ENGL 505A

To emphasize to my students the advantage and the resposibility that comes with writing, I tell them the Latin saying: "Verba volens, scripta manent," which means "The spoken word flies away, while what is written stays there." Then, I tell them what Sommers mentions on page 176, that "Writing has a spatial and temporal features not apparent in speech." Sometimes I have the students work in pairs and I ask them to "tell" their paper to their partner. Upon finishing, they are to write down comments about their peer's paper and hand the comments to him/her. Next, I ask them to write down their thoughts having in mind the comments of their peers. Finally, I ask them to underline what they think is essential in their freewrite and to start writing based upon what they see as essential. When they bring a first draft, I ask them to work on higher order concerns (message, audience, details, etc.) I think I will try to have students try out two or three introductory paragraphs so in order to have them see what way they want their paper to go.