© 1984 Don W. King
This essay first appeared in Exercise Exchange 30 (Fall 1984):
17-19.
Generating the Light Bulb Essay
LEVEL:
High school and college.
AUTHOR'S COMMENTS:
According to Walter Beale (Real Writing, Scott, Foresman, and
Co., 1982), "two hundred years ago the term 'essay', which we now
use to describe several different kinds of writing, referred specifically
to the kind of writing that . . . is more personal, less formal, and more
free-wheeling and idiosyncratic than the deliberative essay" (187).
Beale calls this kind of writing "reflective/exploratory" and
suggests that its purpose is to explore, share, and reflect upon human
experience. I like Beale's reflective/exploratory category, especially
since I have always had my students write a similar kind of essay called
the "light-bulb," "discovery," or "aha!"
essay. However, part of the difficulty in getting students to generate
this kind of essay stems from their unfamiliarity with, and lack of practice,
regarding reflection and exploration.
THE APPROACH
To overcome this problem, I have devised a scheme that encourages them to engage in reflection and exploration. I present them with a list of famous quotes and ask them to either freewrite or brainstorm on several of the quotes, especially on ones that are puzzling or enigmatic. In a sense this exercise relies on the common experience we have when we are momentarily stopped by a passing remark, a reporter's quip, or a puzzling comment. For several moments we toy with the disparity between the appearance and the reality brought to mind. For instance, how many times have we heard a speaker warn graduates about going out into the "real" world?" On the surface this comment is innocent enough but a deeper probing leads to a puzzling conclusion: that formal education is somehow not real and thus inadequate compared to what they will learn in the "real world." Although the speaker did not mean to imply that, anyone who reflects for a moment on the remark can see the strong negative connotations it carries.
In the same way, then, as my students consider the famous quotes, they
sometimes cut through surface meaning and explore how both language and
life convey subtle ideas, differing shades of thought, and rich ambiguity.
For example, one of the best reflective/exploratory essays I received came
out of this kind of exercise. The student had not understood why Martin
Luther's "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen"
had been placed under the heading of "Courage" in a book of quotations.
For him this statement had nothing to do with courage. However, in his
essay he explored how an event in his own life had taught him why Luther's
claim was very much related to courage. Having been called upon by his
high school principal to marshall student support for a new high school
building, he found himself one evening the unwilling spokesman for those
students at a school board meeting. He writes:
After an hour and a half of debate over the advantages and disadvantages
of the issue, the chairman, seeing that there was no one "left on
deck" to speak, asked if there were any more speakers. I felt a knot
tying up my stomach. I felt my legs and shoulders begin to tremble a bit
and I realized I had to do something and I had to do it then. Remembering
another quotation, "A long journey begins with a single step,"
I stood and walked to the podium. The fifteen feet to the podium seemed
like fifteen miles. I got to the podium and at that second I remembered
Martin Luther's statement. There I stood, I could do no other; I prayed
that God would give me the strength to speak effectively. He did. I spoke
for almost fifteen minutes. My speech ended with a standing ovation and
the praise of the chairman of the board. My long journey had ended and
my fear was relieved.
Afterwards several people came up to me and patted me on the back, telling
me how proud they were of me. One old friend of the family made the statement
that he wished I was old enough to run for office. At one point two reporters
from the local television and radio stations asked for my name to go along
with their tapes of my speech. But as I walked out of the door of the auditorium
a lady whom I had never seen before came up to me, shook, my hand, and
said, "Son, it took a lot of courage to do what you did." It
was then that I understood why Martin Luther's statement was included in
the section on courage. It stands for a special kind of courage, the courage
to stand and speak for what you believe to be right.
This excerpt is clearly reflective, exploratory, and revealing; that is, as he considered Martin Luther's quote, this young man learned something about both Luther and himself. It is hard to measure the value of such an experience but it is the kind of writing that leads to self-knowledge and awareness. Furthermore, it is the kind of learning that all writing teachers want their students to experience.
I include in the following a sample list of the kind of quotes I have
put before my students