Writing set free

Many assessments in HE involve writing, and yet this is something that students often find intimidating, as writing within their discipline has particular rules and styles that often feel unnatural and constraining. In my experience, one solution to make the writing process a bit easier is to get students to do more writing in class – to show them that writing doesn’t have to be perfect, and to get them used to writing more regularly.

Students can also feel uncomfortable answering questions in front of others – especially if they feel like they haven’t had enough time to collect their thoughts. I think free writing can help with both of these issues when used in class.

Essentially, free writing is where a student writes something that’s only for them to see, and just writes for a set amount of time, without focusing on the quality of what they’re writing, or their spelling, grammar or style. You’d give them a prompt of an open-ended question about the topic of the lesson, and then give them a set amount of time (perhaps five minutes at first) to respond. Emphasise that the important thing is to keep writing, and not to worry too much about what they’re writing – tell them that if they can’t think of anything, they can start by writing that (perhaps in a positive form, such as ‘I don’t have an idea right now but I’m hoping one will come in a minute … ‘).

This exercise not only helps to take away some of the fear and perfectionism around writing and idea generating, but helps to increase writing fluency and gives students a safe space to try out and develop some responses to the question. This can be used in both small and large groups – in a large group, it can be an effective way of getting everyone to respond to a question without feeling like they’ve been put on the spot, or have to risk sharing with others.

I’ve found that this can be most useful with repeated use, as students can often be troubled by the idea of ‘just writing’ the first time they do it, and become more comfortable in subsequent exercises. Using it throughout a term or year also ensures that students keep writing in this low stakes way, rather than only writing when it comes to an assessment.

Have you used this before, or are you thinking of trying it out?

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