Re: heuristics -Reply

[bobbie silk <bsilk@keller.clarke.edu>]

You know, Jon, what you (and our other fine colleagues) are saying makes
me think about when I use a generative heuristic, like tagmemics, and when
I don't.  I use it when the surface of the issue is smooth and hard, when
I can't find a fissure into which my thoughts might pry.  But when I'm
writing about something that is more open to me--like certain forms of
literature--I don't use a heuristic.  I suppose, like Christine, I use
freewriting, but I think of it more as writing-to-learn-notes or writing
my way through a problem in the composition before get down to working the
ideas into a draft.

I wonder if the real value in teaching heuristics to students is simply to
demonstrate that one can resist generalization or, with conscious will,
break through the smooth, hard surface of an unfamiliar topic.  Maybe it's
irrelevant whether or not they actually use heuristics--and maybe my
frustration with them is merely my own teaching-ego wanting them to use
what I have taught. 

  --Bobbie
    bsilk@keller.clarke.edu

On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Jon Olson wrote:

> Christine, Lynne, Margaret, I, too, love the interview as a heuristic
> (great idea; thanks for sharing it, Christine), and I imagine Bakhtin
> and Vygotsky would, too. :)  Freewriting has never worked for me,
> though it seems to be the one that works for the greatest number of
> other writers.  
> 
> I wonder if I don't use certain heuristics because I rarely write in
> genres where freewriting or tagmemics would serve me (this has to do
> with my own quirks, not the genre's or the heuristic's: I don't often
> mediate collective bargaining agreements, Jeanne, and I usually
> generalize the way our hairy ancestors do, Bobbie ;) ).  But
> interviewing--I think that's what I like to do: talk to people about
> ideas as a way to invent and develop my own ideas and see them from
> different angles. Is that sorta what we're doing right now?  
> 
> In your class, Christine, you seem to use the interview as a way of
> documenting ideas (a progress report) as well as a way of generating
> ideas.  Can you say more about the latter?  Do you help interviewers
> with question prompts?  --Jon, olsonj@cla.orst.edu
> 
> >>> Margaret Clark <clark@uhdux2.dt.uh.edu>  1/21/97, 07:50am >>>
> I like this very much, Christine. It works in developmental writing 
> classes, it's respectful of the student's ideas, it builds a very
> nice  "collaborative" atmosphere -- and yes, it's sort of natural. To
> say  nothing of having a sturdy body of theory to support it. Thanks
> for  reminding me. I'm going to use it tomorrow morning.
> 
> Margaret clark@dt.uh.edu
> 
> 
> On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Christine Cozzens wrote:
> 
> > 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
> > 
> 
> 
>