English 0950 Project
Discovery Writing: Writing to Think About Writing

Goals:
1. to teach you that you always have lots to write about and that you can get it out without too much agony;
2. to introduce you to writing for the purpose of thinking about writing.

Main Assignment:

Write: Produce at least ten pages of discovery writing by trying the free-writing and mapping strategies described at the Writers' PLACE in Discovery Grove.

My advice is that you do not try to write all ten pages in one sitting. Spread this writing out over about five days, trying to write for twenty to thirty minutes a day--a couple of pages at a time. You do want to spend more than a few minutes per session; otherwise, you will always be making notes about what is on the surface of your mind distracting you at the moment. It takes more time, at least twenty minutes, to cut through the surface stuff and get down to what is really on your mind. You may want to begin each writing session with a few minutes of free-writing about all the things that are distracting you and getting in the way of your writing right now. Then try to focus on a topic that is on your mind.

Read and think: after you have completed your 10 pages, read back over what you have written. Can you discover any startling connections, tangents, leaps, or obsessions? Try Thinking in Discovery Grove. Describe your experience of this discovery writing, reading and thinking in a process memo to me.

To complete this project in one week, follow the 6-day plan step-by-step.

6-Day Plan for Completing this Project

Day 1: Write to discover what is on your mind.

• Go to the Library and search PALS General Magazines Index for the following article: Donald M. Murray. "Write What You Don't Know." The Writer May 1998: 7. Read this article.
• Then, at the Writers' PLACE, try Open-ended free-writing or Blasting through Writer's Block

Day 2: Deciding what to write about about.

• The Writers' PLACE: Brainstorming Topics and Structured Free-writing
• The New Century Handbook, section 3a (pp. 20-23) and section 3b (pp. 27-30).
• Make a list of some topics that interest you. Then choose one of the ideas from your list and freewrite for ten minutes nonstop at the keyboard or in long hand. Your brainstorming list and your freewriting count as part of your 10 pages of discovery writing.

Day 3: The Writers' PLACE: Focused Free-writing--Choose one of the topics from the list you made on Day 2 or try one of the following suggestions:

• Choose one of the topics from the list you made on Day 2 or try one of the following suggestions.
• Your earliest memories of learning to read
• The stories of your best/worst writing experiences
• What you know about your name--why you were given the name you have and what it means to you and your family
• A character sketch of yourself as a thinker

Day 4: The Writers' PLACE: Blind-Writing or invisible writing (see Handbook, p. 32)--Choose one of the topics from the list you made on Day 2 or try one of the following suggestions:

• Your most embarrassing moment
• A secret no one knows about you
• All the reasons why you don't have time to write

Day 5: The Writers' PLACE: Mapping or clustering (see Handbook, p. 32)--Make a mind map or cluster for one of the topics from the list you made on Day 2 or try mapping one of the following suggestions:

• Your favorite smell and memories you associate with that smell
• A topic about which you are an expert
• A problem you would like to solve (who, what, when, where, how?)

Day 6: Write your process memo.

• In Discovery Grove at the Writers' PLACE, read about "Discovering Startling Connections, Tangents, Leaps and Obsessions."
• Read the directions for writing a process memo.

Process Memo:

Write 1 1/2 to 2 pages of process writing about what happens when you work in Discovery Grove. Draft this process writing as a memo to me, your teacher.

What should you say in your memo? Here are some suggestions:

--Do you usually like to write or do you dislike writing? Why? Describe your best and/or your worst writing experience.
--Did you visit Discovery Grove this week? Which strategies did you use? Were any of the exercises or readings particularly helpful or confusing?
--What discoveries did you make during your private writing? About yourself as a writer...about your attitudes toward writing...about your writing process...about what is on your mind?
--What topic(s) did you write about?
Were you obsessed with one topic or did you write about several topics? Why do you want to write about these topics?
--Finally, at the end of your memo, tell me if you have any concerns about this class or about your writing. Do you have any personal goals that are not mentioned in the syllabus? Be sure to ask me questions about the class and about your writing. I will write answers back to you.

Project Requirements
To receive credit for completing this project, you must:
___ count off your 10 pages of discovery writing.
___ turn in your process memo (1 1/2 to 2 pages, typed).

Additional Readings about Discovery Writing

Cameron, Julia.

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1992.

Dorough, Donna K.

"Mapping for Understanding: Using Concept Maps as Windows to Students' Minds." The Science Teacher Jan. 1997: 36.

Elbow, Peter and Pat Belanoff.

A Community of Writers. (2nd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995, 99-121.

Goldberg, Natalie.

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala, 1986.

Gorrell, Donna.

"Central Question for Prewriting and Revising." Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Feb. 1996: 34-38.

Murray, Donald M.

"What--and How--to Write When You Have No Time to Write." The Writer Sept. 1996:5. (Available on line)

Murray, Donald M.

"Write What You Don't Know." The Writer May 1998: 7. (Available on-line).

Reynolds, Mark.

"Make Free-Writing More Productive." College Composition and Communication 39 (Feb. 1988):81-82.

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