Cut-and-Paste Revising

Hello all!

Just recently got done with my book review for 680 and learned a lot of cool things about the writing process from my dear old friend, Peter Elbow. Aside from having an excellent name, Mr. Elbow talked about a cool revising process called the Cut-and-Paste revising. In this process the students, after writing a rough draft, cut apart their paper and piece together a revised edition using only the best parts. After they have used all their pieces they connect the parts they need to using transition sentences and, voila, a finished draft! I really enjoyed reading about his process and hope to implement it in my classroom when I become a full-time teacher. It is a great was for students to participate in a hand on activity and still be able to see that they are good writers.

His book offered a great many insights about the writing process. Another one is the ways he encourages students to develop voice in their writing. One process that he discusses is the having students write poetry that doesn’t focus on punctuation or grammar. The point is to write a poem that gets the stuck ideas out of their head and onto the paper. This idea is one that I wouldn’t use for all of my students but it would be great thing to use if you were teaching a creative writing class or as an option for prewriting. The other option that he discusses is often an obvious but a method I think many teachers and writers forget. Reading a paper out loud often alerts students to grammatical errors they make in their paper but it can also alert the students to when their paper becomes boring or sounds too scripted, for lack of a better word.

I would definitely recommend this book to any writer or teacher. It offers great strategies and activities for every step of the writing process. The first step you need to take to be a good teacher of writing is to become more familiar with the way that you write.

Three shorts weeks and the final semester of college will be over (for many of us). Right now all I can think about is what will I do next, I’m almost done with school but some of the most stressful years of my life await me in the next few months. Will I get that job? Is everything turned in? When I feel that I am becoming overwhelmed with the stress I put on a Beatles’ album think of one of my favorite quotes from an exceptionally brilliant man, John Lennon.

 Hello all!

Just recently got done with my book review for 680 and learned a lot of cool things about the writing process from my dear old friend, Peter Elbow. Aside from having an excellent name, Mr. Elbow talked about a cool revising process called the Cut-and-Paste revising. In this process the students, after writing a rough draft, cut apart their paper and piece together a revised edition using only the best parts. After they have used all their pieces they connect the parts they need to using transition sentences and, voila, a finished draft! I really enjoyed reading about his process and hope to implement it in my classroom when I become a full-time teacher. It is a great was for students to participate in a hand on activity and still be able to see that they are good writers.

His book offered a great many insights about the writing process. Another one is the ways he encourages students to develop voice in their writing. One process that he discusses is the having students write poetry that doesn’t focus on punctuation or grammar. The point is to write a poem that gets the stuck ideas out of their head and onto the paper. This idea is one that I wouldn’t use for all of my students but it would be great thing to use if you were teaching a creative writing class or as an option for prewriting. The other option that he discusses is often an obvious but a method I think many teachers and writers forget. Reading a paper out loud often alerts students to grammatical errors they make in their paper but it can also alert the students to when their paper becomes boring or sounds too scripted, for lack of a better word.

I would definitely recommend this book to any writer or teacher. It offers great strategies and activities for every step of the writing process. The first step you need to take to be a good teacher of writing is to become more familiar with the way that you write.

Three shorts weeks and the final semester of college will be over (for many of us). Right now all I can think about is what will I do next, I’m almost done with school but some of the most stressful years of my life await me in the next few months. Will I get that job? Is everything turned in? When I feel that I am becoming overwhelmed with the stress I put on a Beatles’ album think of one of my favorite quotes from an exceptionally brilliant man, John Lennon. 

  

Writing with Power by Peter Elbow  ISBN: 978195120189