If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:

read a lot and write a lot.

Stephen King

Last week’s article emphasised the benefits of expressive writing with a particular focus on journal writing. This week I would like to suggest ways for reluctant writers to use the writing of others to generate ideas and to compose new texts. Many of our finest writers imitate the writing of others. They frame, cite and recycle words and phrases to enable creativity to flourish. In English we call this very important and useful writing technique, intertextuality.  

One writing strategy I find particularly useful is to encourage students to keep a reading journal where they can record ‘magic grabs’ from the novels or poems they are reading. I do this myself and find the rereading of these entries exceptionally helpful as prompts for my own writing. 

Another effective strategy incorporated in English classes – from Year 7 through to Year 12 – is the copying out of sections of good writing. This action of copying another writer’s words without making any alterations, seems refreshingly counter-intuitive. Yet, students’ responses to this exercise invariably suggest that it is a powerful and enjoyable reading and writing experience. Some students report that they become acutely aware of the text’s language and formal features, while others comment on the mindfulness activated by a concentration on forming the words of another. It can sometimes be a challenge for young people to slow down and read a small section of text with intense focus, and to observe a text’s stylistic features in ways that enrich their understanding of the way words work. Our students are not always resilient, careful and persistent readers. This activity of writing out another’s composition – using pen and paper – engages them in both active reading and creative writing. 

An additional activity might see students highlight key words or phrases from the copied text. These words or phrases may have caught their attention for a number of different reasons. They may be new to them or have a distinctive ‘sound’. They may capture an emotion, trigger a memory or simply resonate in some way. When students then rewrite the highlighted text in a particular form, a new text has been created. Their text. This writing-via-reading activity is an excellent strategy to promote writing confidence and competence. It demonstrates that deep reading enables writing and writing can be a way of enabling deep reading. 

Year 12 are currently studying poetry as part of their HSC English course. The Advanced class are exploring the poetry of T.S. Eliot – my favourite poet.  In one particular lesson I asked the students to copy out the following section of Eliot’s poem ‘East Coker’. Students were then invited to highlight key words and phrases and to use these to create their own poem. I have included both Eliot’s text along with an example of a Year 12 student’s composition. 

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. 

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be light, and the stillness the dancing. 

T.S. Eliot

Be still

          and wait.

Faith and hope and love 

are there - in the waiting.  

Darkness shall be light

          Stillness

                       the dancing. 

Year 12 English student

I also asked a Year 7 English class to do the same with the poem ‘African Beggar’ by Raymond Tong. The text is included below and is followed in italics by a Year 7 student’s creation. 

Sprawled in the dust outside the Syrian store, 

a target for small children, dogs and flies,

a heap of verminous rags and matted hair, 

he watches us with cunning, reptile eyes,

his noseless, smallpoxed face creased in a sneer. 

Sometimes he shows his yellow stumps of teeth

and whines for alms, perceiving that we bear

the curse of pity; a grotesque mask of death,

with hands like claws about his begging-bowl.

But often he is lying all alone

within the shadow of a crumbling wall,

lost in the trackless jungle of his pain,

clutching the pitiless red earth in vain

and whimpering like a stricken animal. 

Sprawled in the dust,

a target for dogs and flies,

with cunning reptile eyes

he watches. 

And whines.

A grotesque mask of death

Alone. 

In pain and

Whimpering, 

like a stricken animal. 

                              Year 7 English student

Mrs Clare Murphy

English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach