Friday, March 14, 2008
My Writing Process
I never liked the traditional writing process when it was taught to us in school. I understand that papers need to be planned out, and that all the steps were logical in creating a polished paper, I just felt like it was too much. For me, the bulk of my writing process occurs before I ever put pen against paper. Once I read the prompt, or get the assignment, I'll start gathering ideas in my head until the time comes for me to finally write them out. Normally, when I write a paper the process is quite fast, because I know more or less what I want to say before I start writing. The hardest part for me is always the first line, because that dictates where the rest of the paper will lead, and also dictates to the reader what the rest of the paper will be like from the beginning. I like to listen to music when I write, or when I'm doing anything in general. I know that this probably isn't the best way to go about writing papers, but I always stick to the rule "if you wait until the last minute it only takes a minute." I find that when I only give myself time right before the due date, I get extremely focused and can get all of my ideas out of my head in a relatively short amount of time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This is just a random thought, but maybe we stop using that silly traditional writing process as we get older because by then it has been programmed into us and we use it naturally. Then I think from that point on, all the teachers try to get us to unlearn what they taught us to begin with. (Except Erin would never teach us that in the first place...!)
Once I get an assignment for a paper, I usually start writing the paper and finishing it immediately on the day I get the assignment. I have this silly idea that I should write the paper while the topic is still "fresh" in my head. Furthermore, whenever I have homework or assignments, it feels like I have something weighing me down, and I usually start and finish the assignment the day I get it. It's like it nags and nags at me until I finish it. I hate that feeling, so I just finish everything until there's nothing left to do. My family says I'll overwork myself one day, but it hasn't happened yet!!
Anyway, I agree that planning out a paper is too much. Writing should be like going on a journey. It may sound cheesy, but I think writing shouldn't be just providing a message to an audience. It should take the audience somewhere and provide a reprieve from real life. This is why I think teachers should let us create the topic we want to write about and write the way we enjoy without worrying about structure and grammar, and things like that. In society, from my experience at least, I don't think structure and grammar matter as much as the teachers in high school used to teach us. As long as the message or whatever the writer is trying to pass along to people is understood, who cares how the message is spread to society?
Post a Comment