Reading Response #6

Summary:

In her article "Decisions and revisions," Berkenkotter attempts to explain to the audience her findings on her research on planning and revising strategies of a highly skilled and verbal writer. She used a three step method to collect data from her subject. She argues that her subject's planning activities consisted of two different types. The first one was the stating of the "process goals" and the second was the stating of rhetorical goals.


Synthesis:

Allen and Berkenkotter's articles relate to each other because they both question how people go about writing. In Allen's writing she discusses the outside perspective and how you have to work in order to improve your writing. Then in Berkenkotter's writing she talks about how you go about practicing your writing.

 Discussion Questions:

1. My interpretation of Murray's writing process was that Murray had a distinct way of doing things. He  had his own process for collecting his ideas and putting it down on paper. Like Murray, I also keep something like a day journal where I collect my thoughts and ideas when I am trying to write. I like doing so because it is easy for me to remember the train of thought I had when I was writing down the idea instead of forgetting, like I often times do. Some things I do differently though, would be that I usually have an idea of who I am talking to before I start coming up with things instead of just coming up with the idea and then picking out the language and things last.

3.This study changed Berkenkotter's understanding of writing process because she realized there was not a cold cut and dry process for great writing and that every writer has their own different process of doing things. That is why it was difficult for her to understand some of Murray's processes because she couldn't understand his way of thinking.

Applying and Exploring ideas:

1. I spend my time coming up with ideas and and brainstorming. Life Murray, I too have a journal type thing where I write all of my ideas down. I usually start by coming up with my map points and go from there. Once I have my main idea and points to back up I argument I go from there. I characterize my level of writing experience as moderate because I would have to write a decent amount of papers every year during high school. I think my level of experience relates to the amount of time I spend on various parts of the writing process because the more I write correlates to the amount of time I spend preparing for my writing.

Meta Moment:

One thing that I have learned from the Berkenkotter and Murray readings that I could use to help me write more is to have someone help me. Murray has his wife there to help him write what exactly he is trying to say, and i think that if I had someone to talk to about my writing I would be able to get my ideas across more clearly.

Opinion:

I really liked the article that Berkenkotter wrote because she really talked about inside the mind of a true writer. This intrigued me because I never really thought about the process of writing before. I liked how Berkenkotter explained to the audience that everyone has their own different styles of writing.