{"id":859,"date":"2020-02-01T07:06:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T13:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=859"},"modified":"2023-04-29T19:33:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T00:33:47","slug":"the-writing-process-sentences-paragraphs-edit-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2020\/02\/01\/the-writing-process-sentences-paragraphs-edit-repeat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Writing Process: Sentences, Paragraphs, Edit, Repeat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why do we need instructions on a shampoo bottle? After only a few training exercises, any three-year-old can operate a shampoo bottle. Yet every bottle of shampoo I can find has instructions. The sequence, \u201clather, rinse, repeat,\u201d became such a well-known instruction that it took on meme status in culture. Brian Regan has taken on a similar set of instructions on a Pop Tarts box. If you haven\u2019t enjoyed his take on the ridiculous nature of obvious instructions, you should take a moment to watch it here on YouTube<\/a> before proceeding. I will wait. (And while you\u2019re there, you might as well watch Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s take on Pop Tarts<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The instructions on shampoo bottles and Pop Tarts boxes seem silly. The inclusion of the word \u201crepeat\u201d on shampoo bottles adds a metaphysical quandary. Have we just entered an infinite loop? How do we know when we\u2019ve finished washing our hair? Instructions on consumer products and bits from comedians have much in common. Both are attempting to be extremely precise in their use of language. The economy of words on the shampoo bottle is almost elegant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you watch the Brian Regan\nvideo? He gets lots of laughs. It looks almost effortless. Comedy also requires\nprecision with language. But behind Regan\u2019s bit stands hours of work honing\nwords and sentences to optimize humor. Now I want you to watch another video<\/a>.\nThis is Jerry Seinfeld describing his writing process. (I linked to his Pop\nTart video above if you want to see the finished product.) Again, I will wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously I wrote about the aims of writing<\/a>. Students should learn to write for an interested audience and to produce perspective. I think we hear both of these at work in Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s writing process. But in today\u2019s article, I want to dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of writing. If my previous article addressed the why question, this article lays out the how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defeat the Internal Editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The hardest part of writing is staring at a blank page. The biggest hurdle is putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. Making the cursor move forward is a major victory. What is it that keeps us from starting? It is the internal editor. Before we\u2019ve even begun writing, our internal editor is already criticizing our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young students can also get locked up with the mechanical effort of writing. Their hands get tired. Some students find the effort of thinking tiresome as well. Other students find it difficult to convert their thoughts from speech to writing. For each of these situations, doing small and frequent writing sessions will help build up strength and stamina. Transcription can help a child with weak fingers. Go for well formed letters done with sufficient speed, so that when it comes to writing their thoughts down, they aren\u2019t hindered by a slow hand. You can record a student speaking his thoughts, and then have them listen back and write those thoughts out. The goal here is to establish the link between thought and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once students get past these more mechanical problems, they will eventually have to confront the real dragon. The editor that exists in all our minds wants to review and revise our words whenever we speak or write. Effective writing, though, best occurs when we turn off that internal editor. We should teach our students to put words down on the page, any words, even if the words don\u2019t represent our best work. I think this is best done in the classroom, but only if the proper atmosphere has been established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can build a writing atmosphere by doing several things regularly. First, students should learn in an environment in which discussions occur. Being able to put ideas out through speech builds a sense that the environment is suitable for expressing and exploring ideas. Discussion transfers to the written word. Putting ideas on the blank page is really not different than putting ideas out into the classroom<\/a>. Second, writing should be a part of everyday life. Being called upon to write shouldn\u2019t be a new and daunting event. If students feel like writing is an everyday thing, it becomes more and more natural to express oneself in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing is such a vital tool for life,\nwe need to bravely challenge students to cultivate this mode of expression.\nWriting enables us to see thought. Writing words on paper forces us to slow\ndown our brains through the act of composing our thoughts. And then once our\nthoughts are written down, we can actually look at the thoughts our minds have\nproduced. Seeing this written record then enables us to interact with our\nthoughts. Without this tool, we often spin our wheels never gaining clarity in\nour minds. We do this with our shopping lists (think about how difficult it is\nto hold a week\u2019s shopping in our heads). How much more should we do this with great\nideas from literature, history, philosophy, science and mathematics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resurrecting the Editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so we defeated the internal editor so that we can just get words down on the page. Great! But we actually need that editor if we\u2019re going to take our mere words and shape them into something with meaning and purpose. Very few people can write their best during a first draft. Yet, we often allow ourselves and our students to write in first draft mode as if it is final draft mode. Editing has to be part of the writing process. Yet editing doesn\u2019t come naturally for most students; it\u2019s also not always intuitive how best to teach the editing process. Let\u2019s look at two major layers of editing: solidifying sentences and processing paragraphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Editing Layer 1: Solidifying Sentences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sentences should be the first layer\nof editing. Each sentence should be examined carefully in three units. Begin by\nidentifying the actual subject of the sentence. By actual I mean that we\nfrequently bury the subject in the back part of the sentence. This is quite\nnatural, since when we write in free flow the mind needs some filler words to get\ngoing. Editing now takes those loose words and reorganizes them so that the\ntrue subject can be placed in the subject slot of the sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different way of approaching the subject slot of the sentence is to think about the grammatical subject in the most concrete terms possible. Students should learn to avoid vague terms, especially pronouns. A pronoun introduces vagueness, which is the enemy of both clarity and succinctness. The subject slot, by the way, does not have to be the first grammatical element of a sentence. Transition phrases and adjectival qualifiers can add to the quality of a sentence. But a student should be able to reorganize any sentence so that it can begin with the subject phrase, even if there are good reasons to choose a different sentence structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key goal to note thus far is intentionality. A student should learn that there are numerous ways of expressing the thought in a sentence, but that an intentional choice to use one particular way of organizing a sentence is based on sound reasoning. Learning how to make these choices increases the student\u2019s power of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next we consider the verb. Having\nsecured for ourselves the most concrete form of the true subject, we want to\npair the subject with the most active verb possible. Many teachers focus on\neliminating passive verbs and linking verbs. Sometimes, though, a linking verb\nor passive verb best communicates the state of affairs relative to the subject.\nA better way of approaching what I think these teachers are getting at is the\nidea that verbs communicate action. Therefore we should devote time to consider\nthe most active verb possible<\/em>. Notice\nthe difference between these two sentences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n