1 Mauer

The Writing Process: Through My Eyes

Writing is something that a lot of people will just flat out say they are not any good at, but where do they get this sense or idea that they are not good writers? Most people believe that they are not any good at writing because teachers or peers may be critiquing your writing, but may not write in the same way. When people do not write in the same style or format as you it causes them to think that the paper they reading is incorrect because it does not sound right to you. Therefore, the people who are grading the paper see it as no good, which in turn makes you believe that you are not a good writer. People write in all different ways and styles which can make a piece of writing that is different from your own seem bad or incorrect. Writing scholars and teachers in todays society suggest that there is a so-called correct way of writing. We have all been taught a specific way to write throughout our education. This specific way we have been taught has been programed in our minds that it is the only correct way and the only way a teacher will accept it. Teachers teach you everything from how to outline your paper, how to write it, in five paragraph essay form of course, and finally revision after revision. Harris states the point in her article, Composing Behaviors of One and Multi-draft Writers, that the more revisions that you do to a paper, the better that it gets. This is the idea of a multi draft writer. This form may work for some people but not all. Lester Faigley and Stephen Witte tested this theory about how multi-drafters are always better writers and have a better final product. In this study of Analyzing Revision, they found that scholarly writers are extremely diverse when it comes to their writing process. Some of them write one perfect draft with making

2 almost no mistakes, and others have to just keep writing and writing drafts until it is perfect. I believe that everyones writing style is correct in sense. They just need to explain what they are doing and what they are thinking in order for teachers or others looking at your paper to understand the way you write. I am going to attempt to explain to you how I write and the process that I go through. I will see if I can find a key component to my writing that seems like something that should be incorporated in everyones writing. To gain the information that was necessary for this study of my writing style I gathered information from my last article I wrote and how I approached it. During my last writing process, I kept a journal for about two weeks while I was working on it. In this journal I recorded my thoughts for each step of my writing process. I wrote down how I tackled thinking of my topic and how I go about formulating a conclusion, along with how I find my research. A lot of people will say that the best way to start writing is to just jump right in and get all of your ideas out of your head and down onto paper all at once. I consider these to be the people that think that only one draft is necessary, without putting much thought into it. I completely disagree with this. I go about it in a completely different way. My first discovery was that I always start off by taking a few days to just randomly at times think in my head about the paper, and see if any ideas come to mind. If and idea does come to mind I will take out a piece of paper and jot them down immediately. By giving time to let my ideas develop, I am able spend time on each idea and give time for more to come to mind because your first idea is never your best idea. Patricia Murray

3 Mauer explains something similar to this in her article Doing Writing. She gets almost all of her thoughts in her head before she starts actually writing. She also says that she can sometimes write a whole paper without stopping. I feel that this step in my process is similar to hers and helps my paper not be so jumbled when I actually start writing. This usually ends up in me only having to write one draft. This step helps me to just relax before I start writing and not jump into it with little or no ideas written down. After a day or two I am stuck with a jumbled mess of words and thoughts on a piece of paper. Here is where I begin my next step, research. I take all of those jumbled thoughts that may not make much sense, and turn them into the starting points for my research. I will usually gather in-depth research and information on my topic for three days. When my research is finally complete, I have to put it all together. That is where making an outline comes into play. To make an outline I take all of the best ideas from my sheet of paper from the first step and my research and organize them in a way that I think will make sense in my paper. Then, I review it a few times in my head and imagine it on paper. From there, I take out or add any new revisions. After this comes the hardest part of all in my mind, which is taking that outline and turning it into grammatically correct and refined sentences. I am sure that you have all experienced getting all your research together and feeling like you are really ready to start writing, and then it all falls through. You start and suddenly all your research, work, and time you have put in makes no sense. Which is why I use a technique that I call chunking. My definition of chunking is writing small portions at a time and then coming back to them. I guess in a way I look at this as being multidraft writing like Harris describes. When I do this, I will sit down write a paragraph, or a

4 few sentences, and just leave it alone for an entire twenty-four hours. My reasoning for this is that if it still makes sense and sounds good to me a day later, then I consider it to be a good idea and for me to be on the right track. I go through my whole paper like this, no matter how long it takes, which is why I will always allow myself seven days to write the actual paper portion. After I have gone through the nagging process of chunking, I will always read it aloud to myself and also have other people read it for me to make sure my ideas are clear. The final step in my writing process is to just read and reread my paper over and over again to make any last second revisions or corrections. The reason that I read it five to ten times over is that I believe every successive time you read over your work, it can become stronger. I do a bit of what Harris was talking about when she said every successive draft makes your paper better. After all of the grueling steps, I always feel ready to turn in a piece of work that I am proud of. Through my research, I have discovered many strong points and maybe some places that could use improvement. I found that I am the type of person that needs a large chunk of time to write a paper. Its not just something I can come up with in an hour. No matter how you write, or the steps you go through, time seems to be a key factor. I believe that the writing community needs to teach the students to focus less on the so-called correct steps and focus more on taking their time and figuring out what works best for them. My study has shown me that I have developed my way of writing that works for me. I have also learned that other people may not, and probably do not, write in the same way. Next time you are thinking about saying this persons writing sucks or they are a terrible writer, think about the time and effort they put into it, and have them explain to

5 Mauer you what they were thinking and how they were writing so you can better understand their writing.

Works Cited

6 Harris, Muriel. Composing Behaviors of One and Multi-Draft Writers. College English. Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 174-191. Murray, Patricia Y. Doing Writing. Waldrep 1:225-39.