Inkshedding;An interactive alternative to

the traditional freewrite

Doug BrentUniversity of Calgary

Visiting Professor, ODU

Freewriting“The idea is simply to write for ten minutes (later on, perhaps fifteen or twenty). Don't stop for anything. Go quickly without rushing. Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to wonder how to spell something, to wonder what word or thought to use, or to think about what you are doing. . . . Practiced regularly, it undoes the ingrained habit of editing at the same time you are trying to produce. It will make writing less blocked because words will come more easily.”

Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers

Inkshedding: The Origin of the Name

"With no bloodshed . . . but with immense beershed and inkshed”

Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets

Inkshedding vs. Freewriting

“Jim Reither and I began trying to make ‘freewriting’ (which we had learned about from writers like Peter Elbow) into something dialogically transactional. . . .What we wanted was to give writing a social role in a classroom, and thus to create a situation in which the writing was read by real readers, in order to understand and respond to what was said rather than to evaluate and "help" with the writing.”

Russ hunt, “What Is Inkshedding?”

• Written in response to a shared reading, activity, or other prompt

• Passed around, shared, but never evaluated or rewritten

• Readers mark passages that are particularly striking to them

• Passages with the most marks are transcribed, compiled and circulated

• As with freewriting, addresses the problem of blocking because of premature self-evaluation and editing

• Also addresses “narrow bandwidth” of oral discussion: only a few get to speak. With Inkshedding, bandwidth is increases so that all voices are heard

• Used for writing-to-learn, exploration, as a way to understand difficult texts and concepts

• Provides a method of writing that everyone can succeed with

“Inkshedding allows each member of the group to 'gather' her/his thoughts before they are scattered by that first, articulate, confident person who gets up to say what you weren't even thinking about."

Anthony Paré, cited in Hunt

Caveats:• Students can get so used to writing their

responses that they stop contributing to oral discussion altogether.

• Students can get confused between the sorts of responses that are appropriate to Inksheds (affirmative, carrying on the conversation, “Yes, I feel like that a lot too”), and the ones appropriate to a peer response to a draft (reporting confusions, unanswered questions, and other things that can help the writer improve the rext).

Inkshedding with Google Drive

• People can write more (and more legibly) with a keyboard.

• Inksheds can be responded to immediately with the Comments feature.

• Instead of underlining, students can copy and paste striking passages into a single shared document. “Publication” is immediate.

Extension: Students use Inksheds as research data in a “writing about writing” course

Activity: Read Mike Rose, “Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language.” Inkshed for 20 minutes or so about our own writing strategies. What rules, plans and strategies do you use? Would you describe them as heuristics or algorithms? Where did you pick them up? Have you ever had to unlearn a strategy because you found that it was not working for you?

I never use any form of written prewriting when I write papers, it is ironically distracting. Usually, all my prewriting goes on in my head. I think about the topic and how I can best convey my thoughts on that particular subject. (Elly)I agree with the rule “if it won’t fit my work, I’ll change it.” Although I may find an amazing resource, it might not fit with what my overarching idea is. (Sarah)I think I learned the “layout” method in middle or high school. I remember teachers pushing the idea of planning out every paper with an outline and I do believe it helps with certain types of assignments, but I have found out that every paper is different and it is hard to use the same writing method for each one. (Richard)I don’t usually start my papers with the introduction. I find that if I can write the body of my paper first then I can go back and write a strong introduction. (Kyle)

Assignment:

Write a brief research paper on rules and plans. Begin with a summary of Mike Rose’s article. Ask the question of whether people still use some of the strategies that Rose describes in 1980. Use the shared document and the raw Inksheds, plus your own experience if appropriate, to build up a sketch of some of the writing strategies used by members of the class. Develop a tentative conclusion about the writing strategies people use in 2015. Do you see any of the non-productive strategies that Mike Rose’s “blockers” used? If not, what do you see instead?

Inkshed for about five minutes on this presentation or the preceding one. Exchange and mark up each others’ papers.