The concept of writing as a process versus a product is quite new to me. Usually, my emphasis is one the end product and not necessarily the way that I get there. However, having been exposed to the idea of writing as a process, I came to realise that in reality I was passing through the process even without knowing and also that the process makes writing more rewarding. In this essay, I will explore my use of the process by analysing my writing process as I prepared a two page opinion summary recently on the article by Richard Fulkerson, “Composition at the turn of the Twenty- First Century”.
As outlined in the article, “Teach Writing as a Process Not Product” by Donald M. Murray, there are three stages in the writing process, prewriting,
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It is believed that this stage takes up about 14% of the overall process, according to Murray. This stage in the expression of my opinion of the essay, “Composition at the turn of the Twenty- First Century” was time consuming. First, I looked at the way I started the essay and decided if my introduction was a good “attention getter”. I did this based on knowledge gained in my freshman year about essay writing- the importance of a good introduction to any essay. After deciding on this, I examined the length of the essay. This was done to decide how far I was in the guidelines of the assignment. I also used this information to decide if in my re-writing I was going to be reducing or increasing the essay. Thirdly, I re-read the essay to ensure I was not contradicting myself and in places where I find ambiguity, I rewrite to ensure a much clearer understanding of what I was trying to say. Again this was done with me bearing in mind the fact that having been taught before by my lecturer, I knew her seriousness as it related to expectations and …show more content…
Though it was the process around one particular paper, I know the approach I took was not peculiar to that paper alone. At the end of the exercise, I have come to realise that I have what I will call a very, “TEACHER PLEASING”, approach to the way I carry out my writing task. This as much of time is spent thinking about what I think my lecturer is expecting me to do and say instead of what I truly think about what I was doing. I sincerely want to believe that what I ended up with as a finish product having considered all the variables surrounding the expectations I assume I must meet, is no different from what I would have ended up with in the absence of such influences. However, I cannot say such with any conviction. I am a writer to please, not a writer to be true to self. A fact I must now work to
As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”
Annie Lamontt, author of Bird by Bird, offers a glimpse into a world many writers can relate to. In the chapter called “Shitty First Drafts”, she utilizes the writers she associates with as evidence to support that the writing process does not begin with an immaculate first draft (Lamont, 1994). This is the “fantasy of the uninitiated” (Lamont, 1994, p. 1). Strangers to the writing process may not understand that writing isn’t simply “writing”—it is a process. The uninitiated, in this case, are non-writers.
The article by Donald Murray entitled, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” provides readers a better understanding of the writing process and argues that writers learn to write, by writing and rewriting. Murray also contends that writers must learn to be their own best enemy. Well, I believe I have this trait covered! I will confess, that I purposely saved this course for last, due to the number of years between my last structured learning experience and returning to school to complete a BSN degree.
Through the many struggles in life, I have been able to distinguish the more challenging struggles, from the lesser challenging. Out of the many obstacles in life, I find writing to be one of the more treacherous ones. Although many works of writing appear to be easily forged by the artist, creating the first draft for any writer has proven to be a very treacherous journey. In Anne Lamott’s excerpt from her book “Bird by Bird”, she describes her own personal struggle with writing first drafts when she worked for the “California Magazine”.
This semester was filled with many bumpy roads. I struggled in the beginning of the semester with my writings , as I didn 't feel confident enough to write a well developed writing. I seemed to find myself struggling whereas writing was not my favorable subject. The major errors I had in my writings this semester would be , grammatical errors,work citations, transition words, formatting ,paragraph development, sentence structure , and sentence level issue. Therefore I have set goals to improve my writing in the future.
“Should everybody write” is the question that is argued throughout the article Should Everybody Write by Dennis Baron. Baron, an English professor at the University of Illinois, incorporates essay styled writings in correspondence to English problems faced in today’s world. His main concern in this essay is to demonstrate to his audience a proper answer to the argued statement and uses rhetorical strategies throughout his article to support his claims. The use of tone is incorporated when he discusses the context of writing history. His purpose in this article is discussed using his strong sense of logic and he also conveys to his audience’s emotions to caution them on their own writing or writing fears.
Writing process is difficult to realize since it requires a lot of skills and knowledge. Definitely, not many of us can start writhing right away without having any problems such as grammar, vocabulary or organization. However, a person can become a better writer if he or she will practice writing every day and will pay attention to his writing problems. To become a good writer, I have to improve my grammar, follow specific steps in writing process, and avoid using similar transitional words. Grammar is the number one problem in the writing process and causes me a lot of issues.
With the instruction given to me over the past few months, I have grown as a writer and gained confidence in my writing skills. When I
Every student has their own writing process. Writing process ways is the student's way to have the best writing assignments and make who ever read it understand their main idea. In this essay I am going to explain my own writing process for various type. In chapter 4 by Keith Hjortshoj “How Good Writing Gets Written” which talks about how should develops their writing skills and gives them some tips that they should use in their writing process.
I am now able to see the areas in which I lack in but I also recognize my strengths as well. To become a precise writer, you have to take the initiatives that will help you do so. These initiatives consist of working on different academic genres, planning and organizing material, identifying purpose and audience and for revising intentionally. It is also includes reading different types of texts and learning how to understand a writer’s argument and respond to the ideas of others.
Despite my best efforts to relate to the essay, something still felt off. So like any bored, tired, and annoyed student would do, I submitted what I had and hoped my teacher would take pity on me. He did not take pity on me or give me
The comments from my instructor, the online material, my research, the online writing center and comments from other students in the discussion boards have helped me so much to improve my writing skills. In the writing process, the step that I feel I have improved a lot is editing, as I am constantly reading my writings and editing them as I finish them, over and over again before I publish them. The steps in the writing process that I like the most are finding a topic in the Pre-writing step and Drafting. I like having a lot of ideas floating around and think about which idea is the best and the most exciting topic to talk about.
I did not understand the purpose of the essay so I wrote about what I thought altering public space meant. After reading the assigned reading I still did not understand what was being asked of me and this is where I should have emailed my instructor for clarity rather than guessing. If I would have had a better understanding on the assignment rather than going into the assignment guessing if I was doing it correctly I would have gotten a better score than I got. There was some misuse of commas and even commas splices included in the essay. In previous course and now I do not know how to correctly use commas I did not really understand the concept whenever my
The most difficult is the thesis because I have to fit so much into just several sentences. As for my body paragraphs, I have problems making the essay flow from one paragraph to the next. I have tried to fix the issue myself, however every time someone proofreads my essay they state that my essay lacks flow, but they rarely give me any helpful tips to fix the problem. I have trouble coming up with the right transitions to connect the ideas from one paragraph to the
Each essay I wrote took me several time to write, several drafts which show that I have improve every time I do the drafts to write a perfect masterpiece. I learned a lot of skills and techniques this quarter, which has helped me to improve and progress my writing skills for the future. I will remember the skills, techniques, and tips that professor gave us in this English class for my higher education. For example, all the time that I went to visit professor Sapozhnikov office hours to receive help on my out-of -class essays has helped me to improve, grow, and progress in my writing skills as a writer. Some of the significant changes I have made as I was progressing and growing were to develop a strong thesis to help support my claims as I write my essays, such as facts, observations, illustration, and examples.