Berketkotter and Murray

Getting Ready to Read

"Sometimes, something very bad happens to a person and they will not be around anymore. There are times where it is expected but sometimes things happen without anyone knowing. This is the reason why we always have to enjoy the time that we spend with one another, especially those that mean so much to us. Even though they may not be around us, these people will always be with us, we just will not be able to see them anymore." These are the things that I would say to an eleven year old child to try and explain what happens with death. Putting it in the most delicate and simple way, it was hard to sort out what would be to harsh and what would be to vague. Children at this age already have a good understanding of what death is, but it is still something that is uncomfortable to discuss. Children have that sense of innocence because they have not seen what the world can really be like, so it is hard to imagine being the one to put so many negative thoughts into a small child's head.

Questions for Discussion

1. For Murray's writing process it says that he takes a lot of the time to verbalize what he writes. He will write something on paper and to revise his work, he will read it out loud and use this as a way to sort of edit his paper. Once, he had to read over his work eight times before being happy with what he had. As for myself, once I write down what I have, I will go over and read it as if I was a teacher and look at what I have on the page in the eyes of someone else. I do not read my work out loud however, I feel that reading it over in my head is enough. It is important to read it over yourself, but having a second opinion could never hurt. There are times where after creating something, it is hard to find all the imperfections. As for the planning of a paper, I tend to spend a lot of time just on the intro and the rest just simply fall into place. Murray spent a lot of time (35% to 56% of his time) planning out what he was going to write about. I feel that if I were to figure out just exactly how much time I spent planning, my percentage would be way lower than his.

3. Berkenkotter learned a lot of valuable information by studying Murray while he wrote. He learned that a great deal of time was put into the planning and the revising stages of his writing. It was not just continuous process, there would be times where Murray would have one major plan and then branch off into other plans. Also, Murray had a different note taking process than most other writers. Murray would make notes in a book and then go back after a day's worth of notes and figure out what would fit best into the writing.

Meta Moment

After reading over the readings, it made it more clear how important it is to make sure to plan out what to put in the paper. By planning, writing the paper will be less spur of the moment, and have a more structure and well put together design.

Summary

The readings by Berkenkotter and Murray show the writing process and how it is performed by that of a writer. The readings aim to show students and those interested in the writing process how different writers go about actually writing a paper. Murray is observed and demonstrates how he writes and the different techniques that help him get through writing blocks and achieve what he feels to be a good piece.

Synthesis

The writing process that is being observed relates back to the other writing processes described in the Kantz article. It shows different methods of different writers and how these techniques benefit the writer and help produce a product that satisfies them.