Notes on How to Write a Good Writing Inventory Response

A couple of students wrote asking about what the responses to the inventory should look like. Here's my response:

My first concern is you come to understand what each bulleted item means. These items represent what you should learn by the time you get out of the 111/112 sequence. My second concern is you prove to me you understand each item. Ultimately, you'll end up making a claim about your knowledge/skill level. You'll support this claim by: 1) *fully* explaining the nuances of each outcome; 2) discussing how you use/will use/have used the outcome in your own writing; and, 3) pointing to examples of this use in the portfolio of writing you turn in.

If you remember, every kind of writing starts with trying to figure out what you can say. This is where you are right now in the process of developing your individual responses in the writing inventory. As always when starting a writing project and you are figuring out what to say, you take an inventory of what you already know, and you add to this knowledge set by gathering outside information through reading, writing about your reading, and through research. (In this class read, reading the text and the class blog, reading the writing inventories and blogs of other students, writing in your blog and writing inventory, and analyzing and synthesizing all this information into a coherent whole). At this point in developing your writing inventory you're thinking about what you know about each item (writing this down), and you're adding to this existing knowledge by incorporating what the reading adds (writing this down), what your own experience writing adds (writing this down), and through what is said in class discussion and on the class blog (and, writing this down). In short, you're developing a full response and taking notes. You can also incorporate information from the inventories of others in the class, as they may have insights of which you wouldn't have thought. As you take notes and develop your response, make sure to keep track of where you're getting your information. (Here, you're developing the habit of knowing who you owe for your knowledge.)

The point behind all this is to build up your knowledge of how to talk about and construct good writing throughout the semester, adding to it a bit at a time, writing down what you know, what you learn, and how you use the skills and knowledge pointed to by each learning outcome.

As you may suspect, all this building up and adding to is part of a process, one through which you become a better writer. 1) You articulate what you know. 2) You learn to talk about writing knowledgeably and with a nuance. 3) You identify gaps in your knowledge/skill set/process, and you fill in these gaps one at a time. 4) You learn to apply the steps above continuously and add to your skills and knowledge set in small increments. As these improvements accumulate over time--not this semester or this year, you become whatever kind and degree of writer you wish to become.

This year's work in 111 and 112 is meant to lay a foundation of knowledge and skills on which you will build. All that's required of you is you figure out the processes involved in producing good writing, learn to articulate them, and apply them.

You then what you've figured out through your portfolio. One third of your portfolio will consist of your writing inventory; and, your portfolio will count for 60% of your final grade. The other 40% will be determined by how you do the work of the class, how regularly do this work, and how well you follow the process involved. What's mainly involved is doing the reading, listening to the discussion, and writing regularly about each in your blog and in your writing inventory. Soon, we'll add producing papers to this mix, and you'll be reflecting on what each experience writing adds to your skill and knowledge set.

Remember, when all is said and done, good writing isn't about product; it's about have a process in place which produces successful writing.