Writing Workshop Day 1
Writing Processes
We’ll begin today by reflecting on our individual writing processes. Think about how you approach a writing task. Do you take a bunch of notes first and then organize your thoughts? Do you have to craft a “perfect” introduction with a one-sentence thesis before you can move on? Do you reread each sentence you write before you can move on to the next? Are you an outliner? A mapper? An all-nighter-writer? Take a few minutes to write about the kind of writer you are.
When you finish writing, take a look at this short excerpt where Anne Lamott’s defines her idea of writing “Shitty First Drafts.”
Decisions, decisions ….
We will spend a good portion of today making progress towards Project 1: The Discourse Community Analysis. You should consider this an opportunity to compose your shitty first draft, what Lamott would call “the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and let it romp all over the place” (1).
If it is helpful to focus on one area of the assignment, below are reminders about the final expectations of the introductory paragraph(s) and body paragraph(s):
- Your introduction should define your discourse community by quoting Gee directly. In other words, introduce your discourse community to me by using at least one of the following terms: primary, secondary, dominant, or non dominant. Remember that any time you quote a source, you should also explain that source in your own words and connect it to your discourse.
- You should organize the body of your writing into paragraphs that support a claim or topic sentence. For example, a paragraph might be about your specific role in your community OR about a specific practice within the community OR about a community artifact. However, a single paragraph should NOT be about all of those things at once. Think of each body paragraph as forwarding a single claim supported by evidence that you analyze and explain in detail.
I recommend starting by focusing on one are above. (Don’t try to do all the things right now.) If you are working on your introductory paragraphs that connect Gee to your discourse community, take a look at Beatriz’s Blog Post 1 as an example of how to get started. If you’re working on developing unified body paragraphs, take a look at Robert’s Blog Post 2 as an example.
While I welcome all composing practices in this class, I’m going to encourage you to start using old technology–pens, papers, markers, scissors–to cut, paste, write, and reorganize. Try to stay off your screens for a little bit today.
Looking Back to Discourses & Conflict
I want to give you space to think about conflict within and among discourses. Vershawn Ashanti Young, also known as Dr. Vay, is a scholar who has written extensively about conflict between discourses and who studies how people experience moving between different discourse communities.
In groups, review Dr. Vay’s chapter “Should Writers Use They Own English” and answer the following: How would Dr. Vay explain conflict when moving between discourses or when different discourses come into contact? How can code meshing be seen as a solution to conflict that arises when different discourses come into contact? Try to use a quotation from Dr. Vay’s text to support some part of your answer.
HOMEWORK
Continue working on Project 1: Discourse Community Analysis. Bring a shitty first draft of your project to class on Thursday, 9/26.
Works Cited
Kentucky Educational Television. “Vershawn Ashanti Young: Code Meshing.” YouTube, 3 April 2014. https://youtu.be/OIrED9k5tmM?si=8SpRIpPDqd4oQd0E.
Lamott, Anne. From Bird by Bird. Accessed https://rachelcarson-wiki.lt.ucsc.edu/protected/sfds.pdf.
Young, Vershawn Ashanti. “Should Writers Use They Own English.” Writing Centers and the New Racism. Edited by Laura Greenfield and Karen Rowan, Utah State UP, 2011, pp. 61-72.