Readings for February 15

I feel much better about our Voice mini-lesson after reading #9 of The Nine Rights of Every Writer. It would have been interesting to try to define voice by asking students what type of writing doesn’t have voice and why. Spandel also echoed Joe’s thoughts on voice by comparing it to fingerprints; they may be either faint or obvious, but your fingerprints are on all of your writing.

Rights #5 and #6 were very helpful. The right to write badly reminded me of teaching. Teachers should have the right to teach poorly on their way to becoming an effective teacher. Writers and teachers alike deserved to be praised for taking risks to make something better rather than continuing on the safe path. I particularly liked the idea about changing the wording of directions or writing prompts in order to get the student to unknowingly take risks in their writing. I felt that it corresponded nicely with Harper’s toolbox article. When students are taught the tools of revision, it is not as scary to take risks in writing because they know how to improve their work. I particularly liked the toolbox approach because it clearly defines how to begin revising. In addition, the tools are not specific to a writer; my tools can be used on your writing and vice versa. To become a good writer, I think it is helpful to recognize certain aspects of writing and to be able to critique writing. Harper’s toolbox makes this seemingly daunting task possible for students of all levels.

I feel as though the majority of the articles we’ve read in the past and for this week stress the importance of more focus on fewer issues. I think this is crucial for revising. Right #6 outlines how important it is to show writers the little steps in writing that often get over looked or that teachers assume students already know. I believe teachers often fail to teach when they are trying to cover too much and skip small steps on the way to getting to the top of the stairs. It is not enough to show a student a finished writing product. To understand the process, they need to see it modeled for them from start to finish.

I think this link is pretty self-explanatory, http://www.writers-toolbox.com/