Writing Processes...

Music: Ray LaMontagne: "Trouble"

This past week, in an effort to help my CORE 104 class find topics about which to write in their blogs, I posted a brief description of what I imagine students' writing processes to be like and asked if they could verify the accuracy of my description in their blog postings. A number of students responded and shared reflections on their writing processes. I thought I would take a moment to share a few of the excerpts that I found most interesting:

1.

The extravaganza usually ends with me telling myself that I will never do that again, and I will finally embrace time management. Previous postings reveal this is a lie. I never learn my lesson and I do it over and over again. I think I do this because I simply get by. I always get decent grades even when I do all of the work at once. So I figure, what is a few stressful hours one night, when I can enjoy all of my other free nights beforehand. Is it still wrong if I continue to do well in school?

2.

When I begin, I go over what it is I need to write and gather all my materials needed to complete the essay so I don't have to get up and hunt stuff down. I often times will stop after writing an essay and check the message board I post on, facebook, or myspace. I don't know but doing this has yet to hurt me. The entire time I'm writing I'm doing this, it's only until proof reading time that everything gets shut off and I focus on what it is I wrote about, to make sure I actually understand what I wrote, why and how it relates to the prompt.

3.

Your idea of the student writing process is pretty right on as far as I'm concerned. My process is basically the same, with a few extra steps added in.

1) Teacher assigns paper
2) Teacher explains the assignment
3) Student go back to their room and complain to roomates
- "Dude my teacher is crazy. Why would we ever want to write a paper about _____"
- "Ughh I have so much work. I just got another paper."
- etc
4) Student sits down and actually attempts to write the paper. Maybe a paragraph gets written.
5) Next class the teacher reminds students about paper
6) The night before the paper is due the student goes into what I call "crunch mode" where they're trying to bang this paper out as best and as fast as they can so it's ready for the next day.
7) In class students hand in papers and say to the person next to them, "I did so bad on that. I just finished it last night." And the other student usually says somthing to the effect "Your's can't be any worse than mine. I just printed mine before I came to class."
8) Teacher takes the papers home and grades them while the students barely think about it.
9) Teacher says they're handing back papers at the end of class and students say to the person next to them, "I don't want this back. I don't even want to know what I got."
10) Teacher hands back papers and most students got higher than they thought they were going to get, while others who thought they did well didn't get as high as they had hoped for.

This is the process that my life with papers follows typically. Usually tests and quizes have some of the same steps. Usually steps 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10 can be applied substituting test/quiz for paper.

4.

I am not sure that i compose a paper the way other people do, but it has worked for me thus far. When i first get the assignment, like most, i groan and want to avoid writing it but know that i must do it. When i finally get myself to do the paper, i sit in front of the computer, get all my papers about the assignment that i need, open my notebook or book to the correct pages and lay is all around me on my desk. I read the assignment over again a few times to make sure that i know all the parts of the material that i must cover. I pull up Microsoft word, put a header on, and just start to write. Sometimes i feel that a detailed outline does not help me. It is just better for me to type type and type. What does help, is i get a piece of paper and write down what each paragraph will be about. Other than that, i do not usually write out an outline unless it is required. I find it much easier to plan out my thoughts as i go. I let the words go from my brain and into my fingertips, to the keyboard and onto the computer. I will usually introduce a paragraph with a topic sentence, explain that, use a quote that supports my topic sentence, explain that, use a similar quote, explain that, close that paragraph and this continues for however many paragraphs i need and how long the paper needs to be. This is how i was taught to write a paper since i have been doing formal papers. Pose an idea, support it with quotes, and explain those quotes. I review it, make revisions, press print, staple it, then it is ready to be passed in.

5.

Now to my actual writing process. First, I panic, completely stress over it, mark the date on my calendar and look to see if it's due on a crazy week or a somewhat manageable week. Then, I think about the paper whenever I can. After much thought I try to come up with a decent thesis to start with. Then I sit down and start writing whatever comes to mind. I revise that and work off of it. I have friends look it over and give me more ideas. Then I just keep writing and revising until the date it's due. Sometimes it's easy for me to write and paper and other times it's extremely difficult.
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These were truly wondeful descriptions. They speak volumes about writing at the university and give a sense of the "behind the scenes" stories of how students compose. In many ways, they are not at all surprising. I think the question I would raise is what's being learned through these processes. Are these experiences helping students to become better writers and communicators? What responsibility do students have in this process? What about teachers? What other models or processes might there be? How should writing be taught? Who should teach writing? What should writing be about? How should it be assessed/evaluated? So many wonderful things to think about in regard to these postings. I guess the question I find myself asking is, should I care that this is what students' writing processes consist of? Is there a problem here? (I feel as though there is...) And if there is a problem, is this a problem of the institution or of individuals? There's lots here to chew on. Thanks to all those who shared their processes!

mm