CHAPTER 22：Professional Writing Expertise 读书笔记

CHAPTER 22
Professional Writing Expertise
Ronald T. Kellogg


Skill Acquisition
Literacy is a fundamental goal of schooling in contemporary societies worldwide.
写作，很早开始训练，是个普遍、基本技能。作者写了以下三种方法以获得这项技能

Deliberate Practice
Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Ro ̈mer (1993) defined the characteristics of deliberate practice as (1) effortful exertion to improve performance, (2 ) intrinsic motivation to engage in the task, (3 ) practice tasks that are within reach of the individual’s current level of ability, (4 ) feedback that provides knowl- edge of results, and (5) high levels of rep- etition.

DP的五要素：努力提升技能；内存驱动力；在学习区内训练；回馈；高水平重复。

作者告诉读者在训练的努力过程中要有目标（goal）（即是一个有目的的训练，刻意训练：deliberate practice），是一个循序渐进的过程（养成良好习惯，Successful writers often schedule only a few hours per day for composing, and avoid binges that lead to exhaustion），一个自我驱动的练习(self-motivated practice)。


Reading
Extensive reading is a powerful predictor of the amount of general knowledge that an individual accumulates in long-term memory (Stanovich & Cunningham, 1993 ). A composite measure of print exposure is strongly correlated with a composite measure of general knowledge (r = .8 5 ). This relationship remains statistically significant even after the effects of cognitive ability are removed. How much one knows depends on how much one reads.
Because a wide range of knowledge is so important for writers (Kellogg, 1994), it is not surprising that professional writers report reading extensively, even compulsively.


How much one knows depends on how much one reads.
阅读是了解世界的手段，读得越多，知得越多。


Piirto (2002) concluded from her case studies that professional writers often begin reading early in childhood and read compul- sively throughout their lifespan.

阅读是一个长期的过程，从小开始，持续一生。初期的训练（上学）有着关键的作用。

science fiction writers read sci- ence fiction, whereas romance writers read romances.

你的阅读造就了你，你读什么，你就是什么。



The Ten-Year Rule

Studies of chess players (Simon & Chase, 1973), musical composers (Hayes, 1985), and other domains (Ericsson et al., 1993) have suggested a rule of thumb that it takes at least a decade of intensive practice to achieve excellence. In the case of writing, the clock starts early, since spoken language and scribbling are developed in preliterate children (Lee & Karmiloff-Smith, 1996). By the age of 12 to 14 years, children have spent ten years mastering the mechanics of hand- writing and spelling.

为了获得expert performance，需长时间苦练，是谓十年磨一剑。
写作是我们很早就开始训练的技能，但可能人们没有意识，没有刻意去训练。
4岁开始拼读、书写，到12-14岁我们基本掌握了这项技能。可将具体转化为抽象，this advancement from concrete to abstract thinking is essential for writing cohesive texts.



An idea is retrieved from long-term memory and then told to the reader by writing it down. This process continues until the writer has no more ideas to retrieve and communi- cate.

青少年创作的策略：将长效记忆变成想表达的思想。即“知识复述”，knowledge-telling。
收集，想表达，然后就有了产出。


Reflection on the exist- ing text can prompt the writer to restruc- ture the ideas stored in long-term memory, elaborating and reorganizing what the writer knows about the topic.


现有知识【记忆】——思考——重构，这一过程使作者对主题有了再次认识。


After mastering handwriting and achiev- ing written fluency at ages 12 to 14, approximately a decade of practice is need- ed to progress from knowledge-telling to knowledge-transforming.


12-14岁我们基本掌握了这项技能，估计需要10的时间来完成从“知识复述到知识转化”这一转变。


the earlier the writer starts the better.

创作，写作能力意识、能力培养越早越好。
因为
ten to twenty years of writing seemed to span their first scribbling as a toddler to their first masterpiece.
both poets and fiction writers developed mechanics and cognitive writing skills for 15 to 20 years before first publishing.

作品是一个不断加速积累的过程，作者以Isaac Asimov’s prolific career为例说明这一点。