Ways of Inquiring to Decide What You Really Want to Write-

Using the Bruce Ballenger Curious Writer Recursive Technique When Writing

I haven’t really decided on my topic for the project paper yet, I’m throwing ideas around about Overwhelming Evidence of the Evolution Theory, Global Warming - Fact or Myth, Modern Genetics -The Human Genome Project, or Cigarette Smoker’s Violations of Rights in Today’s Society.

A few years ago I took a Writing 121 class at my local community college; the text book used was “The Curious Writer” by Bruce Ballenger. I was inspired by the class and have been developing my thought generation techniques using the ideas that I learned.

Ballenger’s technique is called dialectical thinking, a recursive process. His argument is that writers don’t always begin at the beginning and often go back over portions of their own writing process for revision. So why use a linear model for the writing process?

Ballenger’s explanation of dialectical thinking is that you use both your creative thinking and your critical thinking as the opposing dialectic forces.

• CREATIVE thinking < > CRITICAL thinking
• Fastwriting < > Composing
• Showing < > Telling
• Specifics< > Generalizations
• Collecting< > Focusing
• Observations of< > Ideas about
• What happened< > What happens
• Then< >Now
• Generating< >Criticizing
• Exploring< >Reflecting
• Seeing< >Interpreting
• Playing< >Judging

Therefore, I’m skipping the idea generation process for now and will discuss that next week prior to the deadline for the rough draft of the final project. Once we have decided on a few possible topics, we need to finalize which one we want to use with inquiry. Ballenger suggest that questions create fresh perspectives on any subject; that you can use certain categories of questions to explore, explain, evaluate, and reflect any subject; that you can combine dialectic thinking techniques to discover what you want to say.

Exploration is used upon a topic to help you discover what you think about it; provides a critical analysis of your existing ideas or beliefs about a subject. Some examples of exploration inquiries would be, what does this mean to me, how do I think about it now? What do I notice first, and then what, and then what, and then what? Implementing the recursive technique of questioning for you exploration inquiry? How does the way my own personal knowledge and experiences affect the way that I see and feel about the subject? What surprises me about the way I feel or see the subject?

Explanations are then used to help you understand what you already know. They are also used to help you clarify those understandings to yourself and others. They help you define, describe, and compare the subject matter. Explanatory inquiries ask the what, who, and where, but they also ask the purpose, how does it work, why doesn’t it work, what it looks like, and compares the subject to other subjects, and whether or not you really understand what you are trying to explain. If not then you must do some more research.

Evaluation is a judgment about a subject. Evaluation inquires test the subject and compare it to other subjects. It is used when you are trying to prove something rather than finding out more about it. You’ve analyzed and formed an opinion about the subject. You can judge quality, relevance, or the significance of something. Evaluation provides you with the reasons that something is true. Evaluation type inquiries consist of what is my judgment on this subject, what are my reasons for this judgment, do I feel the same way as others do about it? What is the most and least convincing argument for this judgment? What do I see that supports my judgment and what are the weak points that complicate it?

Finally reflection is thinking backwards about how you did something, how you came to these conclusions, why you made this evaluation, how you came to these explanations for the subject. What do I think about it now?

Then, since the Ballenger system is recursive, you must start over at a different spot and do it over again using a revision process and refine your notes a few more times before actually starting on your project or paper.

Reference
Ballenger, B. 2009. The Curious Writer. New York. Pearson-Longman