Realizing my Potential as a Reader/Writer

 

    My reading and writing processes have been challenged after being exposed to the ideas in this week's readings. I never fully realized how much goes into each stage of the writing process. When looking at my own writing process, I have come to discover that I don't spend as much time as I should in the pre-writing stage. The pre-writing stage always seemed to be a quick thing, I would make a rough outline and start writing. I now see that I was rushing through this process and it has probably hindered my growth as a writer. I will say that while I have spent time rushing through the prewriting/drafting portion of the process, I have placed a lot of emphasis on the editing. Analyzing my own reading and writing processes have shown that I had my time flipped. If I was to spend more time setting up my writing, maybe I wouldn't spend so much time in the editing/revising portion. I also realized that I define portions of the writing process differently. 

    According to Tompkins (2012), there are five stages of writing and each have an important place in the overall process (p.5). Before reading this book, I envisioned three stages with slightly different definitions attached to them. For me, it was drafting, writing, and revising/editing. That was how I would break down writing when I was a student. I had placed pre-writing and drafting throughout my academic career. I enjoyed learning about these five stages because it helps create clear purpose and steps when it comes writing. Looking back on my own writing, I can sometimes take awhile to clear my mind and organize my thoughts. If I would take Tompkins (2012) advice to pick a topic and consider the audience, purpose, and form of my writing, I would have a better time organizing my thoughts (p.6). I have to say that I never gave much thought to my audience and form of writing before. I have always felt that these aspects of writing were given to me by my teachers. I can now see how that can be limiting for children as they discover writing. In my mind, it was always here is the essay I have to write and this is the topic it was on and I would start drafting my ideas. This can be a boring process. Imagine how engaged I could have been if I had spent time discovering my purpose, imagining my audience, and playing around with the form. This week's readings have shown how important the pre-writing stage is and how important it is to make the students engaged in what they are writing. I think this would be easier to do if students didn't feel so pressured to have their writing look a certain way in order for a grade. I think to make the pre-writing stage easier to accomplish we need to change the teacher's role. According to Tompkins (2012), "when a teacher acts as a judge, students produce writing to receive a grade"(p.7). If we start with teachers being able to reengineer their roles when it comes to writing, we could shift the culture of writing in schools. While doing this could make pre-writing easier, there are also challenges we must address. How do we create the perfect balance between writing and grades? How are we going to be able to create writers in the classroom while still having them meet the expectations that the schools and state education departments have for them?

    For this assignment, I tried to take my time. I tried to really sit and go through the pre-writing activities. I found myself having a hard time slowing down my process. My instinct is to dive right into my writing. By slowing down, I feel that my thoughts were a little more organized and coherent. Hopefully with more practice, I can one day move through the pre-writing process with ease. I hope to really practice these skills with the Genre Pieces Project that we have coming up. I plan on spending a majority of my time thinking about the purpose, audience, and genre. I will start by just creating a google doc for all my ideas. Just a place to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. That is my very first step in this process. I want to be able to answer what the topic will be and who my audience is. I am looking forward to continue with this project slowly and methodically. I want to be able to experience all the stages of writing as I complete this project!