Re: Freewriting

Beth W. Baldwin, PhD (bobaldwi@HAMLET.UNCG.EDU)
Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:44:03 -0400

To be honest, I love to freewrite but I rarely do it anymore.
Furthermore, I rarely write or compose (for publication) in any kind
of way I recommend to students. As much as I hate to admit it, I sit
at the keyboard and compose as if what I'm composing is it, THE finished
product. It being a finished product is, of course, rarely the case;
I always end up doing lots of revising. It's just that I never really
begin with revision in mind.

I do feel like this is a rather embarrassing confession because I don't
practice what I preach. I forgive myself, though, because I try as much
as possible to teach rhetoric rather than composition if that makes any
sense. Textual conversation rather than formal composition is my main
interest and that is more like freewriting than composing an essay.

Inasmuch as electronic conversation, email, is "like" freewriting, I do
lots of it. It's just not the way I do an essay of my own!

Beth

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Beth Baldwin, Ph.D. *
Office of Continuing Education *
University of North Carolina at Greensboro *
Greensboro, NC 27412-5001 *
910-334-5140 *
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