"Not only is offering suggestions for details that could be added to someone else's work a different skill from actually writing with detail, but squeezing in details is also a different skill from using details as you write. We want students to get better at using details as they write, not adding them after the fact." (Hale 11)
I am thrown a bit by Ms. Hale's use of the word "skill." I am not entirely sure if she is using "skill" in a necessarily positive light (as in an ability a student should have) or a neutral one. I would suggest writing with detail is a positive skill, but "squeezing in details" is actually a detriment to good writing. I would also suggest that adding detail after the fact, while perhaps not as ideal as using them during the initial writing process, is not necessarily a bad thing.
First, squeezing in detail. The real question a writer (or anyone attempting to communicate - orally, dramatically, musically, etc) must ask is: which details will help me best communicate my idea to its intended audience. Adding detail for the sake of adding detail is not a habit we want to encourage in students. We have all read books that eventually frustrate us with unnecessary information, abundant adjectives, etc. To be a writer also means to be a ruthless editor -- to be able to look at a piece of your own writing and cut what does not serve to advance the story or elucidate the idea you are trying to further. Now, I don't know to what extent young children can edit their own work, but certainly by the middle elementary grades, they can look at a detail that does not help their work and get out the red pen.
Adding in detail after the fact is another part of the editorial process. Just as children can learn to include helpful detail as they are writing and axe unhelpful details after an initial draft, they can (and should) be keeping an eye out for places where more detail will push their story or idea along. It's not harmful to encourage children to add detail as they write, but it's not entirely realistic, either. Good writing requires multiple edits and drafts, both to eliminate and add material after the fact. Communicating that writing is always a work in progress until a final draft is not a bad thing.
The ultimate goal is to help children best communicate their idea/story and however this is done -- suggesting ideas for detail, cutting unnecessary detail, or adding detail in later -- is beneficial to the student.
Matt, I somewhat agree with you, but I don't think that Hale is entirely against adding details after the fact in the sense of editing your work. I think she'd see adding unnecessary details that don't come from what is there already as a bad thing, but if the details come organically - perhaps from using the "zooming in" process she described and Courtney illustrated so well in her blog - I think Hale would agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI wrote this blog after reading two chapters, and as I read some more, I felt the need to pull back on the reins a bit. The idea of "show not tell" in Chapter 4 is what I'm talking about -- don't bog down a story with excessive detail. Include only details that are helpful to the communication of the idea, and include those details in a way that is compelling (e.g. imagery).
ReplyDeleteMatt, your comment makes so much sense to me. I think what she meant by skill is art-form. Writing while you edit and add detail at the same time is an art. I think that skill/art should be taught in the 3 grade and up, not just in high school. I find that I was expected to know that skill and I still wonder when I was taught it etc. Craft writers discusses topics that could loop from younger children and be touched again later in life. Writing is a necessary tool for communicating a story or idea that should be carried over in everyday life. In regards to the rewriting and editing I find it challenging to explain to a younger student that their first draft is only a draft. In a positive light adding that we want to communicate in the most efficient way. How would you explain that to a struggling student?
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