Running head: MY WRITING PROCESS 1

My Writing Process:
A Closer Look
Crystal Rodriguez
University of Texas at El Paso
MY WRITING PROCESS 2
Abstract
After briefly contemplating and reflecting back on how I think of myself as I writer, I
underwent through a self-study of how I truly am as a writer. In this self-study, I
needed to record everything I was thinking, which required me to say everything that
came to my mind out loud while writing my Portrait of a Writeran essay in which I
compared my writing to tennis. The purpose of this study was to examine myself, using
thorough observations of my recordings, and data found in studies by Carol Berkenkotter
(1983) and Sondra Perl (1979), then classifying myself as either an unskilled or skilled
college writer. After analyzing the recordings I had in total, I recognized habits,
weaknesses, strengths, etc. I exhibited when writing, and compared my findings to the
observations made by Berkenkotter (1983) Perl (1979). In conclusion, my inferences and
interpretations, based off of my collected data, is that I classify myself as a skilled college
writer in progress.
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My Writing Process:
A Closer Look
Many people will compare their writing to their other passionate hobby, which is
why it is only natural for me to relate to tennis when it comes to my writing. Granted that
these two are complete separate activities, but after putting some thought behind it, they
seem to perfectly correlate with one another. I have faced both good and bad experiences
in writing as I have in tennis. In writing, I wasnt allowed to write in Spanglish and
nearly failed the state test because of it, or when I was told by my high school teachers
and principal that I was an eloquent writer after they had read my editorial column in
The Pioneer, Austin High Schools monthly newspaper. In tennis, I was told by my uncle
that I would never be good in tennis because of my 52 height, or when I earned my
way up to be the #1 ranked girl in my team and became the first female overall captain.
These experiences have definitely molded my perspective of how I see myself as a writer,
my style of writing, and how my writing has changed over time.
Now, this is only how I think I write or how I see myself as a writerbut how do
I truly write and how is my composition process really like? The first purpose of this
study is to take an in-depth look at my processes while composing a paperranging from
prewriting to revising. The second, and final, purpose of this study is to analyze my
writing processes and relate it to previous studies made on habitual composition
processes.
In order to conduct this self-study, I needed a recording device, in which I used
my cellphone recorder. The purpose of the recorder is to record myself thinking
aloudthis processes required me to say everything that came to my mind out loud
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while performing my habitual processes when composing. Recording myself while
thinking aloud was essential for this study since it is where I can analyze my habits,
strengths, weakness, etc.
Before beginning to write my portrait of a writer, I first read the instructions our
teacher left the class for the assignment, and then I set up a plan. My plan consisted of
separating my processes, such as pre-writing, composing, and revising, in a three-day
span. This means that every day, for a total of three days, I did only one process each day.
For example, in one day I only did my prewriting/planning. The next day I began to write
my composition until I finished, and the next phase was after my scheduled peer review
and I began revising my first draft and fixed whatever needed to be fixed and try to clear
up on my peers comments they had on my paper. This gave me a total of three sessions
of audio notes, which are my typed evaluated recordings that I will later use to examine
my actual composition process.
Personally, I believe distractions are the most difficult to avoid, which is a reason
why I attempted at preventing them, however I did not succeed. After analyzing my audio
notes, I realized that while I worked on my paper I had the television, my cellphone, and
Facebook in close proximity. Since these three things were so close to me, I had easy
access to them, which easily distracted me. I wasnt constantly texting or watching TV or
checking my Facebook, but I did do it periodically of about every 10-30 minutes. The
longest I lasted in my distractions was about five minutes, and then I forced myself to
focus back on my paper. I will admit though, that sometimes after getting a text, or
watching TV, or seeing something on Facebook, I would lose my train of thought and I
would have to read whatever I wrote last in order to get back on track.
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I would like to mention, however, that I do in fact edit, and plan, while I compose.
This type of planning differs from my pre-writing planning in a sense that when I plan
while composing, I focus on planning how to compose (or how to word) sentences, rather
than when I pre-write plan I focus on the topics I want to include in the overall paper.
Despite their differences, my pre-writing planning and composition planning are both
equally extensive, meaning that they both require the same attention to detail and thought
processes in order to have satisfactory results. After I noticed this, I compared my writing
process structure as a recursive writera writer who has the tendency to repeat phases
such as planning, composing, or revising throughout their writing processas was
mentioned in Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer by
Carol Berkenkotter (1983). In Berkenkotters (1983) article, she studies a man named
Donald M. Murray, and his revision process when composing. In her study, she finds that
the decisions and revisions a writer makes form[s] an elaborate network of steps as the
writer moves back and forth between planning, drafting, editing, and reviewing
(Berkenkotter, 1983). Based on my observations from my audio notes and Berkenkotters
(1983) observations on Murrays recursive process, I too relate myself as a recursive
writer; however, I can also compare myself to Sondra Perls study on The Composing
Processes of Unskilled College Writers (Perl, 1979).
Perls (1979) results showed that unskilled college writers tend to use a back and
forth method (Perl, 1979). The back and forth method is a method where a writer
tends to repeatedly go back on his/her previous words or sentences written so far, edits
their developing sentence, then proceed onto moving forward until they finish one
sentence. In Perls (1979) study, however, she focuses on a student named Tony, and the
MY WRITING PROCESS 6
fact that when he uses the back and forth method he explicitly concentrates on surface
errors such as grammar (Perl, 1979). Because of Berkenkotters (1983) and Perls (1979)
concluding observations on skilled and unskilled writers, my audio notes and
observations proved that I am a recursive writer, who uses the back and forth method
excluding the fact that I focus on grammar when writing. In other words, I do constantly
edit and plan while writing, however, unlike unskilled writersI do not focus on fixing
surface errors.
During my prewriting phase, I noticed a couple of things. One of the major things
I noticed was that I only took about 20 minutes to plan what I wanted my paper to include
or look like. Personally, I had thought that pre-writing/planning was the hardest process
to do (since its basically your papers structure); however, my recordings disproved this
thought and showed that my pre-writing/planning phase was fairly easier than my
composing and revising phases. Another major thing I noticed was my strategy. My
prewriting strategy mostly involved dividing my ideas in paragraph topics, and then the
details for these topics were basically the subtopics. To elaborate on this, I wrote my
main topics in columns, then the information and details I wanted to include in each topic
were written under the columns. Now that I think about it, these subtopics tend to be
the individual sentences within one topic paragraph. Also, during this phase, its where
all my thinking and reminiscing kicked in. I wrote most of these ideas down, especially
the ones I marked as important to mention.
Reading my sentences over and over again was one good habit I noticed after
analyzing my recordings. During every sentence I was formulating, I would constantly
read back the previous words I had written so far in an individual sentenceI would
MY WRITING PROCESS 7
repeat them over and over again until I began typing againand then wrote the next
words I planned on writing, and lastly editing a couple of words by substituting them
with their synonyms. After finishing the sentence, I would read that whole sentence
again, and then read the whole paragraph I had written so far. If I liked it, I moved on, if
not, I would read each sentence and edit it a little bit more, making minor changes in
word choice and word placement.
In the composing phase, I noticed a wide spectrum of habits, methods, and
procedures I do while writing. First things first, I spent about a good hour and a half
composing my portrait of a writer, which to me seems eternal since I initially thought I
wrote fairly quickin an hour at most. Some patterns I noticed is that I started with the
simple and easiest topic to write first. What I mean by this is that I wrote my first three
paragraphs about my current writing topicwhich was the comparison between my
writing and playing tennisand then sort of drifted backwards in time (going from high
school to middle school), potentially losing my reader as far as time order goes. So, in
other words, I cared more about getting my topics written, rather than thinking through of
how to organize my events in chronological order. I also noticed that I tend to develop
my paragraphs in a linear fashion, disregarding any chronological organization. Reason
I say this is because I start on my introductory paragraph, then I dont move on from this
paragraph until I feel satisfied enough to move forward. My audio notes proved that my
introduction was the most time-consuming paragraph, taking nearly 25 minutes to
compose one paragraph. After realizing this, my tendency of wanting to write
satisfactory introductory paragraphs, and not being able to move forward until Im
satisfied with it, is definitely my strongest weaknesssince I become constrained from
MY WRITING PROCESS 8
writing the following body paragraphs. Then after completing my introduction, I move
onto the standard paragraph topicwriting about the first topic I mention in my thesis
statement. For example, in my thesis I mentioned tennis and writing being similar first,
then the first paragraph following my introduction was about tennis being similar to
writing.
A main rule that seemed to restrain my composing process was fluidity. Do my
sentences flow into the next sentences? Does my concluding sentence in the last
paragraph flow properly to my introductory sentence in my next paragraph? This rule
seemed to be where I spend most of my time trying to figure out, which more often than
not led me to having the infamous writers block. Writers block tended to happen to me
when I would try to figure out how to finish off a sentence, which occurred mostly when
writing my concluding sentences of each paragraph; this blockage usually lasted about
five minutes, on average. Based off my recordings, I would nearly break my head trying
to figure out what to say next, showing signs of frustration when I would exhale deeply
and sometimes grunting. However, what really helped me dig myself out the writers
block hole was the fact that I kept repeating the beginning of the sentence over and over
again until a word came up and an idea just clicked, which took me about 4-5 minutes.
About 10 days later, I began my revision process. I left my paper alone after the
first draft submission, then waited until my peer review conference to begin revising my
draft. I feel like the peer review session did me well since I saw them face-to-face, got to
hear what they meant in their comments in order to clarify my confusion, and both my
peers and teachers gave me good feedback on how to improve my paper. However, I feel
like I didnt improve my paper a whole lot like I wouldve wanted to since I only got a
MY WRITING PROCESS 9
few comments back. Nonetheless, I did spend about an hour and a half again in my
revising phase. During this phase, I did not focus on surface errors, for I mainly focused
on reorganizing my paragraphs chronologically and also clarifying only the comments
my peers gave me, which mainly included a more in-depth explanation of what I meant.
Because I only focused on the comments, and the sentences where these comments were,
I think I did not thoroughly revise my first draft. However, I do believe that the time I
spent composing and revising concurrently makes up for the short time I spent on final
revisions.
Listening and analyzing my audio notesand keeping in mind Perl (1979) and
Berkenkotter (1983)helped me realize more about myself as a writer. After noticing
my constant habits while I write, my strengths and weaknesses I have while I compose,
and my minds continuous work to produce the next words or sentences, I have come to
the inference that I am a skilled college writer in progress. What I mean by this is that, in
conclusion, Im considered a skilled writer based off of Berkenkotters (1983) and Perls
(1979) interpretations, but nonetheless, I still need to undergo some practice in order to
rid myself from the weakness I showed in my recordingssuch as my inability to avoid
distractions or not being able to move forward without a satisfying introduction.
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References
Berkenkotter, C. & Murray, D. M. (1983). Decisions and revisions: The planning
strategies of a publishing writer, and response of a laboratory rat: Or, being
protocoled. College Composition and Communication, 34 (2) 156-172.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/357403
Perl, S., (1979). The composing processes of unskilled college writers. Research in
the Teaching of English, 13 (4) 317-336. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170774

MY WRITING PROCESS 11
Appendix A
Portrait of a Writer
From 6
th
grade in middle school until junior year in high school, I had to take the English
Language Arts TAKS test. However, throughout those years, I was forced to write the
way my teachers believed was the correct way in order to pass this state test. For
example, I remember my freshman year I wrote a personal composition for the TAKS
test in Spanglish and I nearly failed the composition portion because I didnt have
steady language and diction. So, because of this, my teachers told me to always write in
English, never speak in first person, always use quotes, go in-depth when analyzing, and
that your writing needs to have a moral. By moral, I mean that my teachers would
recommend but in reality force us to write stories that gave a life lesson and required us
to make an in-depth or global analogy or connection. But all this rule nonsense came to
an end when I joined both yearbook and tennis in high school and found my inner
passionsso passionate that they both tend to go hand in hand. Why are they my
passionate hobbies, you might ask? Because they have both influenced me to stay true to
myself, always strive to be what you want to be, and put the necessary effort and practice
to get there.
Over the past four years, the way I see myself as a writer changed dramatically all
because of my decision to join yearbook, all so that I could have my high school
graduation requirement. I wasnt a huge fan of writing, but ironically enough it has now
become one of my favorite things to do since I have learned that it is okay to express
yourself without dealing with rule hassles. Because my teachers used to etch so many
rules into my writing, I became blind to my true self. I lost my voice, and most
MY WRITING PROCESS 12
importantly, I lost my courage to write. I thought of myself as a robot writer until joining
yearbook and writing that first draft of my feature story. This particular experience
changed me, for it was the first time a reader (my yearbook advisor) took the time to
speak to me one on one regarding my draft; she revised it with me, going through new
ideas, helping me discover new writing techniquesfor example, using metaphors or
painting pictures/scenes for the reader, not being afraid to express your opinion, or
using two or more different languages if you want and need to in order to cause a bigger
impact to your reader. But, most importantly, this teacher helped me find my voice again
and take risks.
Since I broke free from the shackles of rules and kept writing with my voice, I
started getting good feedback/suggestions/comments and have eventually grown the
confidence to see myself as a good writer. I prefer, however, seeing myself as a liberal
writer rather than a good writer. Liberal writer, in my terms, means that I am carefree
when writing. To begin, I write all my thoughts, everything I want to say, including
taking risks such as speaking in first person. After I finish what I need to say, thats when
I review and have someone review it with me. This writing procedure seems to be basic
and easy, however my true detailed process is so much more complex, like playing tennis
for the first time. And because of this complexity that exists when Im writing, I compare
my process to my other passion that Ive had for quite some timetennis.
I have been playing tennis for about 5 years now, and it seems like I have gotten
into a sort of rhythm when I write that resembles my methods when I play tennis. To be
more specific, before I play tennis, I spend about a good 20 minutes to half an hour
mentally preparing myself for my match. My mind plays scenarios like a projector,
MY WRITING PROCESS 13
slowly depicting what trick plays I should do, how I can take the lead and stay in the lead,
what are my strongest strokes as well as my weakest strokes (in order to avoid them), and
lastly, what I want to accomplish at the end of my match, regardless of the outcome. This
seems to be exactly how I brainstorm for an upcoming essay. I tend to think about what
point Im trying to get across, what material I should use in order to get this point across,
how and what can I do to make my reader feel what I feel and understand what Im trying
to say, as well as hear my voice as they read along. Another thing I do when I brainstorm
in writing and tennis, I gather my sources. For example, in writing, I look over
professional authors and I try to mimic part of their prose, the natural flow of speech
without a set structure, which may be helpful to me. In other words, I copy professional
writers tone, word choice and usage, and sentence composition; however, I dont write
using their organization structure or the order they present their ideas. Meanwhile in
tennis, I study my opponent and take note of their strengths and weaknesses.
It is now game time. I put all my thoughts together and begin to execute my plan.
However, I must say, that when I play tennis, my plan may or may not go the way I
expect it to, which is what happens when I write too. In other words, when I strategize, it
is not set in stone because when something changes I have to change along with it and
adjust. For example, if I get new information while writing, I will use it depending on
whether its beneficial to my paper. In tennis, if my opponent does something different
that I didnt plan for, I adjust myself; if I notice that my strategy isnt working I try
different ones to get back on a good pace. Normally, I dont like adjusting my game,
however if its necessary then I have to change my pace along with my opponent. For
example, if my opponent may be hitting lightning fast shots over and over again, gaining
MY WRITING PROCESS 14
points from me, thats when I make the decision of either hitting maniacally like her
(adjusting to her speed) or slowing it down, like taking about four 5-second deep breaths
before I serve, or hitting measured, calm, and unhurried strokes, like drizzling rain after
the big storm. Game, Set, Match! I have finished my first draft.
After finishing my first draft, and obviously before submitting it, I look it over to
see what I can substitute, or to even put fresh, new ideas that may work better. In tennis,
if I lose a match, I look back on what I did wrong, what I need to work on, and also what
new plays I could put into my playing style. While writing, if I notice that theres
something thats just not working for me, I can either rewrite it, add detail in order to
make it flow into the next sentence, or simply throw it out. This part of revision on my
part is all because I want to fix anything that seems to not be working in my favor. In
essence, throughout revision, this is where the new ideas replace your old methods, which
is why I firmly believe that theres always room for improvement, therefore the revision
part is my most important in writing and playing tennis.
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Appendix B
Audio Notes from Recordings
Session 1: Home, my Bedroom. It is 12:36 am on Feb. 6
th
. Everyone is sound asleep,
which means I shouldnt have any distractions (family wise). I have my headphones
on but no music is playing. TV is on, and my phone is inches away from me, and Im
texting my boyfriend. Working on my computer, Blackboard is open and I have my
printed metaphor at hand.

1-5: Open assignment instructions once more. Read what it is expected of us
in the assignment. Remember about what Ms. Frazier mentioned that we could use
our in-class metaphor and build on that. Read my printed metaphor about tennis.
Laugh about the fact that I mentioned a bag of Cheetos, and am now craving Cheetos.
Thinking about using this metaphor material to start my paper, but it will not be set
in stone, sort of like an angle Im going to take. Went crazy looking for a pencil, but
to no avail, so I used a pen. Took a 40 second glimpse at the TV, Im watching Duck
Dynasty and I just cant stop thinking how hilarious Si is. I gain focus on my paper
again. Writing down my brainstorming ideas: How do I think I write? What
experiences have I had that have influenced or changed my writing? When I think
about how I write, this is where I can mention how I compare it to tennis; each
paragraph I would write the strategies for example the first one would be when I
brainstorm and I compare it to when Im strategizing in tennis; second pg. playing
during my match, decide to make tennis part into 3 steps.
6-10: Continue my brainstorm process (create the main topic as a paragraph
title, then add subtitles to serve as details; very brief subtopics I want to touch on). I
go back to reflect on how I play tennis and what I do before, during, or after my
match, then think about how it applies to writing. Admit that I can sometimes
change directions. Keep adding and writing these details I want to mention for each
main topic session (paragraphs). Become very tired. Mention personal experiences
that influenced my writing (TAKS test). Remembered that all my teachers constantly
reminded and forced us to write in a certain format and that this format will
guarantee us pass the test. Also, I remember my freshman teacher individually
called us up and told us comments about our grade and what we did wrong, became
very sad that I almost failed because I wrote in Spanglish. Now I write my details
about this second question that I want to mention (influences and experiences).
Remember other things they used to force us to do (grammar, 5 paragraphs). Im
very tired, watch TV and take a mini break, thinking about how long this day was,
especially my niece. Start replying to unread text messages.
11-15: I started getting lazy. Still watching TV. Decided to only do my
brainstorming for today, and begin writing my paper later on that day. Drifted from
original plan, so created a new one, meaning I would brainstorm today and write
tomorrow, and revise the next day. Become distracted because of something in my
eye. Go back to brainstorming where I left off (TAKS). Add more details about what I
had to have when writing. Remembered what my English teachers used to teach me
every day, reminded me of a classroom full of robots. Now mentioning the good
MY WRITING PROCESS 16
experiences I had and mention journalism (I reminisce what I used to do, and how it
helped me), jotting these experiences down.
16-20: Think back on Ms. Almanzar, reminisce on how much I miss her,
journalism, and high school. Writing to inform and entertain. Start nagging that
college is different and difficult. Remember I was told that I was a good writer, but
think about Sommers article and look down on myself. Start to focus again. Think
about how Im going to format this paper. Organize by the topics I want to cover.
Think about things I want to include to these topics. How will my paper look good
depending on what topic I mention first. Seem to be unsure of what to include, and
where to place about my style of writing. Decide that if I get stuck I will look over
assignment again. Very tired, so I call it an end to my prewriting/brainstorming
process.

END SESSION



Session 2: Home, my bedroom, on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 11:22 pm. Working on
my computer, have my planning paper at hand. Door is closed, and family is asleep.
Phone keeps vibrating because of texts and Facebook notifications. I have my
headphones on again but no music.

1-5: Start writing. Thinking about how to start my introduction, want to
mention the tennis topic first, decide I want my voice to be heard so Im
contemplating on making my paper seem like Im having a conversation with the
teacher. Start writing a couple of words, stop, repeat the last words I typed, then
think about what words to say next. Continue typing, doubt myself, reread the
sentence Im making, and then continue typing. Lose focus because I remember I
need to double space and put my name and information on the heading. Focused for
about a minute on formatting the paper correctly such as adding title, double
spacing, tabbing, etc. Focus again, reread the previous sentence I wrote, started
editing the proper tense of a word. Typed a few words, stopped then reread them,
delete them and think about mentioning both hobbies. Dont know where to start
again, get frustrated. Deleted the whole thing. Started typing again, wrote half a
sentence, reread it and thought about what I should add to it, continued writing.
6-10: Grab my beef jerky bag and start eating, reread my previous sentence,
then think what to type next. Start typing, stop to reread and think, continue typing
sentence. Finished introductory paragraph, read it over again. Lost focus because I
started humming, eating, and watching TV. Started typing again, misspelled separate
and fixed it, wrote half the sentence, stopped and reread, thought about what to say,
continued writing. Admit my paragraph will have three sentences; think about what
my thesis should be. Pause for a moment while I watch TV, then think of what my
thesis should be, mentioning my experiences.
11-15: Phone goes off, phone and beef jerky distract me for about a full
minute. Focus on paper again. Think about what to write in my next sentence, want
to edit a new sentence on a previous sentence. Read my planning paper, decide that
MY WRITING PROCESS 17
this part will be in the body of the tennis topic. Type two words, repeat them, dont
like how they sound, delete them. Read paragraph over again. Think of synonyms
for because since I dont want to start with that word again. Become frustrated,
since I dont know what to write. Read over previous sentence, think about how to
start third sentence to wrap up paragraph. Start typing, stop and reread paragraph,
dont like current sentence, so I reword it, continue typing, find another word for
experience. Got a good idea! Began writing without stopping.
16-20: Reread sentence, continued writing. Stopped to think about what
topic Im going to write about. Continued writing, repeated words I just typed, got
mad because I kept capitalizing and fixed that, continued writing sentence. Dont
want to write about how I feel about writing because it wasnt on my plan. Begin
typing again, get an idea, reread sentence and think about how to say the rest.
Silence. Want to know synonym for evolution, start thinking about what to put on
my paper and how I should put it in the body and into paragraph. Repeat previous
sentence written, decide I like it and add more to it but reword it so it doesnt sound
like Im repeating, then I finally finish the sentence. Read over my introductory
paragraph once more.
21-25: Delete a few words in intro. Get an idea of how to begin new
paragraph, start typing, changed my mind, then continued typing. Went back to
work on my intro. Wrote a couple of sentences, replace a word with a new one,
reread last written sentence a couple of times, but lost my train of thought because
my niece started crying. Get writers block, dont know what to say, so I read over
previous sentence a couple more times, start doing miner editing such as semicolon
and deleting a word. Finally finish off my intro for sure now. Go into my second
paragraph and decide to write about tennis, as was the plan. Start typing, forget how
to spell essay, get distracted because my phone went off due to a text. Text back.
26-30: Lose focus. Thinking about how late it is, how tired I am, I need to stop
doing homework so late because Kathia already finished and Im barely starting.
Decided to go on Facebook, want to listen to music but I cant. Focus back on writing
my essay. Read how I started the paragraph, didnt like it, so started again. Reread
what I wrote; continue writing and adding to the sentence. Finish writing a couple of
sentence; replace a few words, read it over again. Mention something that was in my
planning paper so I go back to it to get a few ideas. Seem to be fluently writing, but
stop after something doesnt make sense, so I reword it.
31-35: Now writing the end of second paragraph, this paragraph seemed
easier to write than the first. Keep typing, replace whether with regardless, then I
read over the second paragraph once more, and find synonyms to replace some
words. Get an idea about using some imagery. Thinking of comparable things
(metaphors) to match the scenarios in my head, use another word for projecting.
Continue writing, become satisfied with sentence flow. Proceed onto writing next
sentences with ease, but become distracted because my eyes hurt, I want to shower,
but will after I finish writing at least one page. Focus back on my paper, read my last
sentence I wrote. Start typing a new sentence, but I save it for later since I like it for
another place.
36-40: Continue writing a couple of words for the next sentence, but stumble
upon how to word the sentence correctly and get confused. End up rewording the
MY WRITING PROCESS 18
troubling sentence slowly, read back the words I just typed in order to type new
words to flow correctly. Read the finishing sentence again to see if it makes sense.
Started to build a small rhythm, but got interrupted after I disliked what I had
written, deleted it, and wrote something new. Didnt like it either, so I kept rewriting
until I liked it. Started counting how many sentences I have in total so I can break it
up into more paragraphs. Deleted sentence, and wrote a new one about resources.
41-45: Still talk about gathering resources, continue writing, repeat the
sentence Im writing to think about what to say next. Continuously writing,
sometimes replacing a word with another one, Laugh because I remember Im very
competitive. Begin with the next paragraph, oh god its going to be long. Find a
clever way to start the paragraph, I start to think Ill be ok with just writing about
one topic, but get torn between the facts I want to mention other things as well.
Wonder if this paper can be longer than 3 pages since I have a lot to say. Read
assignment instructions over again, limit myself to 3 pages, undoable space my
heading to save more space for my writing.
46-50: Start texting back to unread messages, Im tired, contemplating about
showering again, I have two pages left, so it should be easy (I think to myself). Get a
confidence boost and keep writing. I stop to reread what I wrote, then continue
writing when I figure out what to say next. Finish writing more than a couple of
sentences, read back the last one I wrote and formulate the next sentence. I have
established a good rhythm now, simultaneously replacing a few words only and only
reading back a word or so, but still continue writing.
51-55: Kept writing, but stopped to think about when I play and study my
opponent to see what I do. Once I remember, I begin fluently writing. I got distracted
again because I started wondering how many sentences I had written. Read the
previous material I had to get new idea for next paragraph. Finish paragraph.
Started writing my next paragraph with ease. Only stop once or twice. Nail broke,
and it hurt; checked my phone to see if I have any messages.
56-60: Read over what I have written so far in the current paragraph, and
then continue writing. Write a sentence but I know I will move it somewhere else. I
think that I should stop using in tennis. Keep writing and thinking of stuff I do after
I finish playing a tennis match. Wonder what integrate means, so I look it up and
replace it. Read sentence again; decide to delete a section of the sentence. Continue
to write, rereading only a couple of words to get back on track, but other than that I
dont stop my rhythm.
61-65: Read back last sentence I wrote, pause for a moment, and then begin
typing next sentence. Decide not to mention perfection, so I reword sentence I was
saving earlier, and add details to this sentence. Dont like how this sentence sounds,
so I see what I can do, but stop because Im going to shower.
65-95: PAUSE: Showering.
96-100: Dont know what I should write on my last page, so I decide to mix
my last two topics I want to cover. Began writing, including past experiences Ive
had, but reread every word I type to figure out what to write next. Continued
writing, got stuck, paused, kept reading the sentence over and over again until I
figured out what to write next. Dont want to start sentence with over, so I replace
MY WRITING PROCESS 19
it. Continued writing sentence after sentence, occasionally stopping and repeating
last word typed in order to think about my next words.
101-105: Read last sentence, then began writing next, only wrote a few
words, then got writers block again. Silence. Read paragraph. Silence. Read last
words over and over again. What do I want to say? Start typing what I want to say.
Talk about experiences, silence for a moment, reminisce high school and TAKS test.
Couldnt remember the stupid name for the reading TAKS test. Start to think about
6
th
grade in middle school that I did the TAKS tests.
106-110: Continuously typing, and as I type I remember my middle school
and high school years when teachers would force us to write a certain way. Also
when Mrs. Parry told me I didnt get commended and nearly failed the TAKS
because I wrote in Spanglish. Next write about the rules I was forced to follow.
Wrote this part with ease. Seems like a long paragraph, start counting the sentences,
and breaking it up to make new paragraphs. Is inscribed a word? Look for
synonyms, replaced it.
111-115: Writing about my teachers etching the rules to me. Silence.
Experimenting with different things to start new sentence. Remember the time I
joined journalism the first time, wrote about it. Read the sentence to see if it made
sense, or what I can edit. Silence. Start writing about how journalism helped me
revise. Read sentence over again.
116-120: After reading sentence again, I add more detail to it. Stop, read
previous sentences. Lost where I was, find myself again, read where I left off, and
continue typing. Delete sentence I was starting to write. Starting a new paragraph,
where I plan to write about good experiences; it is my conclusion. Start counting
previous sentences and break it up into paragraphs. Silence. Begin writing; stop
more often to see if Im making sense. See myself as a good writer; I can hear my
keyboard clicking vigorously so I know I was onto something.
121-125: Finishing up my conclusion, repeating previous words to see what
words that will flow next. Silence, but I hear my keyboard clicking. Read the last
sentence again. Get an idea, and continue typing enthusiastically. Stop to reread last
written words. Continue writing. Have a rhythm, talking about how I see myself as a
writer. Read previous sentences to see if they made sense with flow. Done!

END SESSION


Session 3: Home, my bedroom. It is 7:48 pm on Feb. 16. Working on
computer, everyone is awake, and door is closed. My first draft with comments is
opened. Cellphone is next to me, and Facebook is opened too. Watching TV.
1-5: Remember what my biggest correction was during peer review. Begin to
organize my paper according to the suggestion my teacher gave me. Read over
paragraph, the topic it talks about, then decide where to place it. Open a new
document and copy and paste the paragraphs in the new order I want them in.
Shuffle my intro to my conclusion. Read over the last couple of paragraphs and
decide the chronological order, paste them onto new document based on time
frames. Pause. Get distracted. See a Bates Motel commercial and makes me want to
MY WRITING PROCESS 20
watch it now. What is that Gecko doing? (The Geico Commercial is on). Im tired and
its only 6:30, I think about how my weekend went too fast. Focus again. Read
beginning of old paragraphs, then decide to paste it onto new document based on
the topic so it could flow. Finished organizing paragraphs onto new document,
basically flipped my first draft. Start to format new document.
6-10: Still formatting my paper, adding my information. Read over new draft.
Like how my paper flows. Phone rings, but its only the recording. Check Facebook,
yawn. No ones talking to me, surprisingly.
11-15: Silence. Get back to revising. Add detail to some paragraphs. Think
about introducing myself, how am I going to introduce myself. Delete the
introduction since its one of the comments Clark gave me. See what else I can add
before I look over comments. I dont know what to say, what should I say? How can I
make it flow? Is that Bates Motel? No its not but it look interesting. Focus back on
paper. Read new intro paragraph. Think about what I could put.
16-20: Read over paragraph Im fixing. Repeat sentence Im adjusting, read it
over again, add words to it. Repeat last words typed. Move forward, like the new
sentence. Might delete a few words though. Read over next sentence I want to
adjust, repeat last words, add new words, replace a couple of words, continue
typing.
21-25: Read over next sentence I want to fix. How can I rephrase this? Read
sentence again. I yawn, silence, Im hungry, and my neck hurts. Read sentence again.
Silence. Maybe if I switch sentence positions. Read sentence again. Read paragraph
again.
26-30: Separate sentences to make new paragraph. Add new sentence, dont
like what I wrote, read over last words typed. Delete part of new sentence since it
sounds too mean. Begin to read over sentence, but become distracted by counting
how many sentences I have so far. Read next sentence. Start to formulate new
sentence, repeat beginning words like 3 times. Where can I put this other sentence?
Continue writing, dont like it so replace it, reading back last words typed to go
forward.
31-35: How can I word that? Start typing, but I reword what I dont like.
Reread what I just wrote. Continue typing. Read next sentence. Think about what to
write next. Silence and exhale in frustration. Reply to text messages. Go on
Facebook. Silence.
36-40: I smell wings. Silence. You can hear the TV in the background. Laugh
at something from Duck Dynasty. I need to study. After 3 minutes of distraction, I
focus back on paper. Yawn, then silence. Begin typing, but then I dont want say
something, so I reword it. Silence.
41-45: Begin typing again. Misspelled hobby, fixed it. Continue typing.
Silence. Started typing new sentence. Repeat what I just wrote, then continue
writing. Repeat what I wrote again. Decide to save document, name it POW. Get a
text. Silence. I take long; its been an hour now. Begin to fix corrections based on
comments I got. Open Leslys first.
46-50: Read Leslys first comment. Start thinking about it. Answer it, then
move on. Begin to answer her next comment/question. Repeat what I first wrote,
think about verifying what prose means. Go on Google and search for prose.
MY WRITING PROCESS 21
Continue writing sentence in order to clear Leslys question. Move onto her next
comment. Locate where she meant me to fix her comment, start thinking about how
I want to answer her question. Begin typing, repeat last words I wrote, continued
typing. Start new sentence, read beginning words I wrote, repeat a couple of times,
get stuck for a bit but then continue writing next words. Read back the sentence,
then add more words/details to it. Finish sentence, and then read it back over again.
Fix and replace some words.
51-55: Is maniacally a word? Look it up on thesaurus and dictionary. Proceed
onto next sentence. Thinking while I write how to compare it to tennis. I want to
mention rain and drizzle as a form of a metaphor. How do you spell drizzling? Read
over paragraph I just typed, replacing a couple of words. Silence. Proceed onto
writing, repeating last words typed then continue writing.
56-60: Silence, but Im thinking about how I change the pace, think about
tennis and how I slow down my serve in tennis. Begin typing. Repeat what I wrote.
Got a text and reply to it. See another Bates Motel commercial; make a mental note
about when the new season is starting. Silence. Repeat sentence. Add a little more
detail to that sentence. Go onto next comment, didnt have any more
61-65: Open Clarks comments now. I like that name, reminds me of
Superman/Clark Kent. Told me to introduce myself, begin to mention my name,
mention my major, read back what I wrote a couple of times. Move onto next
comment, think about how long Ive been playing, and start calculating it. Begin
answering Clarks question. Read back last words I typed, continue typing. Read
back full sentence; add a little more to it. Get distracted about getting a text.
66-70: Continue writing. Silence. Watching Duck Dynasty. Repeat previous
words reading, thinking about what to write next. Continue writing. Repeat
sentence again, write next words, and replace a couple. Repeated the last words like
8 times. Kept writing after that. Read whole sentence again. Move on to the next
sentence. Then moved on to his next comment, thinking about where to move the
sentences to like Clark suggested. Finished with Clarks comments and now onto
Melissas. Silence. Read Melissas comments. Think about her question. Decide to
delete a couple of words I had previously.
71-75: Go back to Melissas comment, and then answer it. I type it, repeat the
previous words to go to the next words. Continue typing, and then decide not to
mention practice. Read sentence again, continue typing new words to end sentence.
Read sentence again. Move onto her next comment. Read the paragraph where I
mention it to get ideas of what to mention. Think about both bad and good
experiences I had. Type the first bad experience first and add detail to it, get
distracted because I got a text. Finish replying, read sentence Im currently typing,
and then continue writing more to it. Silence.
76-80: Reword previous sentence. Think about a good experience I had, then
start introducing this experience, continue writing and elaborating on the sentence.
Look for synonym of eloquent, read over this part of the sentence, add more detail
to it. Reword how to properly name the schools newspaper. OMG I cant spell!
Silence. Read over whole paragraph I just wrote. Move onto her next comment.
Think about how to answer it. Mom comes in and starts asking me what time my
sister left and tells me to go feed dogs.
MY WRITING PROCESS 22
PAUSE RECORDING.
81-85: Came back from feeding the dogs, and I have hot fries to snack on.
Read the second comment Melissa had. How do the good and back experiences
compare to the ones in tennis. Whats another word for such as? Start typing the
answer to her question. Think about the bad experiences I had in tennis, become a
little sad about this, but then think about the good experience I had in tennis.
Remember also when my uncle told me I would never be good in tennis because of
tennis. Delete the first bad tennis experience and replace it with my uncle one. I add
more detail to my good tennis experience, remembering how I earned my #1 spot
rather than losing it. Type next sentence and start to conclude this comment. Read
sentences over again, Im satisfied. Read her next comment. Get a text, read it and
reply to it. Silence.
86-90: Read her comment again. Think about what I meant by moral. Start
typing to explain what I meant by moral, pause for a second, and then continue
writing. Annoyed because I missed my favorite part on the Duck Dynasty episode.
Move onto her next comment, then try to locate where I mentioned the technique
part. Think about a couple examples to give. Try to remember the rules my previous
English teachers forced me to write. Then think about what new techniques Ms.
Almanzar showed me, I reminisced to the first time I sat on her desk and she spoke
to me one on one during editing. Start typing. Delete Most importantly since I used
it already.
91-93: Continue typing for current sentence. Read back what I last wrote,
think about what to say next, and then I continue to type. Stop typing, read back the
sentence I just finished, and then added more words and information to it. Done.
Close Blackboard and Email.

END SESSION