Peter Elbow – Teacherless Writing Class

Peter Elbow has provided us with some optimistic views on a Teacherless writing class. Elbow elaborates on the communicable / oral aspects of a teacher less writing class.

According to Elbow “ When non – communication is more out in open, good communication can begin. People eventually start to hear each other very well (Elbow :123). This is very common in most of the writing classes today, as those who are passive in class begin to share their views when the students are with their own peers and colleagues. This is very well supported by Elbow where he states that “ when people only begin to improve their writing ability but also find themselves in a group where they are heard and understood better than they usually are. They want to say things that are complex and difficult to express which they had previously learned to ignore because it had always been impossible to get them heard” ( Elbow:123).

Furthermore, Elbow states that as you are writing you get no clues as to how readers react. You have to write the whole thing out, keep going till the end, even though you have no idea whether the reader is lost or thinks you are crazy at the end of the paragraph. This is very much related to the freewriting concept in a Teachers writing class.

This reading proved to be quite interesting for me, where Elbow states that only desperation is powerful enough to make you stop worrying about how your words will be perceived (Elbow:126). For example, this happens when an assignment is due or past due. It makes us write under stress, at the same time ideas flow faster in our minds, and we are able to produce a writng piece which exceeds beyond our expectations.

Elbow states that students feel comfortable in a Teacherless writing class as there is no grade assigned. Students are free to discuss their ideas, feelings and listen to each others writing(Elbow:126).

Furthermore, Elbow states that writing badly, then is a crucial part of learning to write well. Indeed, regressing and falling apart are crucial and someone will be able to help them out. According to Elbow don’t let a concern about grammar hinder your efforts to improve your writing (Elbow:137). Therefore, students should feel that there is an editor, who will help them fixing their grammar, and do not let there writing go down.

According to Elbow, the process of ‘learning writing” is full of long plateaus when you don’t seem to make any progress at all (Elbow 135).

Elbow also states that long plateaus aren’t the worst of it. There’s also backsliding. “Therefore, a Teacherless writing class can be summed up using the metaphor of a plateau. A plateau is a landform feature which comprises of mountains, slopes and so forth, thus the writing process is similar where everything does not go through one easy route.