ePortfolio
Portrait of a Writer
In many places around the world students are taught to write from a very early age. In elementary school my teachers began to teach us the basics of writing. Throughout the years we learned the many rules of writing; we were taught correct grammar, and our vocabulary began to grow. From the beginning I loved writing, creating new fairytales and making up stories were exciting to me. I had a strong passion and desire to write during my younger years. As I graduated middle school and moved on to more difficult and demanding classes, my love for writing slowly decreased. New rules and guidelines were incorporated for each essay and the subjects and topics became less interesting. Writing soon switched from an enjoyable pastime to a dreaded nuisance.
If you were to ask me several years ago how I see myself as a writer I would have responded in a positive way. Now as a writer in college, essays only mean one thing to me; a time consuming and stressful assignment. Although writing is not my favorite activity, I see myself as a dedicated and devoted writer. Throughout my writing process I reach many obstacles such as; beginning an essay, including thoughtful information, staying on topic, and writing drafts. “The right words and sentences just do not come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time (Lamott).” This direct quote from Anne Lamott’s article represents my writing perfectly. When writing, I find myself staring at my computer until I develop a flowing sentence. Reaching
a fully developed paragraph takes me a large amount of time and I tend to reread it. This self-perception has helped me be the best writer I can be through many ways. For example, with self-perception I know my weaknesses and strengths for writing a paper. Also, it helps me with time management for writing my papers and helps limit my stress. Throughout my writing career many rules and experiences have transformed my writing today. In Rose’s article he states, “In high school, Ruth was told and told again that a good essay always grabs a reader’s attention immediately. Until you can make your essay do that, her teachers and text books putatively declaimed, there is no need to go one (Rose).” This statement presents one of the many writing rules that I have been introduced to over the years. Other writing rules have greatly influenced my relationship with writing. Rules such as avoiding run on sentences, using proper punctuation, and following the five paragraph format have shaped my relationship with writing in both a positive and negative way. These rules have helped me with a general guideline on how to write, but have also led to a more uniformed writing, diminishing the creativity.
Stepping back and considering myself as a writer has made me acknowledge how inflexible plans, strict rules, and harsh guidelines have limited my creativity as a writer. I prefer having restrains to a certain extent and being encouraged to write more freely. These readings have helped me understand why and how I write by showing me that I do not always agree with the strict guidelines. With these readings I have realized I do not want to write differently, I am comfortable with how I write. They have also helped me understand myself differently as a writer. Overall I understand how many styles require strict formats and layouts, but I believe having some freedom in my writing helps me accomplish the task at hand. With open boundaries I feel I can write my best and express my writing thoroughly.
Work Cited
Anne Lamott, “Shitty First Drafts”
Mike Rose “Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivists Analysis of Writers Block”
Analysis
Introduction
Sondra Perl a professor of English at Herbert Lehmann College, conducted the study of the composing processes of five unskilled writers. The purpose of her study was to better understand the individual writing processes. Before this research, it was believed that unskilled writers had no specific process while writing. Her study included unskilled writers who spoke their thoughts aloud while composing their essays. With this think-aloud process it helps evaluate the thought process and causes writers and myself to change the way we read and write. This type of autoethnography is beneficial to help myself further understand my own writing habits and processes.
Methodology
The methodology I used while writing “Portrait of a Writer” was a study similar to Perl. I performed the think aloud protocol and recorded my thoughts as I composed my essay while brainstorming, writing, editing, and revising. I recorded myself talking aloud about my thoughts, concerns, and questions using my IPhone voice recorder. I kept the recorder running the entire time, even when I was facing distractions and not writing my essay. In Perl’s research and experiment, one of the unskilled writers she worked with was a writer named Tony. In Tony’s procedure he had a limited amount of time to finish his task. Unlike Tony, during my study I had an unlimited time to respond to my prompt. The essay I was required to complete was called “Portrait of a Writer”, this focused on how I perceived myself as a writer and what leads me to write to my full potential. While writing this essay I found myself easily conducting sentences and paragraphs without much struggle. I believe that this was the case because I was writing about something I felt strongly passionate about. While analyzing my writing process, I created a transcript and code where I wrote out everything I had said in the recordings. To my surprise the transcript wasn’t as long as I assumed it would be. With my findings from the transcript I realized it was because I mostly reread what I have already written to continue with my writing. After typing my transcript, I created a code that included categories to classify my process. These categories such as; planning, drafting, distractions, and revising greatly helped me determine how often I did each activity. This methodology greatly helped with investigating the concept of these focal points.
What I Already Knew and Learned about my Process
Whenever I write an essay or start a major assignment I make sure I am somewhere I feel comfortable and will have minimum distractions. With social media and texting I am constantly getting distracted by something. When I began to write the “Portrait of a Writer” essay I made sure I was in a distraction free zone, where I knew I could produce my best work. Normally when I write an essay I speak while I’m typing, this made the think-aloud process come easy to me. I already knew from prior experiences that I dislike writing in classroom settings with timed prompts. Also, I already knew that I liked writing my essays in one sitting to avoid losing my train of thought. With this knowledge I am capable of finishing my essay in a timely matter and lowering the chances of writers’ blocks. Before conducting the think-aloud method while writing my essay, I thought I knew plenty about my writing process. With the newly learned knowledge about my process, I have realized I was unaware of many things I do while writing. For example, procrastination appeared multiple times during the planning, drafting, and revising categories. With these findings from my transcript and code I found that I spent lots of unneeded time checking my phone, daydreaming, getting a snack, or logging on to social media. If I had avoided these distractions I could have eliminated a great amount of time and worked more efficiently. I also found that a majority of my time was being used on the drafting category of my essay. Drafting consisted mostly of typing and writing, however pausing and talking about the assignment appeared almost as often. I found that pausing greatly helped me with well-developed sentences, strong vocabulary, and significant examples. When looking at the revising category, the majority of my actions consisted of rereading the prompt and the previous sentences and paragraphs I had constructed. “Tony rarely produced a sentence without stopping to reread either a part of the whole. This repetition set up a particular kind of composing rhythm one that was cumulative in nature and that sets ideas in motion by its repetitiveness (Perl 324).” This analysis suggests that I do compare with Tony; rereading and composing rhythm helps me gather more useful information. “Tony spent a great deal of his composing time editing. However, most of his time was spent proofreading rather than changing (Perl 326).” After I finished drafting a paper, I reread the paper and I moved a few sentences around to create a better flowing paragraph. Before I am completing finished with the paper I made a few basic changes, such as a word here and a sentence there.
Conclusion
After completing this analysis I have concluded that there is more to my writing process than I initially knew of. My writing process includes several categories such as; drafting, writing, and revising. Throughout these categories there are patterns of where I get distracted, pause, or reread. I believe that understanding your writing process can positively change your writing. It is important to learn and understand your writing process to grow in your writing and eliminate the unnecessary steps and habits.
Work Cited
Perl, Sondra. “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers.” Wardle and Downs 184- 96. Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. I am a Writer in the World: Researching Personal and Academic Literacies. Acton: Copley Custom Textbooks, 2009. Print.