The Use of Freewriting in the Teaching of Writing

Abstract

When our students are asked to write, they find that the most difficult part of the writing task is starting the writing task itself. Students seem to suffer from 'writers' block', awed by the fact that they have to write out their thoughts on a blank piece of paper. Very often they don't quite know how to go about it. As Donald Murray (1978) puts it: 'Writing means self-exposure. No matter how objective the tone or how detached the subject, the writer is exposed by words on the page. It is natural for students and for writers to fear such exposure.'