The Process of Writing—
Writing allows us to take someone on a journey by simply using words. It is up to the writer to take their thoughts, find the best way to express them, and ensure it can easily be interpreted by others. Organization is one of the main stumbling blocks when it comes to the writing journey. By learning how to overcome those stumbling blocks one can effectively use language to discover a new “invention.”
“Both Day and Bain see the first part of rhetorical invention as entailing three stages: deciding on a them or idea, stating a proposition which connects the them to another idea, and defining the area covered by the proposition so it may be divided into its constituent parts.” Those three stages are commonly taught in English Composition classes with some variation.
Without the proper sentence and paragraph organization, readers may only see a string of words, and/or a string of thoughts. So, to capture the essence and meaning of your writing, it is imperative that it is organized. Many English Composition teachers enforce organization through repetition. After writing for a while some students are able to develop a pattern that enables them to organize their thoughts, each time they write. Whether someone is writing a technical document and describing a process or telling a fictional story, the organizational objective is to take the reader along with you, and not lose them along the way.
Dear Regina,
ReplyDeleteWhile I philosophically agree with you (because I like organization and compartmentalization rather than chaos), I'm wondering if the staged or process-driven approach to writing is too limiting. I'm thinking of creative writing, where a "stream of consciousness" style works well and has produced some great literature (William Faulkner and James Joyce use stream of consciousness narration in their work).
How do we know that we don't have a future Faulkner of Joyce in our class? When we force structure we force our creativity. And we need creativity in writing, even in the business world (finding a creative solution to present bad news, for example). In Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, he talks of Anders Ericsson's 10,000-hour rule as contributing to greatness. I'm not sure students even come close to 10,000 hours of writing practice...writing correction, writing stricture, writing boredom, certainly...but we in my experience we don't give them the freedom to just enjoy writing.
I also wonder if writing, as a medium of communication, will continue to exist in the future. What is writing but information? Perhaps information can be downloaded directly to my brain somehow, by passing the symbolic interface of words? Who knows.
I was debating this with my sister today, and she had some interesting insights. She is a film major and writes a lot of scripts. She noted that writing screenplays (as writing poetry or novels) is considered a "creative" act, but scripts are one of the most rigidly organized genres. Literally, a screenplay has to be formatted in a specific way: fonts, spacing, justification, even capitalization. It also has to follow a specific formula: each page equals one minute; by the 30th page, the conflict must arise. It's so set, they even have software for it.
ReplyDeleteBut she also noted that writers come to organization through different processes. Some start with the "stream of consciousness" method that is then pared down and organized into a more rigid structure. Others start with the structure, noting that it helps them collect their thoughts. So maybe having both avenues for discovery is helpful.