Integrating Exploratory Writing in Your Multidisciplinary Classroom
In Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, composition (2021), theorists John C. Bean and Dan Melzer argue that integrating “informal,” Exploratory writing into our classrooms across disciplines is the “single most valuable teaching strategy for promoting critical thinking” (95).
Unlike writing assignments which are used to demonstrate learned content, exploratory writing focuses on writing as learning. As Peter Elbow (1973) states, we “think of writing then not as a way to transmit a message but as a way to grow and cook a message” (Bean 23). College writing assignments often focus on thesis support instead of thesis seeking: Exploratory writing is an important tool used to deepen critical thinking and develop a student's understanding of their own writing and thinking process. Exploratory writing is also a valuable way to build transferable skills and flexibility of thinking, critical to academic and career success. When students engage in this kind of writing, they focus on process and thinking patterns as well as demonstrating specific knowledge mastery.
Exploratory writing (often referred to as “low-stakes” or even “informal” writing although we prefer “low-pressure”) can build confidence in students who struggle with lower order writing issues, allowing them to focus on developing content and ideas. Exploratory writing can free students from some of the conventions that inhibit voice and can be a good place for them to begin to engage in code-meshing, integrating diverse dialects and languages into their responses. Exploratory assignments that allow students to reflect on their thinking process can also help them consider audience and situation more deeply, producing developed rhetorical sensitivity, allowing them to decide how they want to write or speak for a given audience (as well as how they might want to integrate dialectal or lingual assets into written or spoken communication).
How Can We Integrate More Exploratory Writing in Our Classes?
We can communicate the value of exploratory writing to our students by:
- Pointing out the critical thinking that takes place through exploratory writing activities
- Using exploratory writing as an opportunity to highlight student voice and language assets
- Connecting skills developed through exploratory assignments to formal writing assignments in the course
- Providing formative feedback on selections of exploratory writing
- Collecting exploratory assignments and using quotes or themes from submissions to inform the next class discussion
- Providing opportunities for collaborative writing, allowing students to grow from each other
- Asking students to share content or questions from their exploratory activities for class discussion
- Attributing class engagement points to exploratory writing activities
Use Exploratory Writing to Develop Strong, Formal, Thesis-driven Writing
When assigning closed-form (thesis-driven), formal assignments, ask students to complete written tasks in which they wrestle with a question or problem before identifying their thesis or claim. The goal here is to provoke students to think deeply about what they think about a topic before they are defending a claim and to engage fully with a wide variety of source material.
- Create opportunities to free write or journal in response to posed problems or questions related to course content. You might also create guided questions that ask students to engage with content through writing and/or connect content to their lives and experience.
- Consider asking students to share out main ideas from their writing in lieu of assessment or collect writing and pull main ideas/questions from student writing. Instructors could also use a Jamboard or some other shared document for this purpose, allowing a lower-pressure opportunity for students to share elements of their work.
Exploratory Annotation Assignment
Present students with a question or problem related to their next formal assignment. Have students begin by writing what they know/believe about the assigned problem or question and what things they don’t understand or have questions about. Then, ask students to identify a specific number of sources related to the assigned problem/question. Consider requiring students to consider sources in different rhetorical situations (an op-ed, an academic paper, an organization with a stated objective). As students read, have them write about what each source says about the given question as well as how the source approaches the subject in terms of tone, assumed expertise, etc. and how the source challenges the student’s initial thinking (perhaps it challenges or supports their beliefs or maybe it helps them understand the issues more fully, etc.). Finally, ask students to write a final paragraph about how their thinking has changed or grown after reading the sources and reflecting on the question and why.
- Students might be asked to refer to at least two of their sources in this assignment; additionally, this final piece of writing might be a good opportunity for formative feedback as it can be used to help students create a claim or an argument to be supported in a future assignment!
- Look for opportunities to have students write informally with different rhetorical considerations related to audience, purpose, or situation. For example, students might be asked to discuss their position on a law or a social issue in the form of an emailed letter but be asked to tailor their work to a distinct audience such as a politician, a family member, someone from their church or community.
Use Freewriting Assignments to Hone Ideas for Formal Essays
Ask students to brainstorm possible assignment topics in a free write exercise or create a thesis with supporting ideas in a freewrite to use for in-class discussion or workshopping. Provide a thesis statement for students related to a forthcoming assignment and ask them to free-write a counter argument with supporting details.
Exploratory Writing Can Increase Engagement, Critical Thinking, and Learning
The following examples are reworked from the Sweetland Center for Writing at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. For a robust list of strategies to integrate and respond to low-pressure writing, see “Integrating Low-Stakes Writing into Large Classes.”
- Ask students to complete an end-of-class free write, describing their understanding of class content or keywords (students could share these to start the next class meeting). Students can also be asked to discuss key questions that arose from them in class and then use these questions as discussion starters for small group work in the next class.
- Have students write in groups in a collaborative manner. Move students into small groups and provide a writing prompt for each student, based on the course content/discussion. Have each student respond to their question and then pass the paper to the next student, ensuring that all students answer each question and read each group member’s responses. The idea is that answers will deepen as students consider the prompts of others. Students might be asked to share how their group’s thinking evolved by reading the responses of others.
For additional ideas, see the University of Nebraska’s electronic version of “Twenty Ideas for Incorporating Exploratory Writing into a Course” taken from Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom (2021), which includes ideas for exploratory writing including in-class writing, journaling, reading journals, and creative exercises.
