Writing seems to be hard to study because it is always growing. Similarly to the author, I like to begin my writing on paper. In the reading, there is importance placed on the time allowed for construction of writing. I use prewriting to collect thoughts sometimes. I like to get my three main points sorted out in my head sometimes. Next, the reading seems to show writing is a growing accumulation of knowledge through life. Another point of the writing is there was a part that seemed to reference turning bullets into longer thoughts. On another note, when going through my papers or writing of any type I never fail to find an error. Towards the finale of the reading, it seems to point out that one must play many roles to write a piece and you can always learn more.
HR: The reading and the checkers on the site.
Cecelia Ivey
Cecelia,
As you think about the stages of prewriting that Flower and Hayes outline (generating, organizing, and goal setting), consider the ways that you move back and forth among these stages as you write (Lindemann 26). Do your “organizing” strategies, for example, ever inhibit your ability to “generate” ideas on the page as you compose a draft? Or, as you write and read back over the ideas that have made it onto the page, what sort of “goals” do you set for the writing you’ll do next (e.g., I need to connect the idea in the second paragraph to the idea I introduce in the next paragraph)? Moving back and forth among these stages is what helped us recognize that writing is a “recursive” activity, not a linear one. But too often, students are taught to approach writing as a series of steps that proceed in a linear fashion (e.g., first pre-write, then draft, then revise). Why do you think this happens? And what can we, as teachers and tutors, do to help writers become more skilled (or maybe even just more comfortable) with writing as a recursive act?
COL McDonald