Writing Process

Concrete Phenomenon: In the Animal Planet original documentary nature series, Meerkat Manor, the viewer is presented with a reality different from other nature programs, and therefore, a different kind of response to that reality is generated by the viewer. In Meerkat Manor, the meerkats (the main characters) are given names, roles, personalities, and many other…

Read more My Pre-Writing Exercise

I am naturally a pretty skeptical person and when I was introduced to pre-writing I was a bit unimpressed. I felt that the ideas of pre-writing were obvious and that I have been doing them for years. I was wrong. I started my pre-writing exercise and realized half way through that I suck at pre-writing.…

Read more Reflecting On Pre-Writing

I have no idea what prewriting is before this class. I thought I was doing prewriting because I organized my thoughts and listed them as an outline. When thinking of some theories could be used in a paper, I started looking it up rather than put these ideas in an inventory before writing. As an…

Read more Prewriting Experience

I spent some time on my flight reading through a couple of articles about my topic. I really enjoyed the process, although I’m also eager for feedback because I’m not entirely sure I did it correctly. I followed the outline that Marty did in class and I made some lists of ideas from the two…

Read more Prewriting

Here is an excellent question from Jimmy about the writing process buried in some comments, and I am just reproducing my answer here (slightly edited) so people don’t overlook it. Just curious…when you write, do you make a clear distinction between pre-writing and writing? Do you say, “ok, i’m done with prewriting..let’s start writing.” I…

Read more Prewriting Versus Writing: Is There a Boundary?

As Adam and others have observed, last weeks classes on pre-writing interestingly revealed the similarity between the process of design and the process of writing. This is a really great insight for me, and I am surprised that I haven’t contemplated it before. I recall my early frustrations struggling with the design process. I’ve always…

Read more from chaos to order

Last week’s lecture series regarding the process of prewriting was certainly helpful and welcomed, but it also created new questions.  Few can debate the overall value pre-writing incurs on a finish product, but does this process work universally for all individuals?  Are specific methods (outlines, free writing, and making sticky notes) more suitable for certain…

Read more Think, Write, Revise