Notes for our quiz

This is where I'm going to put the notes I take for class.
We have a quiz today and I don't feel ready for it. We might be able to use our notes but probably not. There are two ways I can remember something, talk about it, or write about it. Reading is okay to give me the broad strokes but I don't really latch onto it until I talk it over with someone or write about it. So even though we might not be able to use our notes, I'm putting them here because putting them down counts as writing and that might help me. I'm doing it in the blog because I've been all bloggy lately and it's handy. So there.


Helping a writer find a topic:
good questions to ask:
what's the assignment?
do you have a subject? - if no ask: What have you been thinking about lately? What are you curious to know more about?

strategies:
Writing territories:
personalized diverse specific list of things they have already written about or would like to or have some expertise in, a written self-portrait

free writing:
stream of consciousness, just write your thoughts for ten minutes. then look over what you wrote and pick out things that might be good to work with, things that might be good for a thesis

rapid sketch:
take four minutes to write about what you've experienced in the past 2-3 days. pick one thing. write about that for five minutes. write rapidly, change nothing, lower your standards. don't worry about writing well, you can edit later. just get your ideas out on the page so you have something to work with.

conversation:
just natural back and forth talk. scribble snippets of conversation on post it notes that might work as ideas later.

free talking:
similar to free writing. use audiotape? have the writer talk about and elaborate on the tape. record that. do it again. this sounds awful. who wants to spend 20 minutes listening to their own god damn voice?

doodling or sketching:
gabriel garcia marquez. use visual cues, drawings, photos, as sources of inspiration.

composing exercise
3x5 exercise
1. think of a person, place or experience. write 20-25 specific details about it on card #1
2. circle the most interesting or surprising thing written on card #1. then do what you did on card 1 about the circled item and write the 20-25 things on card 2.
3. use the list on card 2 to make complete sentences, actually a rough draft, on card 3.
4. edit and proofread.

heightening the writer's alertness
complicated. maybe the best part. hard to take notes. example: doctorow: couldn't write. wrote about the wall in front of him. took that to the house. took that to the era it was built. took that to the culture of that time. ended up writing a novel called ragtime. foster and use awareness of the environment to help writing. not sure how this will help me tutor a student in ENG 101 but its a cool thing to remember in general.

when a student has a topic but no draft
questions:
what do you know about the subject?
what don't you know about the subject?
how can you look for connections between the aspects you do know that might suggest new directions to think or write?

strategies:
cubing:
1. describe - the subject, jot down ideas
2. compare - the subject to something else, what is it like or unlike
3. associate - the subject with other things, make personal connections
4. analyze - how is it made? how are its parts related? where is it going? where did it come from?
5. apply - the subject by writing about what can be done with it, or what use it has
6. argue - for or against the subject by choosing a side and defending it

20 questions:

particle wave field perspectives:
neat little exercise but silly application of physics words
but whatever
particle: what are the subjects contrastive features. how much can the subject vary before becoming something else. how should it be classified.
wave: what physical features distinguish the subject from similar objects or events. how is it changing. how does it interact with and merge into its environment
field: how are the subjects components organized in relation to one another in time and space. how do particular instances of the system vary. what is the subjects position in the larger system.

burkes pentad:
act: what was done?
scene: when or where was it done?
agent: who did it?
agency: how did he or she do it? what means or instruments were used?
purpose: why did she or he do it?

looping:
5-10 mins of directed free writing on one subject. reflect on that. turn it into one sentence that expresses the most important idea in it. another 5-10 minutes of directed free writing on that sentence. summarize that into one sentence. do it again. do this up to three times. by then the writer should have enough understanding of the subject to be able to settle on a focus.

titles:
1. write a title that is a questions beginning with how or why
2. write a title that is a question befinning with is or are, do or does, or will
3. write a title that begins with an ing verb
4. write a title that begins with on
5. write a one word title
6 write a two word title
7. thinkg of a familiar saying or the title of a book song or movie that might fit the subject you are going to write about then twist it by changing a word or creating a pun on it
8. find two titles that you have jotted down that you mightuse together in a double title then join them with a colon

clustering:
write the topic on the middle of a sheet then write ideas around it
like in grade school

point of view mapping:
write subject in the middle of a blank page
around it write notes about different points of view

when a writer has a partial draft
leads:

repeating a key word:

framing:

tutoring strategies for preventing writer's block
don't edit too early
don't get uptight about grammar, help the writer break out
suggest the writer make a writing appointment with herself and keep it

blah blah blah yadda yadda