Developing response partnership in writing groups
What helps? (Example of NWP US Classroom practice)
Groups and partnerships need to find out by practice what feels comfortable - and useful - for them. It can help to reflect on what is most useful for developing and sustaining writing and sharing. (What kind of feedback would help you return to work at your writing, or what would keep you going?) In some circumstances it will help the group if the leader is explicit about response protocols, but over-rigidity can make things awkward for both writers and response partners.
Withholding criticism and living alongside the writer helps develop trust. Admiring certain features, saying what you liked or what the writing reminded you of, even reciprocating with your own story, can be much more openly developmental that grilling the writer with questions. 'Thank you for sharing' may be all a struggling writer needs. This recognises the courage required to share your own writing.
Before listening/sharing:
How are you feeling? - confident in yourself, in your writing, of my sensitivity and my judgement?
What/who is this writing for?
What stage are you at with your writing? Are you at the beginning of thinking, expressing your first exploratory thoughts? Maybe you haven't yet put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and are just wanting my perspective of the direction, voice, emphasis and shape of what you are about to write. Or is your writing something that you have edited extensively and would now like to 'test drive' with a critical friend - to discover what kinds of response it elicits?
Do you want me to hear or see your writing - or both? Do you want to read your writing aloud - or shall I? Or would you like me to read your writing and respond later - orally or in writing? Do you want your response partner to hear or see your writing - or both? Will you read it aloud - or will you ask your reader to do so? Will you share your writing with one person or a whole group? Do you want an immediate or a more considered response? Would you be prepared to post your writing by email to someone - or even online - or do you want to be present ?
It can be helpful if a response partner allows the writer some space to think these things through.
During listening/sharing:
After listening/sharing:
1. Encouraging responses develops trust, especially when they connect closely to the ideas or the language chosen:
Peter Elbow (Writing without Teachers) suggests supporting students' writing development by making them more aware of how their writing is received by DIFFERENT peer-listeners and peer-readers (not just the teacher). He advocates maximising the viewpoints and voices in the class by running regular response groups of 5 or 6 students. If the teacher writes herself, she may, with the whole class or in a group, read/show her own writing and invite responses along particular lines, or by using particular prompts. It can be useful to start positively by withholding critical judgement, and by helping the writer by feeding back honest opinions and impressions (after all, students may 'hear' what the teacher has missed, simply because an association or word or attitude will resonate differently to a younger ear).
Students might be invited to feed back to the author in certain ways:
It can be useful to a writer to receive 10-20 word summaries from others of the writing just read aloud or seen. (Several NWP UK Milton Keynes y11-13 students say that knowing how their writing has affected their readers - amused, scared, intrigued, angered, touched, educated - has been more useful than premature advice about vocabulary and structure or 'closure' on appropriate grading. SW 2014)
Click here to read how one NWP US teacher manages response groups in her classroom.
2. Some people favour 'open' imaginative/recreational responses which can be practised and discussed as a group:
3. Early conversations might focus on the process:
Neutral observations about style and structure can help the writer 'hear' themselves and become more aware of their style choices:
Response 'stems' can help. These range from neutral observations to warmer appreciation and colder critique.
Further stylistic experimentation:
Simon Wrigley
updated 31.8.2014
Groups and partnerships need to find out by practice what feels comfortable - and useful - for them. It can help to reflect on what is most useful for developing and sustaining writing and sharing. (What kind of feedback would help you return to work at your writing, or what would keep you going?) In some circumstances it will help the group if the leader is explicit about response protocols, but over-rigidity can make things awkward for both writers and response partners.
Withholding criticism and living alongside the writer helps develop trust. Admiring certain features, saying what you liked or what the writing reminded you of, even reciprocating with your own story, can be much more openly developmental that grilling the writer with questions. 'Thank you for sharing' may be all a struggling writer needs. This recognises the courage required to share your own writing.
Before listening/sharing:
How are you feeling? - confident in yourself, in your writing, of my sensitivity and my judgement?
What/who is this writing for?
What stage are you at with your writing? Are you at the beginning of thinking, expressing your first exploratory thoughts? Maybe you haven't yet put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and are just wanting my perspective of the direction, voice, emphasis and shape of what you are about to write. Or is your writing something that you have edited extensively and would now like to 'test drive' with a critical friend - to discover what kinds of response it elicits?
Do you want me to hear or see your writing - or both? Do you want to read your writing aloud - or shall I? Or would you like me to read your writing and respond later - orally or in writing? Do you want your response partner to hear or see your writing - or both? Will you read it aloud - or will you ask your reader to do so? Will you share your writing with one person or a whole group? Do you want an immediate or a more considered response? Would you be prepared to post your writing by email to someone - or even online - or do you want to be present ?
It can be helpful if a response partner allows the writer some space to think these things through.
During listening/sharing:
- It can be more supportive to sit next to rather than opposite the writer. Adults often find that a cup of coffee helps.
- Although it can be useful to listen out for certain features, such as vocabulary or voice, this may deafen you to the overall effect and the uniqueness of this writing. It is often better to listen with an open mind, and then ask the writer to read all or some of the writing again so that second thoughts can adjust first impressions.
- Some people find it useful to take notes so that any feedback is precise and relevant, but this can also be a distraction to the writer - and also mean that the listener misses the overall effects. Before you take notes, ask the writer if this is OK with her/him.
- I have found it helpful to go for a walk. As you walk and talk it is possible to let your own motion together release the words and, literally, 'walk through the ideas'. Sometimes all it takes is to move location or even have something to drink. Changing activity rests and stimulates the mind to think afresh.
After listening/sharing:
1. Encouraging responses develops trust, especially when they connect closely to the ideas or the language chosen:
- "Thank you for sharing that. I found the ending particularly moving."
- "I liked it when you wrote ..."
- "I love the word 'frantic'."
- "That thing with the dog, that happened to me once ..."
Peter Elbow (Writing without Teachers) suggests supporting students' writing development by making them more aware of how their writing is received by DIFFERENT peer-listeners and peer-readers (not just the teacher). He advocates maximising the viewpoints and voices in the class by running regular response groups of 5 or 6 students. If the teacher writes herself, she may, with the whole class or in a group, read/show her own writing and invite responses along particular lines, or by using particular prompts. It can be useful to start positively by withholding critical judgement, and by helping the writer by feeding back honest opinions and impressions (after all, students may 'hear' what the teacher has missed, simply because an association or word or attitude will resonate differently to a younger ear).
Students might be invited to feed back to the author in certain ways:
- what the writing made you feel (response to tone/voice?),
- how your feelings changed as the writing progressed (response to structure?)
- what the writing made you see (response to descriptive re-creative detail?),
- what memories the writing provoked (echoes of content and vocabulary?)
- what the writing made you think about - in your own life or in the wider world (echoes of ideas, feelings, thoughts and themes?).
It can be useful to a writer to receive 10-20 word summaries from others of the writing just read aloud or seen. (Several NWP UK Milton Keynes y11-13 students say that knowing how their writing has affected their readers - amused, scared, intrigued, angered, touched, educated - has been more useful than premature advice about vocabulary and structure or 'closure' on appropriate grading. SW 2014)
Click here to read how one NWP US teacher manages response groups in her classroom.
2. Some people favour 'open' imaginative/recreational responses which can be practised and discussed as a group:
- If you could choose a colour/music for the writing, what colour/music would it be?
- If you could choose a place or town where this might be set, what would it be?
- If you could give a title of a book/play or film which the writing reminded you of, what would it be? (Suggestions for related 'further reading' might be rather different)
- If this writing were an animal/car/piece of furniture, what would it be?
- Choose two words/phrases for this writing - one which was from the writing, one which was not.
3. Early conversations might focus on the process:
- How did the ideas come to you? What events/stimuli/experiences/reading influenced you?
- What effects were you trying to achieve? Are there any areas you would like me to comment on?
- Which parts of your writing came most easily, which have you changed, what choices did you make?
- How did you feel as you wrote? Where are you thinking of taking your writing next?
Neutral observations about style and structure can help the writer 'hear' themselves and become more aware of their style choices:
- "You wrote this in the first person in the present tense."
- "You adopted the voice of a male/young/angry/detached/vulnerable narrator."
- "You start by writing a little about x, but the weight of what you write is about y."
- "The words flow easily in this part, but here the thought sounds more congested."
- "You spend a long time on these details, but you leave this to the reader's imagination."
Response 'stems' can help. These range from neutral observations to warmer appreciation and colder critique.
- Vocabulary choices and their effect: "I noticed these words: e.g. frozen, stone, crack ... they made me feel ..."
- Associations: "At first your writing reminded me of .... but later I felt ... Are those the effects you were after?"
- Voice, shape and structure: "At the beginning your tone seemed ... but later the tone changed to ... Was that deliberate?
- Transitions and sequences: "At this point your focus (abruptly/subtly) shifts from this place/mood/character to ... "
- Content, ideas and detail: "That bit at the beginning about your father ... can you tell me a bit more about that?"
Further stylistic experimentation:
- Retell from another character's perspective or in a different voice
- Adjust/ reverse the order of events (flashback?)
- Try in a different genre - now make it a set of instructions/a play/a poem/an advert/an argument (see Queneau's exercises in style Quick write, Longer exercises Number 8)
- Write a three-sentence summary/synopsis of what you were trying to say/what would the 'blurb' for your writing say?
- Imagine that your work has now been published, what would you say when interviewed about your purpose?
- Are there places where you have 'told' too much and not 'shown' enough?
- Is the feeling/mood as you would wish? Is the 'voice' sustained, does it build?
- Re-work in a different tense (past/present) or person (first/second/third)
- Transpose the setting
- Compress certain sections and expand others - playing about with the rhythm of sentence lengths
- Change the proportions of dialogue and description
- Convert description into dialogue, or vice versa.
- Eliminate adjectives and adverbs; revise noun and verb choice
- Choose less Latinate, more Anglo-Saxon vocabulary
Simon Wrigley
updated 31.8.2014