Overview

Undoing the Silence offers guidance to help both citizens and professionals influence democratic process through letters, articles, reports and public testimony. Louise Dunlap, PhD, began her career as an activist writing instructor during the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s. She learned that listening and gaining a feel for audience are just as important to social transformation as the outspoken words of student leaders atop police cars. ""Free speech is a first step, but real communication matches speech with listening and understanding. That is when thinking shifts and change happens."" Dunlap felt compelled to go where the silences were deepest because her work aimed not just at teaching but also at healing both individual voices and an ailing collective voice. Her tales of those adventures and what she knows about the culture of silence -- how gender, race, education, class, and family work to quiet dissent -- are interwoven with practical methods for people to put their most challenging ideas into words. Louise Dunlap gives writing workshops around the country for universities and social justice, environmental, and peace organizations that help reluctant writers get past their internal censors to find their powerful voice. Her insight strengthens strategic thinking and her ""You can do it!"" approach makes social-action writing achievable for everyone.

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<br> Undoing the Silence offers six tools to help us write. They are: The Freewriting Tool, The Process Tool, The Thinking Tool, The Audience Tool, The Feed-Back Tool and The Word-Power Tool. As I read through the explanation of each tool and tried the exercises, I noticed that, by trial and error, I have used some of them when I tackle a writing project. However, my employment of such techniques has been pretty haphazard. This toolbox is a wonderful resource because it includes strategies to help us overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of effective writing. Dunlap encourages us to step back from the pressure to make our writing perfect on the first attempt and to let a piece sit while we do something else to recharge our minds. I have found that the freewriting tool is quite liberating and has already enriched my writing. Another very important perspective I have gained is an understanding of my tendency to write in the passive voice. One of the exercises helped me to convert

Author Information

Louise Dunlap is a sixth-generation Californian. She has taught writing to undergraduates and grad students in urban and environmental planning, worked with writers in advocacy groups, wrote Undoing the Silence, and began journeys into the hidden history of white supremacy that led to this book. She honors the spiritual teachings of many traditions and, in 2004, was ordained by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh into the Order of Interbeing, with the name True Silent Teaching.

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