Sunday, October 2, 2011
essay 1
Sondra Perl can be considered somewhat of a “founding father”, or mother, if you will, of writing composition. She looked into what it takes to become a writer, or rather, what it is to be a writer. Through her careful studies throughout time, she came to the conclusion that writing is a process by which each writer follows specific guidelines. They don’t necessarily work the same exact way every time or for every person, but they work as stepping stones into a piece of writing, whether it be an essay or a novel.
Perl’s guidelines consist of a number of different steps to help a writer complete his or her work. The first is to relax and clear your mind of everything that can possibly distract you from writing. Once this is done, a writer should make a list of topics he wants to write about. “Often we can't find what we really want to write about till the third or fourth item--or not till that subtle after--question, "Is there something else I might have forgotten?" (Elbow) Once the writer has found what he wants to write about and has begun to do so, every so often he should stop and think about what it is he’s writing and if the original message he wanted to get across, is still getting through to the readers. Finally, once a writer has completed his work, he should revise everything to see if anything is missing and if there’s anything that could still be included.
Of course, there are other ways a writer can go about completing his masterpiece, as well as other steps that could be included throughout the writing process. However, Perl’s idea of stopping periodically to make sure your point is getting across clearly, seems to hold true for any individualistic process. “Writing is a recursive process, that throughout the process of writing, writers return to sub strands of the overall process, or subroutines (short successions of steps that yield results on which the writer draws in taking the next set of steps); writers use these to keep the process moving forward. In other words, recursiveness in writing implies that there is a forward-moving action that exists by virtue of a backward-moving action.” (Perl) She borrows the term “felt sense” from Eugene Gendlin, a psychologist, to describe what it is when a writer struggles to get his point across and has to stop to think about what it is he’s trying to say. Sometimes we may know what we want to say, but may not necessarily know how to put it into words. Felt sense seems to become a living thing whom a writer can speak to “when he is struggling to articulate an idea…when our words are inadequate.” (Blau)
By re-reading his work and questioning his thoughts, a writer improves his work as well as his writing ability. By thinking more about what it is he’s trying to say, he starts to understand his work and writing habit’s a bit more. It helps him to figure out if what he was trying to say no longer makes sense to him. Maybe he might end up changing his mind halfway through his work and decide that he was sending out the wrong message and thus have to begin the writing process over. By stopping every so often to do this, although it may seem time consuming, it actually saves him time in the end in such cases. Rather than having to write an entire essay straight through without stopping then reading what he wrote only to find out that it makes no sense, he can catch it from the beginning.
Sondra Perl’s research of the writing process has continued to grow over the past couple of decades. She has contributed much to the world of writing with her very helpful guidelines to which a writer should try to follow for success in his writing endeavors. She has no doubt, made me question my writing process as I’ve taken notice to the fact that I never stop throughout whatever it is I’m writing to re-read and question my writing objective. Of all her guidelines, this one stood out most for me because of that fact and has given new light to my writing abilities as I’m sure it has to many other writers who may not have followed these guidelines before either.
Works Cited
Perl’s guidelines consist of a number of different steps to help a writer complete his or her work. The first is to relax and clear your mind of everything that can possibly distract you from writing. Once this is done, a writer should make a list of topics he wants to write about. “Often we can't find what we really want to write about till the third or fourth item--or not till that subtle after--question, "Is there something else I might have forgotten?" (Elbow) Once the writer has found what he wants to write about and has begun to do so, every so often he should stop and think about what it is he’s writing and if the original message he wanted to get across, is still getting through to the readers. Finally, once a writer has completed his work, he should revise everything to see if anything is missing and if there’s anything that could still be included.
Of course, there are other ways a writer can go about completing his masterpiece, as well as other steps that could be included throughout the writing process. However, Perl’s idea of stopping periodically to make sure your point is getting across clearly, seems to hold true for any individualistic process. “Writing is a recursive process, that throughout the process of writing, writers return to sub strands of the overall process, or subroutines (short successions of steps that yield results on which the writer draws in taking the next set of steps); writers use these to keep the process moving forward. In other words, recursiveness in writing implies that there is a forward-moving action that exists by virtue of a backward-moving action.” (Perl) She borrows the term “felt sense” from Eugene Gendlin, a psychologist, to describe what it is when a writer struggles to get his point across and has to stop to think about what it is he’s trying to say. Sometimes we may know what we want to say, but may not necessarily know how to put it into words. Felt sense seems to become a living thing whom a writer can speak to “when he is struggling to articulate an idea…when our words are inadequate.” (Blau)
By re-reading his work and questioning his thoughts, a writer improves his work as well as his writing ability. By thinking more about what it is he’s trying to say, he starts to understand his work and writing habit’s a bit more. It helps him to figure out if what he was trying to say no longer makes sense to him. Maybe he might end up changing his mind halfway through his work and decide that he was sending out the wrong message and thus have to begin the writing process over. By stopping every so often to do this, although it may seem time consuming, it actually saves him time in the end in such cases. Rather than having to write an entire essay straight through without stopping then reading what he wrote only to find out that it makes no sense, he can catch it from the beginning.
Sondra Perl’s research of the writing process has continued to grow over the past couple of decades. She has contributed much to the world of writing with her very helpful guidelines to which a writer should try to follow for success in his writing endeavors. She has no doubt, made me question my writing process as I’ve taken notice to the fact that I never stop throughout whatever it is I’m writing to re-read and question my writing objective. Of all her guidelines, this one stood out most for me because of that fact and has given new light to my writing abilities as I’m sure it has to many other writers who may not have followed these guidelines before either.
Works Cited
Blau, Sheridan. "Book Review: Felt Sense: Writing with the Body, by Sondra Perl - National Writing Project." National Writing Project - Improving the Teaching of Writing in the Nation's Schools. The Quarterly, 2004. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1988>.
Elbow, Peter. "Sondra Perl's Composing Guidelines." The Focusing Institute. 30 May 2006. Web. 20 Sept. 2011. http://www.focusing.org/perlprocess.html.
Perl, Sondra. Landmark Essays on Writing Process. Davis, CA: Hermagoras, 1994. Language & Thinking. Web. 01 Oct. 2011. <http://languageandthinking.bard.edu/2010/12/on-felt-sense-sondra-perl%E2%80%99s-composing-guidelines/>.
No comments:
Post a Comment