Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow’s work centers the writer’s voice and the productive separation of generating and editing. Writing Without Teachers established freewriting and the believing/doubting game as core composition methods.

¶Core ideas

• Freewriting: uncensored continuous writing as a tool for finding what one means
• Believing and doubting game: alternating credulity and skepticism as a critical method
• Voice in writing: treating voice as something teachable, not innate

¶Key works

• Writing Without Teachers (1973)
• Writing With Power (1981)
• Vernacular Eloquence (2012)