Writing Exercise - Writing in the Zones
WRITING IN THE ZONES – Writing Exercise (From Bard College Thinking & Writing Conference)
In preparation for writing the research paper, you will do a writing exercise called "Writing in the Zones" to first write about your poem. You need not know anything special about the poem you chose for this project. This exercise will take you step by step through looking at the poem and writing down your ideas. Make sure you have read the poem you chose and have a copy of it near you while you do this exercise. Check out the link for the "Sample Writing in the Zones" exercise so you can see how to set up your paper (though the directions below will explain it as well).
Try to have some fun with this exercise. Trust your own reactions and ideas about this poem. (Resist the urge to surf around to see what websites are saying about it).
Things to consider: What's at stake in the poem? What's bubbling up for you now?
What you will need:
Paper & Pen......(but, if you have a large piece of paper and a colored marker that would be better...it's what we used at Bard).
Here are the STEP by STEP Guidelines:
This exercise is called "Writing in the Zones" as you will be creating several "zones" in which to write.
1. Make a circle or oval in the center of the page and draw a rectangle at the bottom (the larger the paper, the better. Consider taping 6 sheets together)
2. Divide the remainder of the page into 8 zones in which you will write. The zones should be roughly equal in size and fill the remainder of the page. (Page will look like a sun with a rectangle at the bottom. See link with Photo of a sample).
3. Number the zones
4. In the center, write down the author, title and the concepts you are most interested in exploring in relation to the poem you are analyzing.
· ZONE 1: First Thoughts: Write down your thoughts about the poem in general or the concepts you wrote in the circle.
· ZONE 2: Pointing: Point to an image or a phrase that struck you, that you find beautiful or perplexing...something that stayed with you. Fill up the zone with writing about it or from it.
· ZONE 3: Analysis: Pick a passage that is important to the way you understand or experience the poem. Which words or phrases are most central to the meaning and/or beauty of the passage? Why is this passage important to the text as a whole?
· ZONE 4: Believing & Doubting: Find a statement or assumption the author makes and first believe (agree) and then about half-way through begin to doubt (disagree).
· ZONE 5: Make Inferences: What question is this poem answering? What makes it speak?
· ZONE 6: Summarizing: Summarize what is happening in this poem.
· ZONE 7: Evidence: lines, images, metaphors, symbols. Which of these seem important to the argument, the author's intention, the overall effect and/or meaning of the poem? What lines seem important to the argument you're building?
· ZONE 8: Making Connections: Make connections between all of these zones.
· RECTANGLE: Central Theme: What's the most important or central thing you're noticing or saying about this poem? Sum up this main point in a sentence. Write it in the rectangle. This summing up should say something more than you already know. You should say something that can be quarreled with.
What you've written in the box is a working thesis, and what you have in all of the other boxes are ideas and textual evidence to help you begin drafting your research paper.
Try to write 4 or 5 paragraphs (Rough, not polished) about your chosen poem. This may eventually become the opening pages to your Research Paper. For now though, it's a handful of rough paragraphs about your poem.
Post this "freewrite" in the discussion board that corresponds with your poet. It should be fun to discuss you poets, poems and ideas with fellow classmates who have your same topic.