Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing

500 Pages·2000·31.294 MB·English

by  Peter Elbow

Everyone Can Write
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Everyone Can Write
Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory
of Writing and Teaching Writing
PETER ELBOW
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
2000
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 2000 by Peter Elbow
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elbow, Peter.
Everyone can write : essays toward a hopeful theory of writing and teaching writing /
Peter Elbow.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-19-510415-3; ISBN 0-19-510416-1 (pbk.)
1. English language—Rhetoric— Study and teaching. 2. Report
writing—Study and teaching. I. Title.
PE1404.E42 2000
808'.042'07—dc21 99-20987
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my family—who make everything possible.
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Acknowledgments
"Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic." Peter Elbow. College Composition and Commu-
nication. Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English.
"Breathing Life into the Text." Peter Elbow. In When Writing Teachers Teach Literature:
Bringing Writing to Reading. Ed. Art Young and Toby Fulwiler (Boyton/Cook, a subsidiary
of Reed Elsevier Inc., Portsmouth, NH, 1995). Reprinted by permission.
"Closing My Eyes as I Speak." Peter Elbow. College English. Copyright © 1987.
Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English.
"Collage: Your Cheatin' Art" Writing on the Edge, 9.1 (Fall/Winter 1997-1998).
Reprinted by permission.
A Community of Writers, 2E, 1995. Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff. The McGraw-Hill
Companies. Reprinted by permission.
"In Defense of Private Writing" Written Communication, Vol. 16 (2). Peter Elbow. Sage
Publications, Inc./Corwin Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
"Foreword." Peter Elbow. In Portfolios: Process and Product. Ed. Pat Belanoff and Marcia
Dickson (Boyton/Cook, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier Inc., Portsmouth, NH, 1991).
Reprinted by permission.
"Foreword: Expressive Academic Discourse." Peter Elbow. Pre/Text 11.1—2 (1990).
Reprinted by permission.
Freewriting and the Problem of the Wheat and the Tares. Peter Elbow. Copyright © 1997.
Reprinted by permission of Rowan and Littlefield, 2E.
"To Group or Not to Group: System Leads to Narrow Definition of Intelligence."
Amherst Bulletin 25.50, 7 January 1994. Reprinted by permission.
"Illiteracy at Oxford and Harvard." Peter Elbow. Reflective Stories, also Encyclopedia of
English Studies and Language Arts. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted with permission from the
National Council of Teachers of English.
"Introduction: Voice and Writing." Peter Elbow. Voice and Writing. Reprinted with per-
mission from Hermagoras Press, now owned by Erlbaum.
"Making Room for the Mother Tongue: Beyond 'Mistakes,' 'Bad English,' and 'Wrong
Language.'" (Summer 1999). Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Advanced
Composition.
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Erich Auerbach. Copyright
© 1953, renewed 1981. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
"New Directions for Teaching and Learning" No. 69. Copyright © 1997 Jossey-Bass,
Inc., Publishers. Reprinted with permission from Writing to Learn.
"The Pleasures of Voices in the Literary Essay." Literary Nonfiction. Ed. Wayne C. An-
derson © 1989. Reprinted by permission by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois Uni-
versity.
"Poetry: III," In Your Native Land, Your Life: Poems by Adrienne Rich. Copyright ©
1986 by Adrienne Rich. Reprinted by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Com-
pany, Inc.
"Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking." Peter Elbow. College English. Copyright © 1993.
Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English.
"Reflections on Academic Discourse." Peter Elbow. College English. Copyright © 1991.
Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English.
"Reflections on an Explosion." Peter Elbow. Situating Portfolios: Four Perspectives.
Copyright © 1997. Reprinted with permission from Utah State University Press.
"Response to David Bartholomae." Peter Elbow. College Composition and Communica-
tion. Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English.
"Shall We Teach or Give Credit? A Model for Higher Education." Peter Elbow. Sound-
ings 54.3 (Fall 1971). Reprinted by permission.
"The Shifting Relationship Between Speech and Writing." Peter Elbow. College Compo-
sition and Communication. Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teach-
ers of English.
"Silence: A Collage." Peter Elbow. In Presence of Mind: Writing and the Domain Beyond
the Cognitive. Ed. Alice Glarden Brand and Richard L. Graves (Boyton/Cook, a subsidiary of
Reed Elsevier Inc., Portsmouth, NH, 1994). Reprinted by permission.
"State University of New York: Portfolio-Based Evaluation Program." In New Methods in
College Writing Programs: Theory into Practice. Ed. Paul Connolly and Teresa Vilardi. Mod-
ern Language Association, 1986. Reprinted by permission from the Modern Language As-
sociation.
"Taking Time Out from Grading and Evaluation While Working in a Conventional Sys-
tem." Peter Elbow. Assessing Writing 4.1. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted with permission
from Assessing Writing.
"Toward a Phenomenology of Free writing." Peter Elbow. Copyright © 1989 by the Jour-
nal of Basic Writing, Instructional Resource Center, Office of Academic Affairs, The City
University of New York. Reprinted by permission.
"The Uses of Binary Thinking." Peter Elbow. Journal of Advanced Composition 13.1 (Win-
ter 1993): 51-78. Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Advanced Composition.
"Using the Collage for Collaborative Writing" Composition Studies 27.1, 1999: 17:4 (for-
merly Freshman English News). Reprinted by permission.
"Voice in Literature." Peter Elbow. Reflective Stories, also Encyclopedia of English Studies
and Language Arts. Copyright © 1994. Reprinted with permission from the National Coun-
cil of Teachers of English.
"The War Between Reading and Writing—and How to End It." Peter Elbow. Rhetoric
Review 12.1 (Fall 1993): 5-24. Reprinted by permission.
"Writing Assessment: Do It Better, Do It Less." In The Politics and Practices of Assess-
ment in Writing. Ed. William Lutz, Edward White, and Sandra Kamusikiri. Modern Lan-
guage Association, 1996. Reprinted by permission from the Modern Language Association.
"Writing Assessment in the 21st Century: A Utopian View." Composition in the 21st
Century © 1996. Ed. Lynn Z. Bloom, Donald A. Daiker, and Edward M. White. Reprinted
with permission by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University.
Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. Peter Elbow. Copy-
right © 1998, 2E. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
Writing Without Teachers. Peter Elbow. Copyright © 1973, 2E 1998. Reprinted by per-
mission of Oxford University Press.
Contents
Introduction xiii
Part I Premises and Foundations 1
1 Illiteracy at Oxford and Harvard:
Reflections on the Inability to Write 5
2 A Map of Writing in Terms of Audience and Response 28
3 The Uses of Binary Thinking 48
Fragments:
The Believing Game—A Challenge after
Twenty-Five Years 76
Part II The Generative Dimension 81
4 Freewriting and the Problem of Wheat and Tares 85
5 Closing My Eyes as I Speak:
An Argument for Ignoring Audience 93
6 Toward a Phenomenology of Freewriting 113
Fragments:
Wrongness and Felt Sense 137
The Neglect and Rediscovery of Invention 141
Form and Content as Sources of Creation 142