Posting for 1/29

I can officially say that this is the first blog I have ever set up; it's very exciting!

My posting is in regards to the Dornan reading; more specifically, Chapter 3. As I was reading the "writing process," I began thinking about more in depthly about my own writing process (42). After reading the examples mentioned in the text, Idecided that I would devote this posting to my writing process. As luck would have it, the text provides a "Think/Write" prompt that coincidentally outlined my posting (46). I am going to be teaching 11th and 12th grade creative writing and therefore find it necessary to be familiar with my own process if I am going to assist students in developing theirs. Unfortunately, I have not written for pleasure in a very long time. Because of this, I am going to describe my writing process in reference to papers assigned throughout undergraduate, English courses.

Like Marilyn, whose writing process is illustrated on page 45, I often wait until the due date is days away. I find every possible way to procrastinate, whether it's catching up on the latest gossip on people.com, reorganizing my bookshelf, or even taking a shower, solely so I can put off starting this paper. When I finally sit down to write it, I consider the various routes I can go about this paper and choose the prompt that I find to be the most interesting. After I choose my topic, I jot down my ideas. Then, I integrate these ideas into an outline, which aids in the organization process. My writing is almost always in longhand and I always save the thesis statement/introduction for last. I find this to be the most difficult part to write. After I get about half way through the paper, I go back and revise, making sure my ideas make sense and are coherent. If they are not, I revise. Then I continue one with the paper. After I'm 90% of the way finished, I go back and revise. If I am unsatisfied with my work, sometimes I'll throw the entire thing out and start over. If I like the work, I'll go back and construct the introductary paragraph. Then I finish with the editing stage. If I complete the paper a few days in advance, I'll see if I can meet with the instructor or someone else to go over my paper and offer me advice.

This is my process in a nutshell. This Dornan text poses various writing processes and states that everyone develops their own over time. I hope that students will test out different processes, so that they may find the one that works best for them. So far, this text has prooved very useful, given that I am going to be teaching a writing class.

Resource Link: http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/
This website offers a wide variety of prompts for teachers OR students to use to get them writing. There are over 329 to choose from. Obviously, not everyone is inspired to write by the same prompt. This site is a wonderful resource for teachers that have a creative writing class.