Zinsser's View Of The Writing Process Summary

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

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.

When students complete a first draft, they consider the job of writing done – and their teachers too often agree. When professional writers complete a first draft, they usually feel that they are at the start of the writing process. When a draft is completed, the job of writing can begin. That difference in attitude is the difference between amateur and professional, inexperience and experience, journeyman and craftsman. Peter F. Drucker, the prolific business writer, calls his first draft “the zero draft”–after that he can start counting. Most writers share the feeling that the first draft, and all of those which follow, are opportunities to discover what they have to say and how best they can say it. To produce a progression of drafts, each of which says more and says it more clearly, the writer has to develop a special kind of reading skill. In school we are taught to decode what appears on the page as finished writing. Writers, however, face a different

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

From elementary school to high school, I was taught that my writing had to be structured and follow strict criteria. After I arrived in Mr. Mukherjee’s ENG 102 class, I was given the opportunity to express my creative freedom through words and graphical pictures. It can often be difficult and challenging to improve upon my own writing abilities unless motived with an idea in mind. When looking back on my time at ASU, I thought about the goals that I wanted to address for myself and the course goals that my instructor had set for the class. These goals include ones that I had accomplished to the best of my ability and ones that I need to address as well as improve.

personal transaction in the writing world (ZInsser). He further ontinue s to say thatgood writing has

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

In the first version, 1980, Zinsser created a long and wordy paper. He used specific examples but included details that were unnecessary. This is ironic because the paper is about how writers can write unnecessary words and phrases creating complicated sentences. He was not inclusive of gender, naming men as writers and only using wives as examples of distraction. This draft had a complete count of 20 paragraphs.

Throughout the course of freshmen year I have developed different skills and opinions on writing. I feel I have created a more mature style of writing and a better understanding of literature. I have changed my view of writing over this semester and acquired a strong liking for it. The importance of writing has become more visible throughout the past few months. Writing is crucial in many aspects of a person’s life. I have grown to be a more powerful and well built writer throughout this course.

But Zinsser redefines literature as “writers who come bearing information and who present it with vigor, clarity, and humanity.” (98) He then spends the rest of the section explain how to do that using eight different topics: writing about people, places, memoirs, science and technology, business, sports, arts, and humor. The one main point he reiterates through each chapter is: “Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about any subject at all.”

Gersten then reminds the reader of the importance of teaching each step in the writing process explicitly. He reiterates how writing down your thoughts is not necessarily inherent ability. Therefore, each type of writing, persuasive or expository, must be taught and explained step-by-step. By doing this Gerstan writes that teachers can help demystify the writing process for their students. The more guidance during the learning process the more positive learning

This highlights the importance of drafting, reviewing and editing to produce better academic and professional writing. Grellier & Goerke (2014) remind authors that writing is for the benefit of readers, and clear meaning and engaging content shows respect to the audience.

A learner’s ability to communicate effectively through writing to his/her target audiences is a major prerequisite for academic success. It is also a major pillar of success in one’s career across all areas of practice. Even though, writing clearly is critical to one’s academic and career success, I have not always loved writing. In fact, for a long time I despised writing. At one point, I had a feeling that my writings skills were bound to remain stagnated throughout my life. However, time has proven that I was wrong. My attitude and outlook towards virtually all genres of writing has changed positively. The various helpful methods I have been exposed to by my English teachers through different grades have helped me

When reading "The Transaction" I found myself relating to both men but in different instances. While Dr. Brock seems to enjoy writing as a means of 'letting go', it seems William Zinsser does it primarily for professional reasons rather than for a sense of enjoyment. Personally, I find myself writing for both ways and seeing the task of writing relatably to both Dr. Brock and William Zinsser. For example, when I am at home and am writing stories or writing casually about something I'm interested in, I usually enjoy it and find it relatively easy. When I'm writing a story and run out of ideas I usually let it sit a couple of days until I come up with something new- just as Dr. Brock does. However, when I'm writing a research paper or an essay/assignment

The author tells us as story about him and Dr. Brock (a surgeon who had recently begun to write and had sold some stories to magazines), being called to a school in Connecticut to talk about writing. The author was asked to talk about writing as a vocation and to Dr. Brock as an avocation. There is no any one right way to write. Any method that helps us to say what we want to say is the right method for us. Different writers have different ways of writing but all of them are vulnerable and tense. The product any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is. Good writing is all about humanity and warmth and being able to keep the reader reading from one paragraph to next. Good writer succeed in using language