Write About What You Think, What The Authors Implies About The Assigned Article Creative Writing Examples

Peter Elbow wrote a very interesting article titled “Writing First”. In it, he posits the idea that it discourages children from learning if you put reading before writing, like what is traditionally done. He also proposes that, for college students, writing before completing a reading assignment in either a creative writing class or philosophy class can help the student to approach the assignment with an open and an especially inquiring mind. What Elbow proposes is intriguing, and it makes sense. Now, I do not completely agree with him when he says that children should be taught to read by learning first to write, using their own invented spelling. Now, if children grow used to writing badly misspelled words, then they will develop bad patterns of spelling which will make it hard to both write and read properly. Other than that one objection, though, I think that Peter Elbow’s ideas are excellent. Writing does engage the student’s minds, getting them to ask questions when they are in high school and college. For younger children, writing their own little stories gets them interested in even learning how to read. If they become interested in their own stories, and the process of actually writing them, then they will want to see what other people might have to say and see if these foreign stories are just as interesting as the ones that they just made up in their heads. Writing helps to teach critical thinking – something greatly lacking now days – for writing makes you stop and question the ideas that have been placed before. In all, Peter Elbow’s ideas are fascinating and I mostly agree with them.