Writing Workshop

 

Writing Workshop with Peter Thomas- 14th October 6pm

Writing has always been a big love of mine. Though I do like working out number problems, there is something about working with words that just makes me happy. 

Language is weird. It's just a bunch of different noises that we string together and dedicate a meaning to, then to codify a written form we have a series of symbols that relate to one of the noises. It's literally just made up sounds and symbols. 

But writing has become a huge part of academia and is often the frustration of many people. There are lots of different forms and styles of language, and when writing the actual content is hard enough, making it flow and sound intelligently formulated is just more to worry over. 

The workshop last Wednesday with Peter Thomas was very interesting. We began with a Freewriting exercise in which we had 5 minutes to write continuously and in full sentences without reading back over what we had written. The idea of this was to generate a flow of thought, and if that flow stopped you would write 'I can't think what to write' until it came back to join the writing flow. 

The topic we were given was 'What is Writing?', and after the five minutes we read back over what we had written and highlighted the phrases and elements we thought were interesting, important or significant.

Some of mine were:

• use of language in symbols and letters
• express thoughts and feeling
• communication
• a portal to allow one, or many, person(s) into the thoughts of the writer
• both has and evokes emotion
• viewpoint

It was interesting to see the results of this and read back over what was a flow of thought. Doing this exercise without any prior research or thinking made it feel as though we were tapping into some part of our subconscious to reveal some of our thoughts and understanding without worrying about their validity or worth by consciously thinking about them.

I think this could be a really good exercise to use in lots of areas when exploring personal practice or a particular subject relevant to it.

After this, we explored several quotes about writing and one that stuck with me is "Writing is re-writing" (Paul Abbot). In some ways, writing is re-writing your thoughts and then re-writing your writing - after all, you cannot edit a blank page. 

write ---> review ---> re-write

We discussed the three fundamental writing stages of Generate, Organise and Present, and the properties of a text:

                                     

purpose     --->     language  /  structure    --->     conventions                                                                                                 reader        --->     topics  /  technology      --->     choices                                                                                           context      --->             approach                --->      expectations                                                                                             

                              

Finally we looked at various resources to aid us with academic writing, including, 

• UEfAP.com
• Academic Phrasebook
• Library Search
• UniHub

I found this workshop to be beneficial in exploring the processes and components of writing, as well as noting resources to help with academic writing for assessments. The Freewriting exercise is something I will take forward as I explore different topics to see what I already know or think, and as I begin to generate ideas for writing.

In the words of William Wordsworth, 

"Fill your pages with the breathings of your heart."