Computer and Writing Practice

I teach both first-year writing and professional writing and they are both held in a computer classroom. In each of my classes on Tuesday, I used a variation of the activity below, although the activity as it is described below most closely matches what we did in the professional writing course. Before we started, I explained that we would share the writing that they would do in this portion of class.

First, I asked students to freewrite for 5 minutes about the topics of their first papers.

After they had written for five minutes, I then suggested some narrowing or focusing questions and asked them to write for another five minutes. We're using Writing in a Visual Age as our text, and I used the questions on page 71 as a guide:

• In your opinion, what makes this topic special, remarkable, or distinctive?
• What are the impressions it has left on you?
• Why did it leave those impressions?

Then, I asked students to share with the class what they were writing and thinking about their topics. We spent a few minutes in class discussion and I let everyone talk who wanted to talk to share their ideas.

Then, I asked people to switch computers and provide feedback to other students on their topics. I asked them to use the questions above as a guide.

After 5 more minutes, I asked them to switch again and provide feedback to another classmate. Again, I used page 71 of our text as a guide, as follows:

• How might the writer make it more interesting for the reader?
• What do you know about the topic that the writer might consider?

Then, they switched another time as I provided a couple more questions they could consider to guide their feedback. Again, I used page 71 of our text as a guide:

• Where might the person go for source material beyond personal experience?
• Where might the author go for images? What sorts of images add meaning? Details?

I view this activity as a form of small-group, written-discussion work. I like this activity because it asks students to think, read, write, and move. From the feedback I received in class, I think students enjoyed this activity. Other instructors could modify the questions to suit their needs and vary the time students spend writing at each interval depending upon the time allotted.