{"id":15,"date":"2014-02-04T17:23:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T17:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/?p=15"},"modified":"2014-02-15T02:44:19","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T02:44:19","slug":"writing-advisors-share-whats-my-writing-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/2014\/02\/04\/writing-advisors-share-whats-my-writing-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing advisors share: What’s my writing process?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know that everyone has their own writing process, and it can sometimes be difficult to start a\u00a0paper if you don’t go through your usual routine. Last semester, writing advisors shared about how they write<\/strong>. Here’s what they had to say!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grete, Biology major:<\/strong> “When I really get into writing mode, my hair goes up in a ponytail, sweatpants come on, and all of the miscellaneous collections of books, old assignments, and the ever-present army of vitamin waters on my desk gets pushed to the side to make room for my computer. Head tilting from side to side along with rhythmic tapping of my feet is a common occurrence as I flip through all my notes and construct a detailed outline of what I hope to write. By the end of many hours of pouring over old books and constructing several drafts, I sit back, eat some brie and crackers, and finish revising my essay with a much needed feeling of contentment.”<\/p>\n

Anna, English\/History double major:<\/strong> “I\u2019m what I call a Pressure Cooker Writer. Once I sit down to write, I don\u2019t take more than a ten minutes break until I\u2019ve got the draft I\u2019m looking for. Of course, this strategy doesn\u2019t work unless I\u2019ve put some considerable thought into what I\u2019m going to write, and how I\u2019m going to write it, before I touch fingers to the keyboard. First, I have to closely read and consider the text(s) I\u2019m working with. Lately, I\u2019ve been rereading with my computer nearby, typing out quotes that I see as potentially relevant as I go along. After I\u2019ve pulled out a lot of the best material from the text itself, I\u2019ve found that I not only have a much better understanding of the reading, but also a potential direction I can take in my argument. A thesis usually comes quickly after going through the material I\u2019ve typed out. Once I have a clear general argument, I start looking at the sub-arguments that are the steps to proving that thesis. With general idea headings, I\u2019ll move around the quotes I\u2019ve selected so that they\u2019re organized under what will become my body paragraphs. Now, before I\u2019ve even started to write, I have a thesis, headings for body paragraphs organized by sub-arguments, and a wealth of textual evidence for each step of the way. It\u2019s all this prep work that allows the pressure cooker strategy to work so well. Once you\u2019ve done all the cutting and basting and seasoning, you can toss it all in and go!”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Maya, History major:<\/strong> “My writing process begins when I check out a teetering stack of books from the library. This may be a quirk unique to history majors, but I find it to be the most reassuring part of the writing process since it means that other people have thought and wrote about my topic as well. To organize my thoughts around the writing assignment, I comb through glossaries and subject encyclopedias for key words and ideas, and then I draw a bubble map connecting those ideas. Once I know what ideas I’m focusing on, I write a skeleton outline with an introduction, one idea per body paragraph, and a conclusion summarizing my analysis and re-stating the significance of my claim. That skeleton makes it easy for me to categorize my quotes and synthesize clear, specific analysis. My outlines are always single-spaced and full of different symbols and colors marking sections that I want to revise or expand upon. Once I’m confident that my ideas are clear, have sufficient evidence, and answer the assignment prompt, I paste the writing into a new document, erase all the bullet points, standardize the formatting, and read it out loud to myself to check the assignment’s flow and syntax.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Jana, History major:<\/strong> “My writing method is hectic at its best, frantic at its worst.\u00a0 I write and work in spurts, meaning that instead of sensibly researching for two or three hours a day on a single project I\u2019ll try to jam 15-ish hours\u2019 worth of work into a single weekend.\u00a0 When it comes to the actual writing, I gotta keep myself pumped: I listen to Girl Talk remixes or (as recommended by fellow advisor Hannah Fattor) Australian eco-rap, and denizens of the front rooms of Collins Library are probably familiar with my mid-paragraph dance moves and lip-synching.\u00a0 I tend to write my essays in a single sitting, even if it\u2019s a 20-page long behemoth of a thesis.\u00a0 Sometimes I\u2019m writing with a thorough point-by-point outline in front of me, but more often than not I just have a loose outline of reminders and general ideas or even no outline at all.\u00a0 My goal isn\u2019t to write a perfect draft or even a good draft, but to just write something.\u00a0 Once I\u2019ve gotten words on paper, I can rip them to shreds during my own overly-critical editing process.\u00a0 That\u2019s where I\u2019m merciless.\u00a0 I turn my conclusion into my introduction.\u00a0 I cut entire sections out of a paper. \u00a0I change my entire argument. \u00a0The paper usually ends up covered in scarlet\/lilac\/brown\/whatever editing remarks in my famously illegible handwriting.\u00a0 It\u2019s only after the 3rd<\/sup> or 4th<\/sup> round of this editing that I feel like maybe, just maybe, I\u2019ve actually written something I\u2019m proud of.”
\n<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Henry, P&G major (who graduated December 2013!):<\/strong> “My writing process is often characterized by the extent to which I’m putting things together on the fly. A lot of the time when I first sit down I only have a vauge inkling about what I want to say, usually something like ‘I think John Dewey has a god among men, I really want to defend him from this criticism,’ or ‘I don’t think Allan Bloom has any idea what he’s talking about, let me take his argument apart.’ As a political theory major, I’m usually writing an argument about other peoples’ arguments, so I always start with what they say. Can I write up a summary of John Dewey in a reasonable amount of space, or do I need to re-read? Next, I ask myself what I think about each part of their argument. What are their strengths and weaknesses, and what do I have to say about those? I tend to write individual sentences or paragraphs and organize them into something coherent. I end up cutting lots of stuff out by the end, but that’s the process that works the best for me!”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We know that everyone has their own writing process, and it can sometimes be difficult to start a\u00a0paper if you don’t go through your usual routine. Last semester, writing advisors shared about how they write. Here’s what they had to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":394,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/394"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}