On The Writing Process

The first writing experience I can clearly remember was in third grade, Ms. Armstrong’s class, in a suburb north of Milwaukee. At least once per week, we had “quiet journal time,” which, to my recollection, was radically unstructured. We may have had an occasional prompt, but all I can remember is having free quiet time to create and absolutely loving it. Unfortunately, at that time I was still in my Captain Underpants stage, and wrote–and turned in–at least two rather unsubtle poems about toilets.

In retrospect, I probably should have had the good sense to keep the potty talk to myself, but my early school journals exemplify an enduring truth of my writing process: I imitate what I think is good. Ideally, cheap imitation eventually gives way to something more original, but I’d be lying if I said there were no Mary Oliver sound-alikes in my college poetry portfolio. I’m not embarrassed by this constant cycle of imitation and adaptation, though, because it’s been critical to my development of writing skills. Without having seen concrete examples of beautiful descriptive language or concise, exemplary academic writing, I would have had no idea where to start on many writing assignments.

Currently, my writing process differs depending on the task at hand. For more formal writing assignments, my planning process strongly resembles the Flowers & Hayes model: I spend time generating ideas mentally and/or on paper, and then organize those ideas into a rough outline (Flowers & Hayes, 1981). I will then start fleshing out those ideas by adding bullet-pointed sentences or phrases to each section of the outline. However, if I am responding to a shorter prompt, I will copy and paste the prompt onto the top of my working document, and forego a typed outline in favor of jotting a few notes and then diving into full-sentence writing. As I write, I check and re-check the prompt against my work to ensure that I am adequately addressing the question. Throughout most of my drafting process, I switch rapidly between “translating” and both the “evaluative” and “revision” sub-processes of “reviewing” (Flowers & Hayes, 1981). I start writing a sentence, rewrite phrases, change diction, and keep forging ahead–often flagging sentences or paragraphs to revisit when the draft is complete.

My writing process likely differs from that of a novice writer in a few ways. Firstly, because I am a fluent reader and writer of English, I have the skill needed to jump back and forth between cognitive processes. Also, unlike a native speaker like myself, English language learners may review their work less instinctively, and may struggle to revise “on the basis of what ‘sounds’ right” (Harris & Silva, 1993). Furthermore, novice writers who also struggle with reading comprehension might need to spend more conscious energy on sentence construction and organizing ideas.

To expound on an earlier point, my writing process adjusts to both the task at hand and the medium being used. I conceptualize the medium of a text as part of a text’s “rhetorical problem” insofar as it affects my task environment as well as my audience and corresponding goals (Flowers & Hayes, 1981). For example, if I am writing for an online audience, I might adhere less formally to Standard English, but I will be more self-conscious about how the public will receive my ideas than in a classroom setting. If I am creating a multimodal text–e.g. a video or a podcast–I will need to mind additional considerations such as visual and auditory cues. Although I have much to learn about composing multimodal texts, I see a great value in teaching students how to adjust their writing goals and processes according to the vast array of media available to citizens of the digital age.