This book was very interesting due to the fact that it contrasted everything that I ever learned about the writing process. It is difficult for a reader to discern which information from a text is most feasible in real life situations, so I took it upon myself to test Elbow's theory of free writing in order to "grow" ideas and then later editing as a method of "cooking" the paper by amalgamating all of the fertile ideas.
I tested this idea by asking my private students to free write for 10 minutes about the topic that they had to write about. Later I asked them to underline all of the key words and those were the key items used to create topic sentences. This process worked so effectively that I used it to write my own personal statement. I would ardently recommend it to any student who thinks that he or she is suffering from a case of writer's block, or those that simply hate to write.
Elbow's "cooking" has its place as a writing strategy. Many seem to find it a valid exercise and swear by it. Still, there are others who try the "cooking" method and discover that the end result (their essay) is similar to a pot of inedible stew!!
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