By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece. Elbows piece, teaches the reader the importance of free writing before actually starting to format and produce a piece of writing. The goal being to write for ten minutes and don’t stop for anything, without worrying about correct spelling or grammar (Elbow). He states that it helps by not receiving any feedback at all, explaining that free writing must not be evaluated by anyone at all. Its is meant to generate thoughts, create a voice that is vibrant and strong. Over editing can kill writing. The author 's voice is dammed out by all the
Peter Elbow (b.1935) is an author and professor, who wrote “Writing without Teachers” which was last published in 1998. Elbow’s essay “Freewriting” talks about why we should freewrite and it’s benefits. Elbow said, “ The habit of compulsive, premature editing doesn’t just make writing hard. It also makes writing dead.” This means that when you're writing you should continue to write and finish, before you start to critique yourself because it could lead to a “dead” essay. One interesting detail, is when Elbow said, “Freewritings are vacuums. Gradually you will begin to carry over into your regular writing some of the voice, force, and connectedness that creep into those vacuums.” Freewriting lets you express yourself and through time that voice will start to creep into regular writing.
In the article “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” by Donald M. Murray, it talks about how writers and authors see and revise their own work. After reading this I saw how time and discipline play a big role in this task. Murray quotes famous writers, one being Ray Bradbury, the author of the novel Fahrenheit 451. Murray explains his technique on how he revised his work, along with many other ways that authors edit their writing.
Chapter 4 of Literature and the Writing Process by Elizabeth McMahan argues her perspective on how to rewrite a rough draft and the process in which doing so. The object of study in chapter 4 teaches readers how to review drafted to ensure, conciseness, strong verbs and sentences, editing paragraphs, and perfect flow for reader’s comprehension. The author of Literature and the Writing Process, Elizabeth McMahan, taught at Illinois State University and held a Bachelor of Arts, and Masters of Arts degree from the University of Houston. McMahan also received a doctorate in 19th century American literature from the University of Oregon, and co-wrote many college textbooks. Susan X Day, Robert Funk, and Linda S. Coleman co-authored and published Literature and Writing Process. The textbook exemplifies complete MLA format. This textbook was published in the United States at the Pearson publishing house in 2007. Publishing houses for Pearson are located all over the world from Boston to Madrid, Mexico City, Tokyo, and all points in between.
Everyone has their own sound in their writing, which is what makes them unique and have a great final draft. Peter Elbow believes that these freewriting exercises will help everyone become a better writer.
When it comes to critical thinking, reading and writing are two factors that deal with the critical thinking process. A few key aspects of critical reading and writing are identifying the tone in ones writing, how to throughly read and annotate a text, and the revision process. In the essay, “The Maker’s Eye”, Donald Murray explains how the attitude of a writer, listening to what readers have to say and how to edit your own writing makes your work better when critically thinking in college. These aspects of critical thinking, reading and writing make will keep the reader interested and make the writing easier to translate when read.
Within the past eight weeks, I have realized my strengths and weaknesses within the writing process. I have realized that I do not utilize the first step within the writing process of prewriting. However, for the drafting, revising, and polishing steps of the writing process, I am very familiar and use additional resources to strengthen the writing assignment. I create multiple drafts, which includes revising and polishing in each step. Therefore, I use all three of these steps in multiple drafts as I reach the final product for
In chapter 3 of Everyone’s an Author, the main purpose is to discuss the writing process and its components. The chapter emphasizes the idea that practice makes perfect and it may take time and patience to find the writing process that works well for you. In order to find a writing process that leads to you working the most efficiently, one must approach their writing and take note of the habits they make, and analyze whether or not they work well.
This article is about Richard Marius and the processes he uses in his own writings. He expresses the importance of starting with just a list, committing yourself completely to the project at hand, writing numerous rough drafts, and many other guidelines that can contribute to the process of effective writing.
In the article Teaching Writing as a Process Not Product by Donald M. Murray, Murray argues that writing is a process of discovery not an end product. Rather than being criticized for a “perfect product” by the teachers, student should be provided with an environment of creativity to explore and discover. Murray states that many teachers focus on the end product rather than teaching students the process of writing in order to receive a better product. The writing process has three stages of writing which include: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. In the prewriting stage, students should take about 85% of their time dedicated to the writing process. Prewriting includes strategies such as daydreaming, note taking, outlining, and lead-writing. Next is the writing stage where it should take about one percent of a student’s time. The writing stage is where students produce their first draft. Finally, it is the
In this article Elbow tell us that some people are good at writers. However we have to learn how to be a good writer within our hearts not by what your teachers says. Their was some parts that i did not undersatnd when he used the phrase " Once there was a land where people felt helpless about trying to touch the floor without bending their knees". I did not understand what Elbow was trying to tell me. Yes most of the Elbows ideas has help me by first of figuring out the meaning of my writing, and of how to put it into my own words. I did agree that everybody struggles to began writing even if you a good writer or
Lamott compares the process of writing with the painful process of pulling the teeth. She believes that in order to produce a high quality writing, the author must first put together all their ideas and thoughts in form of the “child draft”. This draft determines the flow and dimension
While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.
In Anne Lamott’s essay, “Shitty First Drafts,” she explains her writing philosophy of just getting ideas down on paper and then editing them later. While some disagree with this method, such as George Dila in his critical response, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft,” many writers employ this technique to not only better their writing, but to overcome obstacles in the writing process. Even the most successful of writers will say that they actually hate writing, Lamott even compares it to pulling teeth. The intimidation of just starting to write becomes too much and leads writers to procrastinate. For many, an overwhelming, overbearing sense of perfectionism creeps in and creates anxiety and often lead to writer’s block. Everyone writes first drafts, but if a writer allows themselves to let go of all personal judgment and permits their writing to be “bad,” then they will most likely end up with great ideas that they did not even know were inside their heads. Once these ideas are allowed to flow out, then it becomes easier to visualize a realistic way of developing them into a full composition. By writing inferior first drafts, writers can focus on and express their ideas while overcoming the difficulties typically associated with the writing process.
Drafting is a complex process of writing that all writers, professionals and amateurs, can identify with. Since there are infinite interpretations a piece of work can be interpreted by, writers often scrutinize their work and modify it to their "perfection" during the draft process. In "The Makers Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript," the author reveals that in order to write a successful piece of work, writers need to produce a series of drafts. Each draft can be changed and rearranged to be
I have always enjoyed writing, and I believed writing was a subject I was naturally good at. I turned in papers that were still rough drafts, I did not evaluate my sources, nor did I ever take the time to fully understand the prompt. It was not until my first semester of college, in my writing composition course, I realized that I had a lot of work ahead of me to be as good a writer as I thought I was. In the writing course, the students were required to compose several essays using different methods to help progress on the course objectives. The work in this portfolio demonstrates that I have used the methods of synthesis and evaluation of sources to advance my critical thinking skills and develop personal responsibility. Though I have