Free writing emphasizes fluency by asking writers to write continously for a specified period of time. The fluency inducedby free writing makes other forms of writing to Team possible. Journals are, as Roethke says, greenhouses in which ideas grow. Journals provide place to keep many of the writings described in this list and are central to writing to learn. Without journals, writing to learn loses its effectiveness because students have no way to preserve evidence of their learning.
Lists invite writers to generate information for further examination.
Listing provides students a shorthand form for recording many ideas. Nutshelling is described by Linda Flower in A Problem-Solving Approach to Writing and asks the writer to identify central ideas in information. This process enables writers to begin the process of selection essential to critical thinking. Peer Review Groups provide writers with peer response to work in progress. Procedures for groups vary, but the following set of directives draws on Peter Elbow's Writing without Teachers.