maps, lists.
• drafting – Putting stuff down. That first draft is always kinda “meh”–that’s okay! You need to start somewhere. In the act of writing you get further than where you were–like good science, you really don’t know what is going to happen until you run the experiment. So, run the experiment! And do it early if possible…that waiting until the last minute thing can only get you so far.
• revising – This is what Murray was talking about. Revising is looking over a draft to cut stuff out, rewrite stuff, move stuff around. You ran your experiment and the results leave more questions than answers. Time to tweak things and run it again. It is the big picture stuff.
• editing – Not everyone makes a clean distinction between revising and editing, but I think it can be useful. Editing is often (not always) easier than revising. It is often what I do when I should be revising. It is cleaning up a sentence to be more readable, it is fixing typos, it is changing a word that you think works better, etc. It is the small stuff.
• feedback – learning how to interpret feedback (in both emotional terms–who likes to be criticized!–and in terms of what it means) and how to integrate it into your writing is a real skill and something valuable for revising and editing our writing.
• reflection – to reflect is to sort of plan after you re-read or think again about how your writing went. It is to ask questions of how you think you did, where you want to go next, and how to get there. This might be in relation to goals you have in your writing in general or specific to the piece you wrote. It is helpful to make time for reflection so you can name what you specifically want to do in next steps.

None of these steps have clear boundaries–you might be exploring while revising or planning while drafting, and so on. And there is no one right way to do any of them (e.g., outlines to plan work for some people and not for others, some people rather explore through generative writing before planning, some might include other steps like reading/annotating).

Most writers also do these steps in different orders and–most important–in a recursive way. That is, you might: explore, plan, draft, revise, reflect, draft again, revise again, get feedback, reflect, revise again, edit, reflect, draft again, revise again, edit…and then publish.

All this to say: there are not hard and solid rules here!! Only that you should think carefully about what your process is and works best for you to feel best about your writing.

Take this term to experiment with different ways to have a writing process! Change and adapt when things aren’t working.

Before moving on to the next page in the module, in our #writing-practice-and-process channel, post which stage of the writing process you do best with and why or which stage of the writing process you struggle most with and why. 

Once done, comment below that you posted to Slack.

Then, hit the button below to continue.

All models are wrong, some are useful.

This quote is attributed to statistician George Box. The idea is that all models can only be simplistic versions of complex processes…something will always be missing. However, this imperfection does not render any model useless. Having some window into how things work gets us that much closer to figuring out how some specific thing might work. If there was a perfect model it would not be a model–it would be a full picture into reality, which is unobtainable to any organism.

Here is a model for writing. We start with reading and end with revising (which is also reading). But, revising is also writing…and to make any sense of the reading we are doing, we have to be writing! The snake eat its tail and so on.

So, as a writer, we should always be reading. But as a writer we should always be writing. And as a writer we should always be reading.

A picture of this model would just be a circle, going round and round.

Let me go through some examples:

• Making a reading annotation like “Repeats the idea that with a language they become more than a group of people, they become a culture” when highlighting something from “How to Tame A Wild Tongue.” This reader uses writing to further their understanding of the text and notices a pattern, calls out the “repetition.” The reader sees connections across the text, and writing it out helps solidify it.
• Writing in great depth beyond annotations can help us learn something further. For instance, when a student writes: “Donald Murray describes his own writing process and brings insight into the general writer’s process with examples.  His emphasis is on revision and gauging when to look for completeness in your work.  … I will be choosing ‘moves/movement’ as my specific verb because it is referential to the eye but also to the overall process of writing and revision.  ‘Move’ has a few different definitions, whether it’s a physical action (eyes), a metaphorical action (progression in writing), or a philosophical action (time).” This exploration helps the writer think more and differently about revision by first encountering it in a reading but then writing about it further.
• While we write, we constantly read and re-read our writing to see if it says what we want it, too. This is revision in the short term. In the long term, we re-read full drafts.
• We also give our writing to readers. We do this when we want feedback to then again return to our writing with the aid of the reading of others.
• We put our writing out into the world and people read it. It could lead to further writing on their part and then further reading.

The full writing process is inundated with BOTH writing and reading. We read to gather knowledge, we write to make sense of it, we read our writing to write again, we have others read our writing to write some more, and so on.

Take about 10 minutes and read through a few of your classmates’ QSR responses to Murray on our website. Practice your reading/writing integration to learn more about your writing. Following our commenting guidelines, comment on 2 of your classmates’ QSR posts on the process of revision in response to the Donald Murray reading.

If you notice any posts without comments, try to go there instead of one with many comments!

Once you have read and commented, comment on this post below with the titles of the QSR posts that you commented on.

After that, click continue below.

Reading and Writing Practice

A writing practice is carefully considering what environmental conditions help you read and write best and to try to set those conditions as much as possible when reading and writing.

Some examples are:

• What time of day do you write best?
• Do you like noise or silence?
• Do you prefer a desk or somewhere more informal?
• How do you manage distractions?
• If you like music to help, what kind of music works best for you?

For now, I just want you to think about how/when/where you do your best writing. We are going to do more on this in the next couple of classes, but I wanted you to think about this now because it is important. Writing is a fully embodied experience; it is not just your words on a page.

On Thursday, we will talk more about ways to set up the best conditions possible for a good writing practice that works for you. For now, in the comments below, tell me about the last time you had what you would call a “successful” writing experience. Take that to mean what you want it to. For example: you were proud of your writing, you felt like you were in a “flow” and got a lot done, you enjoyed yourself (as much as you can if you don’t like writing that much!), etc.

Respond to these questions in your comment as well as providing a brief reflection on why your writing practice that day helped you have a successful writing session. Comment on this page before moving on:

Once you have commented below answering these questions and reflecting on how they contributed to a successful writing session, click the button below to continue.

We are almost done our first Learning Module!

Going to set up our Writing Groups and then write some brief initial ideas for your Literacy Narrative first draft.

So, as talked about on the first day of class and on the syllabus, we are going to split up the class into 4 writing groups of 3-4. Your writing groups are going to give you other writers to work with, primarily to get friendly readers of your work, but also to hold you accountable to stay on task for your writing goals.

Here are the three roles (adapted from Chris Campbell’s course):

a. Activity Accountant: Your Activity Accountant makes sure that the group is clear on any assignments or deadlines approaching in the coming week. Ideally the Activity Accountant will provide an update to their group each Sunday or Monday declaring what needs to be done in the coming days. While I will send reminder emails, too, the Activity Accountant emphasizes these deadlines as a double reminder at times. The Activity Accountant can also serve as a liaison between me and your group, receiving answers to questions that your group might have about group-related functions over the course of the semester.

b. Community Builder: Your Community Builder facilitates group discussions and conversations that need not necessarily have something to do with assignments. What are some funny memes or videos you’ve come across recently? What sorts of chat-window activities could provide some momentary relief from your group’s workload? A game? A chat? The Community Builder will typically provide comic or conversational relief at the end of each week.

c. Group Historian: Your Group Historian keeps track of decisions made by your group. This is best done in a single Google Doc or Microsoft Word document, where you date each entry. Keeping track of the conversations and decisions made within your group will help in future situations when your group needs recourse to that information. For instance: when/if you will have Zoom writing  sessions, deadlines to get feedback to each other, criteria for feedback. Additionally, the Group Historian alerts me of any changes in group roles, subtopic choices, and other group-related decision-making processes.

d. Group DJ: Your Group DJ will provide songs and playlists that they think could be good for reading, writing, revising, and other aspects of work for this class (and for other classes). The Group DJ should first ask both the kinds of music other group members like and also get a feel for what types of songs they all think might be good for different kinds of work (reading vs. writing vs. brainstorming vs. revising). You might also do “sounds” rather than music (e.g., sounds of a coffee shop, outdoors sounds). The Group DJ should have a selection of songs or playlists roughly each week. Experiment! Don’t just stick to what you all know and like–see if other genres of music, types of songs, collections of sounds, etc. might provide a boost.

*If you have a group of 4, you can choose to have either have the Community Builder or the Group DJ–you MUST have both the Activity Accountant and the Group Historian.

**If people are unhappy with roles at start, you should decide on points in which you will shift roles

Finally, all of you will play the role of Peer Responder. That means, you will all be reading drafts of each other’s writing and providing feedback for 2 other members of your group.

Before continuing the module do 2 things:

1. Below, comment on your preferred role of the above 4 roles in the groups. I will try to take this into account when assigning you to a Writing Group.
2. Go to our Slack, and as a way to get a bit more practice (since you will be coordinating you writing group by Slack messages between members of your group). Choose a channel other than the one we used earlier in the module (#writing-practice-and-process) and post something relevant to that channel. For example, a song really stuck in your head in the #music channel. You might also suggest another relevant channel in the #general channel. Or, ask questions for me or others in the #general channel.

After commenting with your preferred role on this page and then sending a Slack message on another channel, click the button below to continue.

As noted on the last page, a big part of the Writing Groups will be giving feedback to each other on your writing.

My guidelines for effective peer response can be found on Blackboard>Course Documents. Take a moment to review those guidelines. As part of a Peer Response report you will write soon, this will be the foundation you will start from.

The reading for this week is also full of great information for peer response.

Review your Reading Annotations from the Straub reading and list 3 important things about peer feedback that you got from that reading in a comment below.

After commenting below, click the button below to continue.

You made it! You are just about done here.

For this module, we went through:

1. All of the different communication channels we have
2. Thinking through the writing process and how this can be flexible to your needs in order to generate ideas, get practice, get feedback, return to revise, reflect back on what is working or not, etc.
3. Getting started with developing a writing practice by identifying elements of your environment during previous moments of writing that you felt to be successful and why your writing practice might have helped.
4. Got the logistics set up for our Writing Groups and the importance for peer response to help develop support for our writing (along with some help ways to support each other as responders to each others’ writing).

Writing Goals

What we will do now is to think back to our Introduction Presentations where you were asked to share a goal for your writing.

Take a moment to think back to that goal, but also consider other goals you might have for this semester.

These goals could be related to sentence level things and style, big picture things (e.g., argument, organization), but also about writing process and practice type things like the below:

• Sticking to my writing schedule each week
• Writing for at least 5 hours per week
• Writing 300 words per working day
• Rewriting at least two sections of 200 words or more during revision
• Sharing my work with others before first draft is done fore each assignment
• Finishing my reading assignments two days in advance to have more time to write

What are 3 goals you have for your writing this semester?

Literacy Narrative Prep

In your QSR2 in response to “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” you got to explore the meaning of “I am my language” and a specific example of your language that brings you joy. This could be one example you use in writing the first draft of your Literacy Narrative.

Take a moment to review the instructions for the Literacy Narrative Draft 1 assignment on Blackboard (Course Documents>Assignment Prompts>Major Writing Project Drafts>Literacy Narrative, Draft 1 Prompt).

What are some initial ideas for what you will be (or have already started) writing for your Literacy Narrative? Here are some questions to start with:

• What examples will you draw from?
• What sorts of feelings associated with your language and literacy do you want to key in on?
• What parts of your childhood, your family, groups of people, schooling, hobbies, etc. are worth exploring in relation to your reading and writing?

Here are even more questions that could help you think:

• What is a memorable experience you have speaking a language/dialect/etc. you use to others who also speak the same language/dialect/etc.? Why is it memorable?
• What is a memorable experience you have speaking a language/dialect/etc. you use to others who also speak the same language/dialect/etc.? Why is it memorable?
• How did you learn to read?
• Who helped you learn to read?
• What were some of your favorite books, subjects, and stories, and why?
• What are some of your memorable experiences with reading (good or bad)?
• What kinds of reading do you do now?
• How do you approach reading a textbook and/or an academic journal?
• How has your attitude toward reading changed throughout the years?
• What do you remember about learning to writing?
• How was writing viewed by your family and friends as you were growing up?
• What is your current attitude toward writing?
• What role did your early experiences as a student play in developing your attitude toward writing?
• Describe a particular experience in school or on the job that influenced your current attitude toward writing?
• What specific kinds of writing do you enjoy? Which do you dislike? Why?
• What specific goals do you have as a writer now?

Take 5-10 minutes and think about some of these questions (not all of them of course! There are a lot!). Have some initial thoughts on the sorts of things you’ll write about for your Literacy Narrative Draft 1.

In a direct Slack message to me (how to do this here: https://slack.com/help/articles/201457107-Send-and-read-messages) on our course Slack, tell me the following:

1. Your 3 writing goals for the semester.
2. Some initial thoughts you have about your Literacy Narrative assignment–what you want to write about, questions you have, etc.

Great! You have goals!

Next time, for 9/10: 

We will read:

• “On Writing as Style and Entering a Conversation” by Lisa Blankenship, p. 16-18 (textbook)
• “Translingualism: Approaching Language from a Global Perspective” by Kamal Belmihoub and Lucas Corcoran, p. 61-65 (textbook)

We will write:

• Reading Annotation for Blankenship (submit to Blackboard if DEJ or just make sure I have access to your highlights on textbook)
• Reading Annotation for Belmihoub and Corcoran (submit to Blackboard if DEJ or just make sure I have access to your highlights on textbook)

Remember: homework is always on our Course Schedule, as well.

Google Voice

On the pdf version of the syllabus on Blackboard, you can find my Google Voice phone number. If you ever had to contact me but your internet was not working, use this number. Otherwise, I am very accessible via email and Slack.

This is just a phone number–pretty straightforward!

Setting up Zoom application and account (adapted from Seth Graves)

We talked about this the other day, but just in case you missed it, here it is again:

I want to help make it work a bit easier in future sessions. First, by downloading the application. Second, you should also know how to log in to your Baruch Zoom account if you want to create meetings (e.g., with your Writing Group). Set up your Zoom account by next class:

1. First, go to https://zoom.us/download to download the Zoom application to your device (this will make life easier because if you rely on the browser only, it tends to crash more. Having application on your device helps Zoom work more reliably).
2. Then, go to baruch.zoom.us.
3. Then, log in with the same username and password you use to get into your email and Blogs@Baruch.
4. If prompted, set up your Zoom account.
5. If you want, you can add a photo of yourself to your profile picture (you do not have to do so).

Go to “Meetings” to “Schedule a Meeting.” More information on working to set up Zoom meetings can be found here. This will be helpful once we get into a rhythm with our Writing Groups.

Before moving on, in the comments below, mention one aspect of our use of Zoom in class so far that you think is working well or could be improved upon.

When you are done with your comment, click the below button to move on.