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Strategies for Generating and Organising Text

Lawrence Cleary, Director Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, University of Limerick

www.ul.ie/rwc

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Good writers have bad days.

We get stuck.
We get overwhelmed with all that there is to think about when we confront an occasion for writing—an assignment, the writing of our research proposal, etc.
We know what we want to say, but the words we write do not match the meaning that we are trying to express.
We have a rush of genius, but when we go to put it down on paper, we stop to edit and soon lose the majority of the genius that flashed into our head only moments ago.
We have a particularly thorny, complex concept to explain, but our efforts to explain it end in pure, unadulterated horse manure.

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Time/Space

Good writers use strategies for filling the required space in an allotted time.
Strategies for filling space can be reduced to two tasks:

Ringfencing
Freewheeling

(Murray 2002)

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Ringfencing

Outlining—a way of ringfencing space

1^st Level Outline
2^nd Level Outline
3^rd Level Outline

Outline in terms of the Research Proposal

Rationale
Objectives
A working set of questions, themes or issues
Indicative literature review
Methodology

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Outlining is one way to ringfence space. Establishing headings using MS Word’s styles and then creating a Table Of Content, even if only provisionally.

A Level One outline is mapping out the main sections: for instance, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion. The spaces allocated for each section could be determined by what a supervisor or journal editor deems the most important section. For instance, let’s say you want to publish in a particular journal that deems the methodology section the most important section. In a journal that allows for 7500 words per article, conceivably, 3500 could be devoted to the methodology section. Alternatively, in a journal that deems the Discussion section most important, that much space may be allocated to that section, etc.

Level Two headings would ringfence smaller spaces. In that 3500 word section, a sub-section might restrict the text there to anywhere between 600-1000 words. The headings here might be Study Scheme, Procedure, Definitions, Study Outcomes, Statistical Analyses.

Level Three headings would be sub-sections of sub-sections or sub-sub-sections. In a subsection of 600-1000 words, a sub-subsection might be limited to 200-300 words. By identifying smaller and smaller spaces to fill, the writer can focus on what they are ready to write now, and often, approaching smaller spaces seems less daunting. Each smaller space conquered begins to fill the text, breaking up the big white A4 spaces, making them more approachable, less daunting.

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Level One Outlining

Things to consider:

Your abstract/introduction/Brown’s 8 questions
Your thesis and all the things your audience needs for them to find your case credible
Your target audience: How will the audience expect an argument of this type to be organised? What do they perceive as logical?

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Level One Outlining

Advantages:

Allowing yourself to start writing what you are ready to start writing.
Giving yourself smaller chunks of space to fill. A 500 word space is a lot less intimidating than a 10,000 word space.
Allowing yourself to experiment with the logical flow of ideas. Once you begin to fill in space, you can begin to question the wisdom of your original organisation.

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Workshop: Ring-fencing Space�

Level One Outlining (Chapters)

Realise headings by stating what you expect to happen in the section: “In this section, the various methods of collecting data will be explained and justified.”
At the end of the statement, identify parenthetically the number of words you expect the section to contain.

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Level 2 Outlining

How can aspects of the section’s topic/of the argument be categorised/classified?
Write your sub-headings in the form of prompts
Keep all aspects of the writing context in mind.
Think ‘content’ or ‘performance’: ‘What goes here?’ or ‘What will I do here?’
Can this sub-section be broken into even smaller units?

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Workshop: Ring-fencing Space

Level Two Headings (Chapter Sections)

Realise headings by naming the question that you expect the section to answer: “Who talks about this aspect of the problem?” or “How will this information inform my interpretation of the evidence?”
At the end of the question, identify parenthetically the number of words you expect the section to contain.

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Level 3 and 4 Outlining

“…a way of developing a detailed ‘design’ for your paper” (Murray 2005: 106)
…a way of checking on the internal logic of the paper—its flow, cogency, coherence—by looking at the progression of ideas expressed at each level
…allows you to discover ‘what’s missing’
…establishes smaller and smaller spaces to fill in a go

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Ring-fencing Space

Level Three and Level Four Headings (sub-sections and sub-sub-sections)

“…a way of developing a detailed ‘design’ for your paper”

(Murray 2005: 106)

…a way of checking on the internal logic of the paper—its flow, cogency, coherence—by looking at the progression of ideas expressed at each level
…allows you to discover ‘what’s missing’
…establishes smaller and smaller spaces to fill in a go

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Ring-fencing Space

Level Three and Level Four Headings (sub-sections and sub-sub-sections)

Realise headings with writing prompts such as:

How will the event that occurs in this sub- or sub-sub-section help the section answer the question it wishes to answser?
How does the information in this section help to answer the thesis question or sub-questions?

Or complete the following sentence:

The main point of this section is…

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Peer work

Peers can exchange outlines and rationalise them

Peers can exchange outlines and thesis questions.
Peers can read each other’s outlines, taking turns asking for an explanation of how the event(s), those things happening in each chapter, section and sub-section advances your peer’s case: how the event makes a contribution to their defence, answers their question, solves their problem, affirms or negates their hypothesis.
As you go through your peer’s outline, you can ask your peer to elaborate on the contribution of each chapter, section, and sub-section to answering the thesis’ main question or its main sub-questions.

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Filling space�

Strategies for text generation:

Freewriting
Generative writing
Snacking
Binging
Stating short-, medium- and long-range writing goals and planning accordingly

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Freewheeling

Freewriting, Generative Writing, Writing to Prompts—ways of filling space
Freewriting—for getting going, for exploring possibilities, for getting ideas out before they disappear, developing fluency, increasing confidence
Generative Writing—for getting focused, developing drafts, for working out how to best organize complex ideas, for working out complicated arguments

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Freewheeling is a strategy for filling space.

Freewriting and Generative writing are both freewheeling exercises in which writers respond to a prompt.

Freewriting is the subject of the entire career of Peter Elbow (Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he also directed the Writing Program from 1996 until 2000, and author of books like Writing without Teachers, 1973, Everyone Can Write, 1985, and Vernacular Eloquence, 2012).

Essentially, a freewriting exercise involves responding to a prompt but adhering to some rules:

Write for a set number of minutes (5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.)
Write without stopping (if you are unsure what to write, write that you are unsure what to write and write that continuously until something else comes into your head).
Write in sentences (Sentences are complete thoughts; they do not have to be brilliant sentences, in fact…)
Do not edit or censor (The writing is private; no one is going to read it unless you want them to—the idea is that you feel free to operate outside of the academic register, not to worry about other’s judgements.)
The writing is free, so you should feel free to deviate from addressing the prompt if you intuit a more productive direction for your thoughts.

Both free- and generative-writing are time-limited responses to a prompt. The freewriting response is private. “Freewriting is always private—by definition, for the sake of safety” (Elbow 1989, p. 51). It is private also to safeguard the freedom the writer is to feel when engaging with the practice. The practice is similar to journal writing or what Robert Boice called Automatic Writing—just writing without any concern for style or register or audience. “What happens to a freewriting exercise is important”, writes Elbow (1998, p. 3). “It must be a piece of writing which, even if someone reads it, doesn’t send any ripples back to you. It is like writing something and putting it in a bottle in the sea.” There is no emphasis on syntax or grammar, only complete thoughts working toward…something unresolved.

Boice (1986) equated Automatic Writing with Freewriting, writing that they are both “semihypnotic activities in which the writer writes effortlessly, either with little conscious awareness or else without feeling responsibility for what is being written. Because automaticity exaggerates issues of normal writing such as conscious controls, it offers interesting insights into normal and abnormal writing processes” (Boice and Meyers 1986, p.471).

Rowena Murray (2006, p. 99) distinguishes between freewriting and generative writing: “Generative writing (Boice 1990) is similar to freewriting in that it does not have to be constrained—or supported—by the traditional features of academic writing. It works in a similar way, initially to force writing, and over the longer term to develop ease and fluency in writing…Unlike freewriting, [generative writing] can be read by someone else—though this is optional—and that usually changes writers experiences dramatically; they become much more aware of the requirements of the audience, their responsibility to make their writing make sense and, most acutely, the potential for judgement of their writing.”

The generative response can be private, but since its function is to generate usable text for the paper being worked on, it tends to be something that the writer would not mind sharing.

Boice, R., & Meyers, P. E. (1986). Two parallel traditions: Automatic writing and free writing. Written Communication, 3(4), 471-490.

Elbow, P. (1989). Toward a phenomenology of freewriting. Journal of Basic Writing, 8(2), 42-71.

Elbow, P. (1998). Writing without teachers. Oxford University Press, USA.

Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis. Open University Press.

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Freewriting

Write for 5 minutes
In sentences
Without stopping
Private writing -- no one will read it
Write about about paper topic or sub-topic
Like brainstorming in sentences
Structure and coherence not required
Explore many angles, do ‘open’ writing

(Murray 2006)

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Benefits of Spontaneous or Free Writing

“…puts off your internal editor,
taps creative processes, and
allows suspension of responsibility.”

(Boice 54)

Gets you going
Improves thinking
Puts voice energy and presence in our writing
Allows us to experience ourselves as writers

( Elbow 86-88)

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Elbow, in Everyone Can Write (2000), asserts that, because you write without stopping and because it is private, produces livelier uncensored texts. The formulaic or robotic language that most people associate with academic writing often suffers from a lack of voice. Again, there is this emotion vs logic issue—how lively can we be in our serious papers. We certainly cannot be irresponsible or subjective, but we can allow ourselves to work without censor long enough to discover the direction we would take if we didn’t have someone in our ear telling us which direction to take—what if we followed our interests? What if the enthusiasm we felt for our project was transparent? Intelligent audiences can distinguish between bad science and enthusiasm for the chase.

Elbow, P. (2000). Everyone can write: Essays toward a hopeful theory of writing and teaching writing. Oxford University Press on Demand.

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Write what you’re ready to write!

Choose a small section from your thesis that has been neglected, for whatever reason. What kind of information needs to go into this space and why? What is stopping you from filling this space to your satisfaction?

Write for five minutes, don’t stop
Don’t edit or censor (private writing)
Write in complete sentences (thoughts)
Let your mind range over various angles (open)

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Generative Writing

Same as spontaneous or free-writing, but more focused—permissible digression restricted
Not private; to be shared
Allows writer to identify thoughts/understandings sufficiently developed and those still in need of development
Generates ideas relevant to the topic

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Generative Writing

Problems generative writing addresses (Boice 69-71)

Blocking
Perfectionism
Writing apprehension
Writing impatience
Writing dysphoria
Writing rules

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Writing Prompt

Again, choose a section in your thesis that has been developed, but about which you are unhappy. About what are you unhappy, and what would make the section more palatable?

Write for five minutes without stopping
Do not edit (not private writing)
Write in complete sentences (thoughts)
Restrict digressions (focused)

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A Writing Regimen

“Snacking” and “Binging”

Both useful (though the latter isn’t always healthy)

Establishing a space that is conducive to writing
Establishing a time for writing
Writers who combine snacking with binging are most productive (Murray 2007, p. 155).

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Time-constrained responses to prompts such as free- and generative-writing are examples of the ‘snack’ approach to writing.

But snacking could include getting some writing done while eating lunch at your desk or in the cafeteria ( if you prefer white noise) or while on the bus to the uni. Taking advantage of a half-hour or hour here or there can lead to much productive writing. Possibly, you could tag work that you could do in 20 minutes or leave notes in your text about what needs to be added to an already generated text.

Binging means long periods of writing—a full day; three days; a week away, locked into a hotel room or in a writers’ retreat somewhere. Murray (2006, pp. 176-77) indicates that most grad students and faculty reject the notion of ‘snacking’, but she also maintains that writers who employ a combination of snacking and binging are usually the most productive writers (2007, pp. 155-56).

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Scheduled Short focused Writing Task (from Murray 2005: 107)

Open calendar. Designate which half hour will be devoted to a writing task

“Time allocation: for warm-up + writing”
“5-minute warm-up: “What I’m going to write about is…”
“25 minutes writing to prompt, taken from detailed outline: 100 words”
“If completed [before time expires or if time allows] write another 100 words for another sub-sub-section”

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The Priority Principle �(Boice 1990: 77)

“The Law of Delay: That which can be delayed will be.”
“The Priority Principle: That which can be delayed need not be. Decide which recurrent daily activities you enjoy and make them contingent on you doing a valued but delayable task first.”

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Ask yourself…

What writing can I do in two hours? (30 minutes; one hour; 45 minutes; in the time it takes for the bus to get to UL)
What are you ready to write? What space most needs attention?

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Asking for help/giving feedback��

Writing Buddies/Peer Response
Mentors
Writers’ Groups/Retreats
Joining conversations in your community of interest (e.g. List-serves or newsletters)

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Writing buddies are writers that you feel safe showing your work to and who feel safe showing their work to you. Buddies can respond to each others work as interested readers, critical readers, grammarians, experts, etc.

Mentors, such as supervisors, can model the behaviour that leads to regular text production, good scores and publications.

Writer’s groups meet regularly. Successful groups are those in which there is a commitment to meet at regular intervals and in which there is mutual respect and comradery.

Retreats can be short three-day affairs or longer week-long affairs. They can be in-house or off-campus. In order for them to work well, they have to facilitate comfort and comradery.

Listserves and newsletters are great places to find out what people in your community are concerned with; entering those conversations is a good networking strategy.

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Writing Buddies

Peer response

When ready, schedule a peer support session with one of your classmates or a colleague in your section, department, school.
Identify what you want them to comment on—what kind of feedback you want.
Enter reflection on the benefit/lack of benefit in terms of whether the experience led to text generation or not.

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Discipline-specific Topical Discussions

Joining a list-serve. Who talks about your subject/problem or related subjects/problems?
Identify a community that discusses your topic/related topics
Join list-serve; initiate/join conversation

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Mentors

Reflect on your experience of your current mentors—do they inspire text generation?
Talk to your colleagues about their experiences.
What qualities would you look for in a mentor? List some of the qualities that distinguish an enabling mentor from a disabling mentor?

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Writers’ Groups/In-house Retreats

A time and a space for writing
No online access
Phones off
Writers must commit to the time and space
Writers must commit to each other
Groups and retreats are social strategies for generating text and becoming better writers

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Peer-feedback Exercise

Choose a portion of text on which you would like feedback/reader response.
Tell your writing buddy where you are with this specific piece of writing (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing and proofing).
Inform your writing buddy of what kind of feedback you would like based on where you’re at:

ask peer to respond as a reader, a logician, a grammarian, a rhetor, a colleague, an academic, a sounding-board;
talk to peer about strategies for overcoming cognitive, procedural, affective or social obstacles.

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References

Boice, R. (1990) Professors as Writers: A Self-help Guide to Productive Writing. Stillwater, Okla., U.S.A.: New Forum Press.
Boice, R., & Meyers, P. E. (1986). Two parallel traditions: Automatic writing and free writing. Written Communication, 3(4), 471-490.
Ebest, S.A., Alred, G.J., Brusaw, C.T., and Oliu, W.E. (2005) Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-Use Reference Handbook, 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Elbow, P. (1989). Toward a phenomenology of freewriting. Journal of Basic Writing, 8(2), 42-71.
Elbow, P. (1998). Writing without teachers. Oxford University Press, USA.
Elbow, P. (2000) Everyone Can Write. NewYork: Oxford University Press.
Murray, R. and Moore, S. (2006) The Handbook of Academic Writing: A Fresh Approach. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis. Open University Press.
Murray, R. (2007) Writing for Academic Journals. Open University Press.

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