Getting Started: Discovering and Drafting

 
Discovery writing can be communicated in a variety of ways/mediums. Do not think that because this is a writing class only the written word “counts.”
Some people do their best thinking without keyboards or pens; even people who DO think best using paper or screen can obtain intellectual insights by trying different approaches.  Sketching, storytelling, thinking in metaphors, oral outlining, and movement can all serve to start your thinking and develop ideas for your writing. 
 
For this activity to help with your first paper, we are going to begin with some talking.  We are going to start by telling each other about our ideas before putting it down on paper.  Writing does not have to be a more permanent medium than speaking.  When you begin to write, you have even more freedom than when you are speaking, for you can continually change and revise your words before you publish them.
So start by talking about your ideas: 

• Find a partner.  One of you will begin as a speaker, the other as a respondent. 
• If you are the speaker, begin talking about yourself and the ideas that you have for your paper
• If you are the respondent, you will listen actively, but remain quiet.
• After 4 or 5 minutes, the respondent will have a chance to ask questions about anything that she or he was unsure about or wanted to know more about. 
• Rotate to the next respondent and repeat the process. 
• After you have acted as the speaker 2 or 3 times, take a minute to make some notes.  What did you talk about?  What were your respondents interested in?  How did you choose what to include and what to leave out?  How did you make your ideas interesting to your listener?  How did your ideas change as you told different audiences?  Why did you make these changes? 
• Then we will switch roles, with the speakers becoming respondents and vice versa and repeat the process. 

 
As you sit down to write, use your notes from the discussions that you had.  What did you enjoy talking about the most?  What was most interesting to those you were speaking to?  Don’t feel that you are trapped with whatever idea you start with.  All of these elements that changed as you spoke can continue to evolve as you write.  They do not have to be perfect as you begin.  Keep in mind that this paper will be the first of several drafts.  You don’t need to spend a lot of time worrying about details such as grammar or word choice.  Instead, work on developing and exploring your ideas just as you did when you were speaking, knowing that you have the room to revise later.
 
Reference:  Dunn, Patricia.  Talking, Sketching, Moving:  Multiple Literacies in the Teaching of Writing.  Portsmouth:  Heineman-Boynton/Cook, 2001.