Imagination

I think that the mind is the most important aspect of writing. The Intelligent Eye and the Thinking Hand, by Ann Berthoff, talks about reclaiming the imagination, visualizing, and observing to help students find something in themselves and in their writing they they haven't been able to get to. I agree. I think that using the imagination is critical, in any writing. I am partial to creative writing, and of course it is crucial there, but it is also needed in writing of every sort. The same thing with visualizing. When we write essays, we may just write them out right, but I think that we visualize them first. We use our intelligent eye to perceive what we are going to write. After we write it, we use that eye again to observe everything we wrote. Or at least this is what should be happening. I think that teaching students to use these tools that they already possess within themselves is very important to their writing ability. Even if they are writing a resume, they should use their imagination, visualize the product before they write it. This helps them create something that is embedded in them, it is a product of themselves, not a product of duplication or imitation. We may use the rules in writing such as format, layout, language, grammar, etc. That, however, does not mean we don't need to imagine what we actually write. As Berthoff says, "We can save the term imagination to name only the nondiscursive, but having reclaimed it, I think there is much to be said for using it as a speculative instrument to focus on what it means to say that composing is a process of making meaning."