Invention (Discovery) model

Discovery and Writing

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I keep six honest serving men;
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
—Rudyard Kipling

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Note in this little verse by Kipling, he says "they taught me all I knew." This fits my own theory of practice, which is not to multiply theory too much. We're drowning in an ocean of theories and methodologies when the secret of any art can be reduced to simple rules.
In the case of writing, "all" you need to know (apart from grammar and vocabulary) is pretty much summed up in the above verse. Other principles (like I said in class include): lots of reading (all great writers were first great readers); revision (there's no such thing as writing—only rewriting); and redundancy (linking ideas )—as in the following:
"Man/he/Mr. Smith/the firefighter/middle-aged/gentleman" all may refer in an essay to each other. In Kipling's short verse, "men," "they," "what," "why," "when," "how," "where," "who," "their," and "names" all refer, by replacement, to the same main noun ("men").
We'll look at these issues more deeply in our class, but this is just a summary lesson. In the meantime, let's look at a simple (yet profound) poem by Robert Frost that I recited in class:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Note cohesion in the repeated pronouns that refer to the owner of the woods and the speaker (whose/he/his, I/me). Then there's the repeated word, "wood" (often words are repeated by synonyms: forest, trees; but in this case the repeat is exact, creating a haunted or magical mood).
Other examples are "flake," which refers to "snow," and "lovely dark and deep," which refers to "woods."
Note the diction (choice of words) is simple. Though simple, "downy" and "harness" might cause an ESL student trouble because they are not common.
Simple as it is, the poem conveys deep feeling and meaning. It's a poem about the longing for death and final rest. The woods suggest magical escape from the "village" and its responsibilities.
The woods are "owned." So the woods are linked to society (the "village"). But the speaker sees it from his point of view, not approved by society, from which he escapes (the owner of the woods: "will not see me").
The horse (harnessed, so social) suggests society and reason. He thinks it "queer" (strange, unusual) to go into the woods on the "darkest" night of the year) and warns the speaker: "you're making a 'mistake.'"
Apart from the horse (the voice of society and reason) there's only the absolute quiet that tempts the speaker.
In the end, the horse wins. The speaker knows how tempting death is, but he has obligations ("promises") in the village (society) and his final rest must wait until those obligations are fulfilled.
But the temptation of that final rest is captured in the repetition of the last two lines—sounding like a sweet lullaby:

"And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Even with a limited vocabulary, but with a proper organization (and repetition) of one's ideas, one can write well—even memorably.

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