WORKOUT

CHART

Trainer Name: Kerry Dirk

Week: 2/29/16 3/4/16

Goals: This week I hope to give your brain the ultimate workout in order to improve
your fitness as a writer. I would like to perfect your technique and possibly push you
to approach writing a different way than usual. I really need you to work on toning
those body paragraphs so that your entire paper has more strength. This week you
will focus on writers block cardio to get ideas flowing and keep your brain in great
shape for future draft editing.
Day 1:Monday Time-
minutes
Brain Stretch 10

Writers Block
Cardio Circuit

Body
(Paragraph)
Building-
Technique

Core Body
Paragraph-
Strength
Training

Explanation

Take a minute and just think about your topic.

Close your eyes and reach a place where you
feel confident in yourself to answer the prompt
successfully. If you believe, you will achieve.
Writing can be a stressful activity and very
strenuous on the brain, so try to keep focused
and dont over think too much.
Phase 1: Phase 1. Time to get your blood flowing and
10 min
ideas going. Take out a piece of paper and

write what comes to mind. Don t over analyze
Phase 2: anything; write as fast as your hand will let
10 min
you, the goal is to make your brain winded. The
faster youre thinking, the better. Also dont
worry if your hand is cramping, that means
youre doing the exercise right!
Phase 2. Now focus on a word or idea that you
wrote in phase 1 and run with it! For the next
ten minutes write about that idea or word that
stood out to you and take it as far as you can
go.
20
Now that you have your brain warmed up its
time to think about building on your body
paragraphs. Break your ideas into themes, then
take related ones and group them together.
These themes will soon be built on to create
your body paragraphs, and will be the
foundation for the rest of your paper.
20
Dont give up yet! Youre almost done with
your first draft of the week. All thats left is to
put it all together. Really focus on the order in
which these themes will go, organizing your
body paragraphs will strengthen your paper.
Now build on your selected ideas! Soon enough
you will have developed complete paragraphs.
Keep doing this until you feel like you have

Reps

2 sets
of 8
min
(4
min
rest)
1 set
of 18
min
(2
min
rest)

answered your prompt well enough.

Cool Down
Conclusion

15

Finally youre done! For the time being at least.

Give your paper a quick skim and put it away.
Relax you brain and give it rest for tomorrows
2nd draft exercises.
The Real Story Behind Peters Elbows
By: Bianca Gomez

One day after recess, Peter went to class and sat in his thinking position. Like
always, he put both his elbows on the desk and rested his face on his hands. This was
something he did everyday to think better in Mrs. Kerry Dirks English class. But there
was something about that warm Thursday in April that felt a little too much like summer.
Peters thinking position just wasnt working. Then the worst thing happened.
The ancient Mrs. Dirk, who hates the thought of summer and all things fun
decided to demand her students to explain, in an essay, how to navigate through genres.
Peter couldnt think. He didnt even know what genre was! He pressed his elbows hard
against the desk squeezing his face with his fists trying to think really really hard. It was
so bad that he couldnt even think about what the question even meant.
Mrs. Dirk noticed Peters thinking position was a little different today, almost
painful. She walked over to see if he needed a little help. She explained to Peter that
genres were just different types of writing we use, and what makes them different are
how and when we use them. She explained to Peter that navigating through genres had
nothing to it, he just needed to focus on who his audience was and what purpose his
writing had. She told him that if students before him could do it, he could do the same
because they too were once in the same situation. Then it happened Peter thought.
He first thought about what makes a genre, which led to thinking about writing
poetry, which led to thinking about tornados, which finally led to thinking about how
messy his room was at home. Now Peter had a different problem, he couldnt stop
thinking. He was thinking about anything and everything! Till finally he realized it was
time to get out of his thinking position. Taking one elbow off the desk, and resting his
head solely on one hand, he picked up a pencil and started to write. Peter wrote all of his
thoughts down even about his messy room, and picked his best ideas to help him explain

what makes a genre. But then, when it came down to actually start writing the assignment
on how to tell the difference between genres, Peter realized there was a little more
thinking to be done. So again he put his elbow back on the desk and went into thinking
about how to organize his essay. He thought to include an introduction, followed by a
few body paragraphs, and finish the paper with a conclusion. But this was just too hard
for him.
Finally Peter was tired of thinking. His brain just couldnt take it anymore. He had
been thinking so much that his brain wanted to throw up every thought he had ever had
on the paper. He just had to get it all out, and that is when he decided to write a really
disorganized and awful rough draft just for the heck of it. Besides, no matter how bad his
brain throw up was, it was still better than any first draft Anne Teacherspet Lomott could
write.
Finally it was time to let his brain throw up, so Peter lifted both his elbows off
the desk. But there was yet another problem; Peter had spent so much time in his thinking
position that he couldnt feel his elbows! They had both went completely numb and were
so red that Mrs. Dirk sent him to the nurses office. The school nurse, Mr. Scott, said,
Peters elbows suffered from all the thinking about genres. However, on a brighter note
all his thinking helped him improve his writing and thinking skills.

Reflective Essay

In completing writing project 3 I reflected on the course as a whole, really
paying attention to what I have learned from the authors of the assigned readings,
and activities done in class. Doing this made me realize that Peter Elbow, Anne
Lomott, and Kerry Dirk are the three authors who have influenced my opinion on
the writing process the most over the course. Their perspectives on first and second
order thinking, writing first drafts, and genre analysis have helped me in completing
all three writing projects thus far. Two Kinds of Thinking by Peter Elbow, Shitty
First Drafts by Anne Lomott, and Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, have helped
me differentiate between the different methods of thinking during the writing
process, avoid writers block, and lastly how to identify a genre based on analyzing
audience, purpose, and context.

Before choosing the genres I would write, I identified the two separate
audiences in which I was going to address. Since the prompt for writing project 3
required writing two open-ended genres, I decided to write a short story geared
toward a younger audience and a workout plan directed toward an older
audience. When creating my genres I tailored the content and context of what I

wrote to appeal to the audiences I identified. For example, in the short story I
limited my vocabulary to simple words, while in the workout plan I used terms nand
phrases that sounded motivating.

Before writing, I used Google as a resource to gain insight on the two genres I
chose. This was especially helpful in designing a workout plan because there was a
structure to follow, but didnt help in creating a short story because instead of
finding examples, I was directed toward buying childrens books. Since the
examples I found online didnt share the same purpose I had, they didnt influence
the content of my genres. Instead I used my imagination, keeping focused on my
audience was and the context of each piece.

When creating the childrens short story, I imagined the specific audience to
be a class of fourth grade students. The purpose of The Real Story Behind Peters
Elbows is to help a younger audience feel more comfortable with not knowing how
to answer a prompt right away, and introduce them to selected theories from Peter
Elbow, Anne Lomott, and Kerry Dirk, which I found helpful going through the
writing process. In order to make the short story appeal to children I decided to
make all three authors characters, and incorporated their ideas indirectly. By doing
this I hoped that the short story, although about the writing process, would
entertain the students. I made Peter Elbow the main character, using play on words
of his name, centering the story on his elbows. Kerry Dirk took the role of the
teacher, and Anne Lomott was only briefly mentioned as a peer of Peters. I focused
more on the ideas of the readings in my short story and organized them in a way
that helped Peter discover how to answer the writing prompt assigned by his
teacher. I also took into consideration that because I chose the context of my genre
to be read aloud to students, I repeated words I wanted to emphasize and
constrained the level of vocabulary I used.
In contrast, the audience for my Workout Plan is directed toward adults
who have been out of the writing practice for some time. Just like adults often try
and get back into being active, I thought the same concept could apply to a person
trying to get back into being a writer. This workout plan would not apply to those
who write or study writing for a living, or enjoy it as a hobby. To hint at this, I made
the workout trainer an actual writer, Kerry Dirk, who gives the person completing
the exercises goals to reach. Imagining what a fitness trainer would say, I chose to
use motivating words, to give the workout an encouraging tone. This influenced
the way I wrote the goal portion of the text, as well as the remainder of the brain
exercises.
In comparison to the genre directed toward a younger audience I took a
different approach in presenting the authors ideas, breaking them up into different
sections of brain exercises. These exercises are what I thought I personally went
through during my writing process, or used in class. For example the brain storm
cardio circuit is meant to be similar to the loop writing we did in class a few times. I
found this exercise very useful in getting my ideas flowing, which made it easier to
start my essays.
Implementing the authors and their ideas wasnt as hard as I imagined it to
be into writing project 3. However, in translating what I wrote in PBe I lost some of
the clarity in explaining or trying to express what I learned from the course. Instead

of directly stating what I felt was helpful form the class, I had to be creative and try
and work it into my short story as an aspect to the plot, or incorporate it into a
work out plan. For example in the short story I tried to incorporate the idea of first
and second order thinking, an idea from Peter Elbow, by explaining how Peter wrote
down all that he was thinking and then chose his best ideas to incorporate in his
essay. Instead of clearly and directly explaining the two methods of thinking, I had
to incorporate them into part of Peters story. However, by doing so, I did gain
creativity and style, which was not incorporated in PBe.
I have realized that each writing project assigned over the course has been
centered on the concept of what makes a genre, and has forced me to identify why
genres make writers more successful in addressing a situation. By completing
writing project 3, I have realized how many concepts and ideas I have adopted from
the course, and how they influenced my writing. For example, I now use first and
second order thinking to brainstorm before writing to avoid writers block, which
has made me a more efficient writer. In conclusion, from this course and the authors
from the assigned readings, I have become more aware of how audience, purpose,
and context affects genre choice, I have become an expert in writing shitty first
drafts, and lastly I have learned that writing is a continuous process.


Work Cited
Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. 2010
Elbow, Peter. Teaching Two kinds of Thinking. Embracing Contraries: Explorations
in Learning and Teaching.
New York. Oxford U Press.1986
Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Language Awareness Reading for College
Writers. Ed. By Paul Escholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virgina Clark. 9th ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2005: 93-96