Thlog #1 - Peter Elbow's Essay Kind of Annoyed Me

In class this week, we were introduced to the concept of first and second order thinking. I feel that, right off the bat, one can characterize first-order thinking as informal thinking, and second-order thinking as formal thinking. When thinking of an example in my life where I have either used or encountered first-order thinking, I immediately recall the ⎯ oh-so-pleasantly coined ⎯ “word vomit” activities that my english teachers used to assign us in middle and high school. Essentially, the class would be given a broad topic and then a minute or two to write whatever came to our head. In a way, I interpret this as a sort of introspection; jotting down cursory thoughts can help us analyze what we ourselves think is important, where we are mentally, as well as what we think is worth writing about.

These descriptions contrast with second-order thinking, which is characterized by structure, control, and logic. Some may say that second-order thinking can stifle and impede the creative process. Peter Elbow emphasizes in his (very biased) essay the belief that second-order thinking “often brings out people’s worst thinking” (56). Though Elbow brought up many thought-provoking and valid ideas in his piece, the aforementioned quote is one of several points he made that I disagree with. First, though there are many people who benefit from the freedom that comes with first-order thinking, there are just as many others who thrive on the structure of second-order thinking- I myself am one of those people. It may sound strange, but the freedom of first-order thinking overwhelms me. I feel like I need the direction and structure of second-order thinking to reign in my scattered thoughts. There are times of course when I find first-order thinking extremely helpful and liberating, but for someone like me whose brain is already disorganized, that kind of unencumbered, limitless thinking does not really help my writing process. (Sidenote: You’re not alone, the amount of times I repeated the word ‘thinking’ in this paragraph is making me cringe too.)

All in all, I feel like this class is my time to not only better understand what writing methods and processes work for me, but to also experiment with new ones… So maybe I’ll muster up some courage and give first-order thinking another try.