Things to Say VIII

This has been a long series, talking about how people (especially students, but not exclusively) find things to say, so I’ll sum up the steps covered.

(1)   Have a generally broad background knowledge and a working knowledge of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and websites that will fill the gaps in that knowledge.  (Hopefully you read a lot as a kid.  If you didn’t then, start now.  Throw your smart phone in the trash first—or, if you can’t bear to do that, download a Kindle or Overdrive app so you can read books on it, and delete your social media apps, so that you actually DO read books on it.)

(2)   Read a text, any text.

(3)   How do you feel?  Write that down.

(4)   Now ask yourself why you felt that way.  Write that down.  Do your reasons make sense?  Why or why not?  Do you think the author meant you to feel that way?  Why or why not?

(5)   Now that you’re had feelings and rationally analyzed them, are you ready to make a judgment about whether your feelings were justified?  In other words—do you agree, disagree, or a little bit of both with the author?  Or perhaps, do you need more information before making a judgment?  Whatever the answer is, write it down.

(6)   If you do need more information (you probably do), go back to step one.  Look up what you need to know, write it down, and then repeat steps 2-5.  Keep repeating 1-5 until you feel you are in fact ready to make a judgment about what the text is saying and whether or not it is true, good, beautiful, useful, funny, etc., or otherwise.

(7)   Now that you have a judgment, write that down.

(8)   Congratulations!  You have a thesis statement and an extensive array of notes, some of which are emotional arguments, some of which are rational ones, and some of which are factual.  In other words, you have done all the prework for writing a paper.

Of course, seasoned writers often do most of this in their heads.  Guess what?  Student writers do too.  That’s why most of them never learn how to actually write—because no one’s explained to them that this is how it works.  This is how you actually engage with a text.  This is where ideas come from.

But now that I’ve realized this, I have a secret weapon.  Yes, Mrs. Finburg has a new worksheet.  And if I ever get my hands on freshmen again, they will be introduced to the eight-step process, and turning their processes in, before ever a paper lands on my desk.