Preludes to Insight (Ronda Leathers Dively)
	Quantity in Basket:none Code: 1-57273-641-1 Price:$22.95 Title: Preludes to Insight Sub-title: Creativity, Incubation, and Expository Writing Author(s): Ronda Leathers Dively Publish Date: September 2006 Pages: 216 Format: Paper
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The Eureka! experience, or insight, is the gem of creative endeavor. It is that glittering but often frustratingly elusive moment of understanding or discovery that moves creative and scholarly work in productive directions. But where does insight come from? How might it be invoked or encouraged? Can it be? These are just a few of the questions that Preludes to Insight addresses through a focus on incubation--an interval of time in the paradigmatic creative process directly prior to illumination. Commonly conceived as the province of subconscious and/or partially conscious cognition, incubation, despite its widely acknowledged generative power, has retained an air of mystery. Preludes to Insight seeks to unravel the mystery further, with an ultimate intention of diminishing the conceptual gap that tends to differentiate creative and expository writing processes, while providing expository writing instructors with strategies for developing incubation-sensitive, insight-inducing pedagogies. The book pursues its purposes through extensive synthesis of published theoretical and empirical scholarship from various disciplines, as well as through original empirical scholarship in the teacher-research tradition. Contents: INTRODUCTION: ON CREATIVITY AND EXPOSITORY WRITING. On Teaching Expository Composing Processes: My Approach. Expository Writing as a Creative Process. Some Insights About Insight in Expository Texts: Illustrations and Definitions from the Academic Writing Classroom. Exploring the Role of Incubation in Expository Writing. THE INCUBATING MIND: WHAT COULD BE GOING ON IN THERE? Incubation as Subconscious Phenomenon: A Review of Theoretical Perspectives. Review of Introspective Reports Depicting Incubation as Subconscious Process. Association Via Incubation: The Key to Creativity. Alternative Explanations for Incubation Effects. Significance for Education. INCUBATION AND COMPOSING PROCESSES: CONSIDERING THE TESTIMONIES OF RENOWNED WRITERS. Grounds for Viewing All Writing as "Creative": Charting the Specifics. Insight and the Unconscious in the Professional Lives of Creative Writers. Exploring the Role of Incubation in the Genesis of Fiction and Poetry. Low-Focus Thinking: Invoking Connections That Lead to Insight. Connections out of Chaos: On Incubating the Poem, Short Story, Novel or Play. The Call to Incubate Expository Writing. A Few More Words About Academic Writing. Incubation and Post-Secondary Writing Instruction. INCUBATION AND THE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM: A CRITICAL SURVEY OF PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES. Social and Environmental Conditions for Incubation. Strategies Believed to Directly Facilitate Incubation. Providing Ample Time. Encouraging Substantial Preparation. Engaging Students in Various Prewriting Activities. Providing Opportunities for Social Interaction. Extolling the Benefits of Context-Shifting. Promoting Certain Intellectual Behaviors or Attitudes. Implications for Assignment-Making and Response Practices. EXPLORING THE ROLE OF INCUBATION IN COMPOSING ACADEMIC DISCOURSES: A LOOK AT UNDERGRADUATES WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES. Some Observations About Research Methodology. A "New and Improved" Undergraduate Writing-in-the-Disciplines Course. Benefits of the Course Design. The Students Speak. Incubating the Academic Essay: The Case of Mark. Incubating the Academic Essay: The Case of Karen. Incubating the Academic Essay: The Case of Richard. Reiterating the Connection Between Incubation Theory and the Case Studies. COMPOSING ONESELF INTO THE FIELD: CREATIVITY AND INCUBATION IN AN ADVANCED WRITING SEMINAR. Research Design: Setting, Subjects, and Procedures. Creativity Journal: Data Collection and Analysis. Findings: Creativity and the Act of Scholarly Writing. Findings: Synthesis of Creativity Journal Commentary on Incubation. Findings: High Praise for the Creativity Journal. Discussion. SOME CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Incubation's Critical Role in Creative Processes, Including Writing. Pedagogical Strategies for Enhancing Incubation. Review of Common Practices Informing the Research Course Designs. Synthesis of Empirical Research Findings. Additional Findings. Significance of the Research. Ideas for Additional Research on Incubation. A Few Words About the Significance of Creativity Scholarship at Large. Author Index. Subject Index. References