Writing Workshop with Peter Thomas

Peter is a lecturer at Middlesex University, and apart of the Learning Enhancement Team. The first exercise we all took part in was freewriting. I have not consciously attempted this way of writing before, as a way of learning new skills. Free-writing is when you try to write full sentences, without stops, to not read what you have written as you go. If you are stuck with what to write, physically write "I do not know what to write!"  

Virginia Wolf explains free-writing as "writing as a gallop"

We had five minutes to free-write about the topic: What is Writing? 

This is what I wrote.

Writing is a form of expression, and a way that humans connect to one another. Writing also feeds, gathers and disperses information, usually in the form on non-fiction. Writing can be elegant, beautiful, make people cry. There are many forms of writing: novelists, publishers, poets, authors, songwriters, rappers. In writing, there is no right or wrong. It can be something you can play with, exploring the meaning of words, punctuation and layouts on the page. In the literal sense, I suppose writing is the brain giving neurons signals to our hands and we use our skill of hand-writing to put pen onto paper. The ink from our pen tools can glide onto paper, and magically create words, which is a beautiful thing. 

Next, we organised our first step of generating words and ideas, by selecting 2-3 key sections of our writing that we believe stands out. Then, we shared and presented our selected pieces to the group. 

1. Generate: Do not worry about the reader

2. Organise: Group ideas, themes and map relationships

3. Present: How does the writing sound? Is the grammar and punctuation accurate? Proof-read. 

An interesting point that I had not considered was the idea of social convention when it comes to writing. Most of us write with pen and paper, or type on a laptop. What about different tools of writing? Cave-men used stones and sticks. Thinking outside the box! 

Mindmapping is a great way of releasing ideas onto paper, and Peter provided comfort in saying that it just gets easier the more you do it. In the October half-term break, I will do some mind mapping of my learning journey so far which will in turn help with my artefact at the end of module 3. 

(Unfortunately, I had to leave before the end of the lecture. So whoever attended, please do write a blog post!)