In my opinion, Peter Elbow is a very intelligent man. His education and his numerous books back this up. Before reading this I thought freewriting was a waste of time, but after I’ve realized how much it can help you. After reading this I started to do a free write. It was hard at first but after the full ten minutes I realized it was easy and that I should do one every day. Freewriting is very easy to do you just sit down and write down whatever you are thinking without stopping or editing anything. This allows you to enhance the ability to get what’s in your head on paper. Freewriting allows you to have no feedback at all, meaning no one can criticize what you are writing. Practicing freewriting regularly undoes the rooted habit of editing which makes writing less blocked because words will come to you easier. In school the teachers would stress the mistakes we make which just makes it harder. I think editing is important in writing but too much of it can just make the writer nervous which can block what he is trying to say. After reading this I’m going to do freewrite every other day.
You, just like me, enjoyed freewriting because it really is effective when put in practice. Once your mind is not worried about editing the text the ideas flow a lot better. This is the point of writing; being able to let your idea be known by your audience without losing your point halfway. I like your point about teachers in school being too focused on grammar and punctuation. I'm not saying that it is not important. It is crucial to a lot of papers we have to write. However, I believe creativity is being put off in schools. Students should be able to brainstorm more and practice freewriting in order to improve their confidence in writing.
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