The way I write is typically the same for every assignment I have and since it has worked for me thus far, I do not necessarily see it changing any time soon. The readings we have been given so far have stressed that many writers have stages to their writing, but mine typically gets organized as I write. I will begin any assignment like most others, determine what to write and where my evidence will come from, but that is the only form of “pre-write" I do. I have never been one to use an organizer of any kind to set up my thoughts and write an outline, I typically jump right into the work. When I was younger, in our language arts classes, we had to write weekly short essays based on an article from the newspaper. In these short essays, we were required to fill out organizers where we would include our topic sentence, different evidence and explanations, and then finally the concluding sentence. These were always a waste of time for me, and I only used them because it was a requirement for our assignments. Since then, I have not gone back to using any sort of organizer which could be a major difference between my process and other novice writers. Some people very much enjoy seeing their ideas in front of them while they write while I tend to write my entire assignment in one sitting most of the time. Overthinking writing is a common occurrence which I feel may also be a difference between myself and novice writers. Novice writers may be timid and “generally know what good writing looks like. However, knowing how to craft good writing is much more difficult,” (Hicks, Turner & Stratten, 170) while I feel as if I can be more confident in my writing (most of the time) and know how to craft good writing in my own ways.
I think my process may change when writing in online settings or via multimodal resources depending on what platform I am using. For example, people tend to appear bored if they are forced to read something on a platform that may have a long caption rather than something short and to the point. My writing tends to be more short and to the point rather than drawn out with points people do not care to read. I am one that typically rereads what I write in online settings/multimodal resources to ensure that it is properly written still, and people will understand the point of my writing. I am not one to typically be okay with errors in my writing, no matter what setting I am writing in. This being said, though, my tone in my writing is not always professional even if I make sure to not have errors in my text; I have a good balance between my writing processes.
Hi Drew,
ReplyDeleteIt was really interesting reading about your writing process. I can't say that we have the exact same approach (who does, though?), but something that really resonated with me was that you want to give your students the opportunity to figure out their own writing process. While I think it is important to give students the baseline understanding of how writing works and can be developed (using something like an outline or graphic organizer), putting too much emphasis on the idea that writing has to be done in a linear set of steps may deter students from wanting to write altogether, and they could miss out on some of the great, organic moments that happen when we are given the freedom to write, plan, and revise as we go and on our own terms. I mentioned this briefly in my post, but I hated the days in English class where we were supposed to just "revise" our papers before turning them in. It made revisions feel like something separate from the writing process, and that it could only happen after you finish writing. I don't want my students to fall into this mindset, as I'm sure you don't either!
ReplyDeleteHey Drew,
I too want my students to know that not everyone's process is the same. Some people benefit a lot from having an outline before starting and some people write best if they just dive right in. I guess it all depends on the subject matter and how comfortable they are with the subjects they are writing on. I can see how a student who is really passionate about a certain subject may feel that they don't need to plan ahead. But I can also see that if someone is writing about something that is dear to them, then they may have sooo many ideas that they need to create an outline before starting writing. I'm kind of the latter category. But that's not everyone's cup of tea and kids need opportunities to explore what kind of writer they are without fear of getting a failing grade.