{"id":1942,"date":"2026-07-02T03:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T07:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/?page_id=1942"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T07:30:31","slug":"embodying-process-a-making-based-writing-challenge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/embodying-process-a-making-based-writing-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Embodying Process: A Making-Based Writing Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Franziska Tsufim<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Assignments &amp; Activities Archive<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Tsufim-Final.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Tsufim Final.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-d494b4f7-a410-45e2-a7a9-4987c749606d\" href=\"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Tsufim-Final.pdf\">Tsufim Final<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Tsufim-Final.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-d494b4f7-a410-45e2-a7a9-4987c749606d\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activity Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Writing classes routinely ask students to engage in a lengthy process of drafting and revising their work. As instructors, we emphasize to students the need to \u201cfail\u201d (Carr), call \u201cshitty first drafts\u201d messy yet generative (Lamott) and position these ideas as \u201cwriting thresholds\u201d (Adler-Kassner &amp; Wardle). At the same time, first-year students are often slow to buy into our calls to \u201ctrust the process\u201d (Lamott, 94). After all, Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle remind us that the encounter with threshold concepts routinely involves discomfort and even rejection. In fact, students often approach writing as a \u201cone-and-done\u201d endeavor that leaves little room for imperfection. This presents us with a mismatch regarding students\u2019 actual writing practices and the failure-embracing process we would like them to adopt. This activity addresses this gap through a timed making challenge in which students use basic crafting supplies to respond spur-of-the-moment to a problem in their lives, big or small. After that, they complete a reflective activity in the form of a tinkering log, in which they contextualize their experience with Anne Lamott\u2019s \u201cShitty First Drafts,\u201d and Collin Brooke\u2019s and Allison Carr\u2019s \u201cFailure Can be an Important Part of Writing Development.\u201d By tasking students with making something by hand under time pressure, the activity pushes them out of their comfort zone, confronts them with possible perfectionism, and invites them to experience the generative potential of \u201cshittiness\u201d and \u201cfailure.\u201d In this way, the activity engages threshold concepts of writing not only cognitively but pre-textually, as embodied knowledge that can inform future writing practices. For this reason, it is particularly suitable for lessons early in the semester when students first encounter process pedagogy. The preferred location for this activity is an on-campus makerspace for its broad access to different types of supplies and the makerspace\u2019s position as creative third space outside the evaluative pressure of the traditional classroom. In the absence of access to a makerspace, the activity can easily be implemented in any classroom with basic crafting materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Franziska Tsufim Assignments &amp; Activities Archive Activity Description Writing classes routinely ask students to engage in a lengthy process of drafting and revising their work. As instructors, we emphasize to students the need to \u201cfail\u201d (Carr), call \u201cshitty first drafts\u201d messy yet generative (Lamott) and position these ideas as \u201cwriting thresholds\u201d (Adler-Kassner &amp; Wardle). At [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[542,217,534,487,533,747,214,221],"tags":[71,823,535,538,39,298,35],"class_list":["post-1942","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-activities","category-demystifying-writing-assignments","category-metacognition","category-process","category-reflection","category-threshold-concepts","category-visual-multimodal-rhetorics","category-writing-myths-and-anxiety","tag-creativity","tag-makerspace","tag-metacognition","tag-multimodal-assignment","tag-problem-solving","tag-process","tag-reflection"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1943,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1942\/revisions\/1943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}