Traveling with Exxon

I personally have never been a huge proponent of “freewriting.” I don’t like participating in the activity, and therefore, presume that most people couldn’t possibly glean anything from that sort of pursuit.

I must admit though, Elbow made me wonder.

Maybe it is a good idea, or maybe it’s not. Either way he added a certain amount of insecure charm to the whole process of not being able to string a few words together in some sort of pre-approved of rhetorical structure.

I taught English to...well, highschool dropouts in Anchorage, Alaska. The goal of the class was for the students to be able to answer a prompt, a basic question–“What are some qualities in a person whom you admire?” in the form of a five-paragraph essay.

It was difficult. Sometimes the students didn’t even understand the question. Some students grew tired of writing and never returned to class. Sometimes I had no clue what I should do with an essay. “Um, yeah, okay, the essay subject is good. Essentially, this is what I’m looking for. But are you aware that you wrote this entire essay phonetically?”

“It’s not right? But I did that free-writing thing. See?” The student showed me two crumpled pieces of paper which had been thoroughly written upon, erased and written upon again.

We teachers were pushed to get students to brainstorm using freewriting and webbing.

I guess what I’m curious about is whether or not freewriting and stream of consciousness writing can be effective in most situations? Is our center of gravity really located around the ability or inability to find topic sentences and the willingness to lose control of our writing?

Does freewriting even make sense beyond the hallowed halls of academia? It seems like a privilege to be able to use this style of writing. The students I had came to class on their lunch breaks. They came for an hour when they could get a friend to watch their kids.
Their goal was to take a test which culminated in a timed five paragraph essay. They didn’t have an hour to spend freewriting.

I’m not saying that I don’t agree with Elbow. I guess I’m just remembering the kid who just didn’t want to write a lot, or the girl who didn’t care enough to spend time growing and cooking. “Actually, I’m only here because my mom said that she would buy me this Coach purse if I came. No offense. Hey, do you want to go to this party with me tonight? There’s always tons of mushrooms. You should come.”

I think this would be the appropriate time to hearken back to Comp Tales.

I never saw that student again.