Berkenkotter & Murray (Pg 216-235)

Summary: The article itself was about one of the key techniques writers use, which are Planning and Revising. No matter what type of level of writing you may be on, true professionals still go back and look at their work and spend tons of times reviewing and editing. Usually overlooking the importance of such steps are often what cause trouble for writers. 

Question& Discussion. 

1. While reading Murray's writing process I noticed the fact that he often jumps around, he doesn't really stick on one thing for too long. Also while observing his writing style he spoke about planing and the idea of 'framing'. While he was explaining the ideology of planning and revising, I realized that he spent so much time just on revising. It made me wonder how much time he spent on his work. Comparing my writing style to his is definitely different. I've been trained by my english teachers to stick to one thing, and to never jump around. But what I do (like Murray) spend lots of time planning on what's going where (to avoid jumping around) but also revising making sure everything is correct not just grammatically but sense-wise as well. 

3. This study really changed Berkenkotter's understanding of the writing in so many ways. Before she knew that Planning and Revising was important but  she didn't realize the true importance to writing. I think Murray's study really showed the true idea of planning and revising writing in the fullest extent. It shows the idea of going back and forth and so on until the piece of writing has been thoroughly edited in a way. 

AE:

1. Personally when writing, I really spend my time doing my research first so I know what I'm talking about. I thoroughly look into my topic and become involved in it so I know I can give all my effort, then my second step is planning. I take a piece of paper and separate my paragraphs into topics, making sure each paragraph and topic smoothly 'flows' into the next topic without sounding random. Then I start writing my first very rough draft, knowing I'll edit most of it out. When my first rough draft is edited, I often take that draft and do more work on it. Depending on how I personally feel about my work, then it'll be complete. Most people believe that since I'm a freshmen, my level of writing is on a pretty good level. I believe that if I put the most effort and edit/plan meticulously that my writing can be great. 

My level of experience doesn't just rely on the time I've spent writing, but it has also reflected on my pursuit of perfection. As a perfectionist, my level of experience takes more of a toll because I remember the past mistake's I've made on my writing before and take note of that. The level of experience is based on my time spent, and the mistake's I've learned from.

Meta Moment:

Berkenkotter and Murray's reading have shown me quite a good amount of information. One of the most important idea's it's shown me is the importance of planning and revising. Not that I overlooked the importance of it before but I didn't realize how much it affected the quality of a piece of writing. After reading this I'm sure that I'll look into planning more and editing as well.