Elbow's Theories

Elbow speaks a lot about the teaching of English, and a lot of what he says makes sense. The most important distinction he makes is that, in the teaching of writing, one must strive to do the least amount of damage to a student's psyche. This involves, first of all, the writing of a mixture of positive and specific comments about how their writing can be improved and focused for greater effect. The rough draft makes students refine their work and improve their writing, vs. what would happen with the final grading of an essay with students not doing anything to them, and probably throwing them away feeling discouraged. The goal of teaching writing is to make students consider their writing and refine, and that is the one point that he really gets across in his article from the assorted collection of essays he put together, called Anyone Can Write.