Chapter 1-3 What I learned

While i was reading through chapters 1-3 in The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing, I learned many new and interesting things. First, I learned about closed form writing. Closed form writing has an explicit thesis in the introduction paragraph. It is extremely cohesive and has unified paragraphs with topic sentences in each. There are always clear transitions between sentences and parts with no digressions. I also learned about open-ended writing which was Concept 2 in out literary text. Open ended questions focus on the unknowns and invite multiple points of view or alternative hypotheses and stimulate thinking and research. This concept allows multiple people to get in on discussions and form their own opinions on the matter. One of the most interesting things i read about were questions are always good! They can be problematic for audience, significant, and interesting to the writer. These are the three main qualities to having a good open-ended question. One of the most interesting things that caught my eye was wallowing in complexity. This section taught me the best ways to think about your subject matter. First always pose problematic question and analyze the problem in all ways. Then to find and gather important facts and find an alternate solution to the problem. And last, to analyze competing answers. In Chapter 2, we also learned of new ways to brainstorm and think of new ideas. Free writing (non-stop or silent) writing is where you write for a certain amount of time without stopping. You shouldn't worry about grammar or punctuation as I'm doing now in this blog. Write for a certain amount of time and then go back and correct your mistakes. This type of writing does not best suit me. I am more into brainstorming and using idea maps or webs. This technique gives me specific examples to start with and to brainstorm with. It allows me to see multiple ideas and branch certain thoughts together to develop paragraphs and turn the paragraphs into a paper.