heuristics

[Christine Cozzens <FAIRVIEW@worldnet.att.net>]

I am dedicated to what's rather clumsily called "focused free writing," 
and it's the only heuristic (if it is one?) that really works for me, 
or that I would bother with and not feel self-conscious about.  I simply 
force myself to spill my guts on a topic I am getting ready to write 
about.  I use the computer for the sake of speed and I give myself a 
time limit during which I must write furiously.  Usually it works like a 
charm to get me started and to force out some ideas, not always the key 
ones for the evolving piece, but always enough for a starting point for 
further thought. I think I did this before I found out it had a name, by 
the way, which is probably a good sign.

When I have a group of students, I have often used interviewing  as an 
invention tool, and maybe that "counts" in this discussion.  I'll ask 
students to interview a prtner aobut the upcoming assignment--usually 
ocne before they've done much thinking or writing and once later on in 
the process.  The interviewer writes down what the interviewee says to 
prove that there are some ideas in existence.  But I don' like to get 
any fancier than that.  I agree with other who've said that the trickier 
the tactics are, the more useless they are.

Christine Cozzens
Center for Writing and Speaking
Agnes Scott College