Elbow, Peter

Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
“But nonargument was my whole point. I was struck then—as I still am—with the limitations of argument, doubt, debate, and criticism. I was trying to show the power of a disciplined and methodological use of believing, listening, affirming, entering in, attending to one’s experience, and trying to share one’s experience with others” (xxi).

“My appendix essay is an argument for the believing game because it is so undervalued and underused—and because the doubting game is so overvalued and overused (xxii).

“But in truth, I wasn’t much interested then in where things came from—only in where they were going. I wasn’t so interested in other people’s ideas as sources and scholarship—only in what I could make of them. Now looking back, I am finally more aware and interested in connections to what came before” (xxxii).

This really goes along with my theory of pedagogy (in composition). We need to see that what we are building today is only the fruit of the past being merged with present ideas and thoughts. The past, while in some ways is no longer relevant, is what brought us to this point! It is the foundation.

“The main thing about freewriting is that it is nonediting. It is an exercise in bringing together the process of producing words and putting them down on the page. Practiced regularly, it undoes the ingrained habit of editing at the same time you are trying to produce” (6).

“It turns out, in fact, that these brief exercises in not caring help you care better afterward” (7).

“If there is any validity to the infectious model of bad writing, it words the other way around: there is garbage in your head; if you don’t let it out onto paper, it really will infect everything else up there” (8).

What do we do with infection other than to try to get it out. Fresh air and sunshine are the best cures in the world for bacteria.

“Most people’s relationship to writing is helplessness (13)”

“My starting point, then, is that the ability to write is unusually mysterious to most people” (13).

“Think of writing then not as a way to transmit a message but as a way to grow and cook a message” (15).

“The lesson, then, is to try to treat writing not exclusively as linear but as wholistic: not starting in at one end and writing till you get to the other; but rather as successive sketches of the same picture—the first sketches very rough and vague—each one getting clearer, more detailed, more accurate, and better organized as well” (29).

“Most processes engaged in by live organisms are cyclic, developmental processes that run through time and end up different from how they began. The fact is that most people find they improve their ability to think carefully and discriminatingly if they allow themselves to be sloppy and relinquish control at other times” (34).