“WHAT ARE WRITING STRATEGIES?” AN ANIMATED FILM AS AN EXAMPLE FOR USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Innovative Methods and Practices of Academic Writing and Writing Instruction

“WHAT ARE WRITING STRATEGIES?” AN ANIMATED FILM AS AN EXAMPLE FOR USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES AT THE WRITING CENTER

Birte Metzdorf¹, Alexander Kaib², Ariane Willumeit³

¹Writing Center at Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany ²Writing Center at Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany ³Writing Center at Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

In 2014, we (three peer tutors of Frankfurt’s Writing Center) produced a six minutes long animated video in which a student meets with a peer tutor for a writing consultation session. (​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_8YsJmZfk​ ). The video describes some of the typical challenges during the writing process: How do I start best? What can I do when I get stuck? How can I structure my ideas? During their conversation, the tutor points out alternative writing strategies to the student. The idea of writing strategies is based on Hanspeter Ortner’s (2000) theoretical research, who is well known in the field of German­based writing didactics, but has yet to be introduced internationally. Based on his analysis of creative writers, four main writing types or strategies have evolved: The Adventurer who jumpstarts into the writing process without a definite structure or plan; the Squirrel who likes to gather lots of information and hops from one text fragment to the other; the Gold Digger who prefers a detailed outline before he/she sits down to write a text from A to Z; and the Decathlete who quickly writes several versions of a text, without the pressure of producing a ‘perfect’ draft right away. In our presentation, we will show the video and explain the didactical potential of modeling different writing strategies. We will also discuss the effects digital media and e­learning materials have on our work in the Writing Center. (Currently the video is only available in German, but we can provide an English translation of the dialogue.)In our presentation, we will show the film and explain the didactical potential of the different writing and learning types. We will also discuss which effects service learning and e­learning materials have on our work in the Writing Center. Currently the video is only available in German, but we provide an English translation of the dialogue.

References

Arnold, Sven/Chirico, Rosaria/Liebscher, Daniela (2012): Goldgräber oder Eichhörnchen – Welcher Schreibertyp sind Sie? In: JoSCH ­ Journal der Schreibberatung 4 (2012), pp. 82­94.

Girgensohn, Katrin: Schreibstrategien beim Stationen Lernen erweitern. Arbeitsmaterial für individualisierte Lernformen in Schreibseminaren.

In: Zeitschrift Schreiben (2007), http://www.zeitschrift­schreiben.eu/cgi­bin/blog/wp­content/uploads/2007/11/girgensohn_schreibstrategien­b eim­stationen­lernen­erweitern.pdf

Ortner, Hanspeter (2000): Schreiben und Denken. Tübingen.

Sennewald, Nadja (2014): Schreibstrategien. Ein Überblick. In: Dreyfürst, Stephanie; Sennewald, Nadja: Schreiben. Grundlagentexte zur Theorie, Didaktik und Beratung. Leverkusen, pp. 169­190.