Examines two contrasting perspectives of invention: rhetoric as "art," and rhetoric as "knack," derived from talent and experience. Argues that inventive strategies should be viewed within an axiological perspective, and notes that instructors can teach students to combine different types of inventive strategies, avoiding a…

Reports on the positive effects of free writing that is followed by rewriting. (RL)

In a study to determine whether the writing apprehension of college writers is diminished by regular freewriting and whether apprehension affects the quality of writing, two experimental classes spent ten minutes freewriting each day while two control classes spent ten minutes on vocabulary building. The pretest and posttest consisted to two…

Suggests techniques from Peter Elbow's book, "Writing with Power," for an advertising copywriting class. Describes in detail an eight-step procedure: warm-up, loop writing, sharing, revision, sharing, revision, editing group sharing, and revision. (MS)

In addition to enabling students to discover ideas and providing them with raw materials that they can shape into polished drafts, free writing can give students experience, thus making them more comfortable with writing. Beginning each class with free writing activities on topics of enough interest that they distract reluctant writers from…

A teacher presents a writing exercise designed to facilitate audience-directed, critical thinking during the process of composing, that starts students thinking in terms of sorites and enthymemes. Students first read a CIA manual, "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare," that instructs the Contra guerrillas in illegal acts and…

A two-part study manipulated structure demands (sequencing ideas, forming sentences, and complying with punctuation/spelling mechanics) in a persuasive writing task to measure the resulting effects on content operations (generating arguments/propositions). In part one of the study, 40 graduate students wrote preliminary and final drafts in one of…

Defines free writing, reviews the philosophy and history of free writing, and discusses some problems that it entails. (NKA)

Invisible writing is a technique whereby the composer writes with an empty ballpoint pen on a blank piece of paper backed by a piece of carbon paper and a bottom blank sheet. An informal experiment in which graduate students used the invisible writing technique was conducted to replicate earlier studies indicating that invisible writing is…

This paper discusses expressive writing, which can be defined as writing in a conversational and personal way. The paper explains that, in this expressive mode, writers are allowed the freedom to mull over ideas and to highlight certain ideas, even as they write, making it a vehicle for learning. The paper presents discussion on the time (i.e.,…

Learning to write in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) provides learners with a voice in their new culture and enhances language acquisition. There are two general approaches to teaching writing: free writing, which is not necessarily edited or revised, and process writing which is revised and edited and shared with a wider audience. In addition,…