‘Non-magical thinking: presenting writing developmentally in schools.’
From Janet Emig (1983) The Web of Meaning. Upper Monclair NJ: Boynton Cook. pp 140 -143
"…What, first, are the tenets of the magical thinking paradigm about writing that currently dominates the schools? Here is its credo:
What, in contrast, are the findings from the developmental research into writing:
This is an extract from one of the texts discussed by delegates at the first residential of NWP (UK), 23-25 October 2016. It is sobering to reflect that, 33 years later, the educational reforms in England, manifest in the National Curriculum 2014, there is still much 'magical thinking' about writing. The escalation of grammatical constructions over the years is now statutory and features disproportionately in the assessment of children's 'progress' in writing. Elsewhere, there is a focus on writing 'as design', and little respect is given to the provisional, interactive and erratic process of writing. In reifying experience, writing engages writers unevenly at many levels - physical, emotional, social, intellectual, interpersonal, spiritual.
In 'Introducing Teachers' Writing Groups' (Smith and Wrigley 2016) Emig's work informs some of the thinking on composing. NWP (UK) promotes and supports teachers' writing groups so that by regularly practising writing, teachers may become more familiar with their own writing processes. Teachers value writing alongside each other and being allowed a space for experiment and discovery where judgements are deferred and distributed. With the confidence generated in such contexts, teachers apply in the classroom the same listening, belief, experimentation, attention and collaboration that they themselves have found productive.
Simon Wrigley
NWP outreach director
October 2016
From Janet Emig (1983) The Web of Meaning. Upper Monclair NJ: Boynton Cook. pp 140 -143
"…What, first, are the tenets of the magical thinking paradigm about writing that currently dominates the schools? Here is its credo:
- Writing is predominantly taught rather than learned.
- Children must be taught to write automatically, from parts to wholes. The commonplace is that children must be taught to write sentences before they can be allowed to write paragraphs before they can be permitted to attempt ‘whole’ pieces of discourse.
- There is essentially one process of writing that serves all writers for all their aims, modes, intents and purposes.
- That process is linear: all planning precedes all writing….as all writing precedes all revising.
- The process of writing is almost exclusively conscious: as evidence, a full plan or outline can be drawn up and adhered to for any piece of writing: the outline also assumes that writing is transcribing, since it can be so totally prefigured; thought exists prior to its linguistic formulation.
- Perhaps because writing is conscious, it can be done swiftly and on order.
- There is no community or collaboration in writing: it is exclusively a silent and solitary activity.
What, in contrast, are the findings from the developmental research into writing:
- Writing is predominantly learned rather than taught.
- Writers of all ages as frequently work from wholes to parts as from parts to wholes; in writing, there is a complex interplay interplay between focal and global; concerns: from an interest in what word would come next, to the shape of the total piece.
- There is no monolithic process of writing: there are processes of writing that differ because of aim, intent, mode, and audience: although there are shared features in the ways we write, there are as well individual, even idiosyncratic, features in our processes of writing.
- The processes of writing do not proceed in a linear sequence: rather, they are recursive –we not only plan, then write, then revise; but we also revise, hen plan, then write.
- Writing is as often a pre-conscious or unconscious roaming as it is a planned and conscious rendering of information and events.
- The rhythms of writing are uneven - more, erratic. The pace of writing can be very slow, particularly if the writing represents significant learning. Writing is also slow since it involves what Vygotsky calls ‘elaborating the web of meaning,’ supplying the specific and implicit links to render lexical, syntactic, semantic, and rhetorical pieces into organic wholes.
- The processes of writing can be enhanced by working in, and with, a group of other writers, perhaps especially a teacher, who give vital response, including advice."
This is an extract from one of the texts discussed by delegates at the first residential of NWP (UK), 23-25 October 2016. It is sobering to reflect that, 33 years later, the educational reforms in England, manifest in the National Curriculum 2014, there is still much 'magical thinking' about writing. The escalation of grammatical constructions over the years is now statutory and features disproportionately in the assessment of children's 'progress' in writing. Elsewhere, there is a focus on writing 'as design', and little respect is given to the provisional, interactive and erratic process of writing. In reifying experience, writing engages writers unevenly at many levels - physical, emotional, social, intellectual, interpersonal, spiritual.
In 'Introducing Teachers' Writing Groups' (Smith and Wrigley 2016) Emig's work informs some of the thinking on composing. NWP (UK) promotes and supports teachers' writing groups so that by regularly practising writing, teachers may become more familiar with their own writing processes. Teachers value writing alongside each other and being allowed a space for experiment and discovery where judgements are deferred and distributed. With the confidence generated in such contexts, teachers apply in the classroom the same listening, belief, experimentation, attention and collaboration that they themselves have found productive.
Simon Wrigley
NWP outreach director
October 2016