Some more thoughts on Williams...

One of the things that I like about Williams, is that he gives us the general steps in the process of writing without over structuring it. What I mean by this is, he tells us the general planning and editing stages that can help to make writing great, but also gives us some leeway. “In some situations, a writer may not have an opportunity to do much planning…these stages are believed to reflect in a general way how successful writing develops” (106). I don’t plan, write, and edit my papers in exactly the same way every time. I do, however, need some type of structure to keep myself sane. I think it is important to stress to young writers that these various stages (prewriting, pausing, revising, editing, etc.) are important and helpful, but not every step is absolutely necessary every time. This could give them a little more freedom in how they go about writing. I think everyone needs to find their own comfort level and their own approach in order for it to be enjoyable.

On sort of the same note, I enjoyed reading his section on outlining. He tells us that often, in the classroom, the teachers put so much emphasis on the structure of the actual outline, and forget about the content. I can verify this! I do remember having to do outlines in school and the teacher spending an entire lesson on how to structure your outline correctly. There is roman numeral one, followed by capital letter “A”. You better not use a lowercase “A” because he/she might deduct a point. Really, the whole thing is ridiculous. I think it speaks volumes about the way the teachers teach us to write and how so much emphasis is put on the small stuff and not enough on our content.

Williams mentions drafting. First of all, I think that the use of computers can help or hinder the drafting process. It is so much easier to get caught up in spelling errors, USAGE errors and wording when changing things around is just a few clicks away. Williams tells us that sometimes we need 2 drafts, sometimes 10. I think I probably do this but don’t actually print out every single draft, read over it, do the corrections, reprint, and repeat. Generally speaking when I finish a draft, I walk away, come back, and move paragraphs, change wording, and save again. I kind of wonder if it would be more helpful for me to print out, physically see the paper, write down corrections and save every draft. I guess I know it would be helpful if I didn’t immediately go back and fix my errors, but how can you not when you can just click back? I genuinely tried to just free write and not fix anything on my first draft of my literacy narrative so I wouldn’t obstruct the flow. I was somewhat successful but the blatantly obvious just had to be fixed immediately. I couldn’t help myself.

I do think it is somewhat ridiculous to emphasis business letter writing in first grade (kind of like Jen’s daughter and her Power Point presentation). I do think that pen pals are a wonderful idea. I actually had a teacher that did this in third grade (though I completely forgot about it until now) and it really was quite enjoyable. I loved the idea of having your student writers write to a pen pal and incorporating various lessons into the exchange between students. I don’t know if I think that this would be an easy task to accomplish. I think you would have to somehow coordinate with another foreign teacher. If it would be possible, I think it is my favorite Williams idea.