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Free Writing

Fredessa Hamilton

Description

Free writing is an instructional strategy that prompts students to write initial thoughts to a stimulus idea provided by the instructor, but the results of the writing exercises are retained by the student. This strategy is particularly effective in media writing and communication courses, as it lends itself to the nature of the work of a writer in broadcast, print and internet media. The fast-paced characteristics of breaking news, sports and deadline pressures are real situations that adult media writing students will face, and considerable practice in responding quickly to events and stimuli is necessary to be adequately prepared for this work. Southwell (1977) defines “free writing” as “writing the students do for themselves, not their teachers; and it constitutes the kind of practice familiar to anyone (an athlete, perhaps, or a musician) who wants to perfect a skill.” (676) Free writing exercises are not handed in, reviewed or evaluated by the instructor, and are solely used for practice by individual students. An alternative use of free writing is in student groups. Free writing exercises are timed, from 3-5 minutes in the beginning, and allow for stream of consciousness writing, regardless of whether or not the student has anything to say. Since the writing will not be viewed by the instructor, the student is free to repeat himself/herself until they become used to the practice of writing. Afterward, free writing exercises can be scheduled for longer time periods, as the students become comfortable with the process. The free writing instructional strategy has been used extensively at the college level, particularly in Communication courses, English composition courses and in campus writing programs, such as writing across the curriculum. Free writing can be done with pen and paper, but increasingly it is also done by computer. In the college textbook, Writing the Information Highway, Condon & Butler (1997) suggest that focused free writing by computer is mechanically easier for the student, and facilitates later cut and paste options. (10-11) I have used the free writing instructional strategy extensively in the undergraduate Communication course, Electronic Media Writing, at North Carolina State University, and have experienced the strategy as a graduate student in the course, Teaching College Communication. In the Electronic Media Writing course, I usually assign free writing exercises to have my students write about current events, practice reaction to media programming, and to hone media writing skills of rapidly capturing data in real and simulated breaking news situations. Early in the semester, I assign short free writing exercises at least once a week. Later in the semester, I may assign free writing exercises to groups with longer time frames for completion, between 15-20 minutes. The results are usually portrayed in a group writing assignment or a storyboard.

Major Concepts

Free writing involves the following major ideas and concepts: 1. This strategy is particularly appropriate for adult learners who may have only been exposed to highly directed, structured writing assignments in past educational experiences. Adult learners may be new to the concept of unstructured writing assignments that are timed and allow for stream of consciousness thinking, but this strategy will allow them to incorporate their extensive experiences and backgrounds in writing assignments. 2. Southwell (1977) finds that, by requiring “free writing” exercises, he has helped “students who need large amounts of remediation” in college composition. (676) He believes that free writing allows remedial composition students, (many of whom are adult learners) who “almost always have to struggle with a lack of confidence” to attain this confidence while engaged in these exercises. (677) 3. Free writing is a strategy that reduces student intimidation, and is a non-threatening way of learning to compose without pressure of instructor review, since the student does not turn in the results of the writing exercise. 4. As students become proficient in free writing, they learn that they have a great deal to write, and therefore also learn skills in editing and revision as they make decisions on what they wish to include or exclude in their free write exercise.

Relationship to Teaching Perspective

This section describes the association of the free writing instructional strategy to the teaching perspectives as described by Pratt and associates (1998). Nurturing The nurturing strategy assists students in knowing for themselves how to write properly. They are not just told by a teacher what the right way should be, but they learn and internalize the differences between formal writing and free writing. This perspective is one way to ensure that “the learner must always own the success of learning” (Pratt and associates 1998, p. 169). Free writing allows the students to practice and learn writing on their own, without the teacher. Fenstermacher (1986) also offers support for this perspective in noting that an important role of an instructor is to support the student to become a learner. Apprenticeship By modeling free writing through participation with the students, the instructor demonstrates how the strategy works and experiences some of the early challenges students themselves may encounter. The instructor also coaches students on how to focus on one topic or idea through selections that stimulate free writing exercises. Finally, the instructor introduces the element of timed writing and relates it to the work environment of a media writer.

Benefits

The benefits associated with this strategy are that it: 1. Encourages creative thinking without the pressure of writing it “right”; 2. Moves students with severe writing problems “past the barrier of beginning to write” (Southwell 1977, 678); 3. Allows students to understand the difference between free writing, with its lack of requirements and review, and term papers and other required writing, that must conform to spelling, punctuation and adherence to a plan, outline and thesis statement; 4. Adapts well to collaborative writing sessions, where “students would share free writings with their group, getting the benefit of several sets of eyes.” (Gebhardt 1980, 73); 5. Helps students personalize their writing, a skill that extends to other types of writing (Southwell 1977, 681).

Drawbacks and Cautions

With the free writing instructional strategy, there are concerns that: 1. Students may get off-track in their writing, leaving the designated topic or idea and incorporating unrelated information (Bodwell 2004, 60) 2. Students may not be comfortable with writing with limited direction 3. Often students are not used to academic writing that is not turned in, reviewed or graded by an instructor (Southwell 1977, 676)

Final Thoughts

Diezmann (2005) writes that “scholarly writing in a particular field of a discipline involves appropriating the writing practices of that community.” (444) This is also true of media writing, as the skills of writing initial thoughts, ideas and impressions quickly, without pressure of external review or evaluation, are necessary to craft a final product for broadcast, print or internet distribution. Free writing is an excellent way to incorporate these practices in the adult learning environment.

References

Bodwell, Mary Buchinger (2004). “Now what does that mean, ‘first draft’?”: responding to text in an adult literacy class. Linguistics and Education, 15, 59-79.

Boud, David and Feletti, Grahame, ed. (1998). The Challenge of Problem-Based Learning, 2nd ed. London: Kagan Page, 103-116.

Condon, William and Butler, Wayne (1997). Writing The Information Superhighway. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, ix-12.

Diezmann, Carmel M. (2005). Supervision and Scholarly Writing: Writing to Learn—Learning to Write. Reflective Practice, 6 (4), 443-467.

Fenstermacher, G.D. (1986). Philosophy of research on teaching: three aspects, in M.C. Wittrock (ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd edition). New York: Macmillan, 37-49.

Gebhardt, Richard (1980). Teamwork and Feedback: Broadening the Base of Collaborative Writing. College English, 42 (1), 69-74.

Indrisano, Roselmina and Puratore, Jeanine R. (2005). Learning to Write, Writing to Learn: Theory and Research in Practice. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Pratt, Daniel D. and Associates (1998). Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.

Southwell, Michael G. (1977). Free Writing in Composition Classes. College English, 38 (7), 676-681.

Smith, M. Cecil and Pourchat, Thomas, ed. (1998). Adult Learning and Development: Perspectives From Educational Psychology. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Zinsser, William (1988). Writing to Learn. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.