Perhaps one of the number one problems students face in their academic writing is the dreaded writers block. This derailment from brain to pen can happen for many reasons, but how does one deal with it? Some physically remove themselves from their current workspace, changing gears for an hour or two. Others take a more technical approach: when the words stop, down shift their idea, making a new level of thought. The technical approach is based on Francis Christenson’s book on discursive prose. If you lack ideas and need a break, check out this blog.
How are you supposed to downshift to a different idea? Interesting thought though...
ReplyDeleteDownshifting takes place when you add subordinate idea to the main idea. For example
ReplyDeleteThe rat jumped through the hole in the barn door, the hawk missing its prey, screeching because of hunger.
The rat jumped through the hole in the barn door, is the main clause, the idea then downshifts using a subordinate thought and subordinate sentence. The thought is the fact that he hawk missed its prey, and the sentence is a nominative absolute phrase, being subordinate to the main clause. Then the thought downshifts further with the next subordinate phrase screeching because of hunger. This is a participle phrase, subordinating itself in thought and sentence to the previous phrase; we now learn that the hawk is hungry. This is downshifting.
If you loose thought and start to have writers block, downshift your ideas, elaborating on detail or anything else you can think of.