Murray

1. Murray’s writing process is way different than mine.  There was a study to find out his process through three stages. First, they used a tape-recorder and left it on for long periods of time so he was able to think aloud and have his thoughts from everywhere he went. The study would use a tape-recorder again looking for audience, subject, and purpose.  The last step to the study was to look at the way he performed his writing tasks.  This is different than almost everybody. Murray takes notes in a book and then speaks out loud to his wife who was a typist. He would read of his draft, change his notes, and then speak to his wife again. He went through eight different drafts before he turned something in.

3. Berkenkotter learned in his studies that Murray spends the most time on planning and then goes to evaluating and editing. He does not spend much time on revising. Murray plans a lot and has a couple different ways of planning such as outlines and rhetorical goals. The writer edits what they think is their final draft but it really isn’t after they realize they have several mistakes and change everything around once again.  As writers write they don’t plan, translate, and review their work again; it is a working process which cycles through multiple times.

4. A weakness in studying the writing process is taking the writer out of their natural element to study their process. To study them accurately they need to stay in the environment they usually are in when writing.  When the tapes were used for the study, they have a lot of information but are not completely accurate because Murray was distracted by the university problems. It is also hard when writers are working on a piece for months and suddenly are in a different environment with a foreign topic to write about in just an hour. Murray normally does not work quickly so when he only had an hour to work his mind went somewhere different.