Freewriting, keeping a journal, and blogging

Freewriting is simply nonstop writing.

Tips for freewriting

• Set aside ten or fifteen minutes.
• Write whatever comes to you, without pausing to think too much.
• Don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, or complete sentences.
• If you get stuck, you can write about being stuck, but keep your fingers moving.

Often something interesting will emerge from freewriting—an eloquent sentence, an honest expression of feeling, or an idea worth investigating.

If you already have a topic, try focused freewriting using the same techniques but focusing on a topic and paying attention to the connections among your ideas.

Keeping a journal

A journal is a collection of informal, exploratory, and sometimes experimental writing. In a journal, often meant for your eyes only, you can take risks. In a journal, you might do any of the following:

• freewrite
• pose questions
• comment on an interesting idea from a class
• keep a list of questions that occur to you while reading and researching
• list ideas to draw on in future essays
• imagine a conversation between yourself and your readers
• stage an imaginary debate to understand opposing positions

Blogging

Although a blog is a type of journal, it is a public writing space rather than a private one. In a blog, you might

• express opinions
• make observations
• recap events
• have fun with language
• interpret an image

Since most blogs have a commenting feature, you can create a conversation by inviting readers to give you feedback by responding to your ideas, asking questions, posing counterarguments, or suggesting other readings on a topic.

Freewriting on cloning

Focused freewriting on college students and credit card debt

Related topics:

Reading

Annotating texts or visuals

Talking and listening

Listing

Clustering

Asking questions