Close Writing Practices in the Post-Secondary Classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper explores a suite of close writing practices and exercises that ask students to attend closely to language at the level of morpheme, word, line, sentence, or stanza. Close writing aims to move students beyond a conception of reading as mere transaction and technology, while pushing writing pedagogy beyond the development of expository prose, as is common in post-secondary contexts. Instead, the pedagogies presented in this inquiry frame writing as an analytic practice which aids both students’ capacities as writers and, importantly, their development as critical readers. Such pedagogies, we believe, reflect a less-didactic approach to teaching reading, writing, and literature. We argue that close writing positions students in an exploratory, experimental stance in relation to composition, one that allows for the analytic aims of close reading in addition to different kinds of learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Close writing
• close reading
• creative writing
• classroom exercises
• post-secondary education
• mimetic writing
• erasure
• writing pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Jarvie

Scott Jarvie is an Assistant Professor of English Education in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University, where he co-directs the English Credential Program and the San Jose Area Writing Project. His scholarship studies educational experience, particularly in secondary English classrooms, through perspectives drawn from the humanities, educational philosophy, and curriculum theory. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Michael Lockett

Michael Lockett completed his doctoral degree at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario). He teaches for the Department of English and conducts curriculum research through Michigan State University’s Center for Teaching and Learning. His scholarship focuses on curriculum theory, poetics, and Canadian literature. He can be contacted at [email protected].