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Writing Process Lesson
The Writing Process
Now that you have a working understanding of the writing process, I would like you to practice the three components: pre-writing, drafting, and re-writing.
Pre-Writing
Below you will find explanations of two kinds of pre-writing: discovery techniques and heuristics. Discovery techniques are used to get random thoughts down on paper. Two examples that are exemplified below are free-writing and listing. Heuristics are conceptual devices that enable the writer to organize thoughts around central ideas. The two heuristic devices presented below are the Particle-Wave-Field Perspectives and the Pentad.
Discovery Techniques
Free-writing: the following shows a writing situation and accompanying free-writing.
Fred Smithson is the environmental coordinator for a road contractor. Fred’s company is in the preliminary stages of building a new road to connect two existing roads. Especially in winter, fatal accidents often occur at corners A and B, so they built the road around the property. In 1952 the county acquired the property, but in the midst of the postwar baby boom, used it for a school instead of a road. Now the county cannot fill all its elementary schools, so the time seems right to consolidate schools, eliminate Franklin School, and build the needed road.
However, local parents have voiced considerable opposition. The county has therefore decided to hold an open meeting, allow the road contractor and the parents’ spokesperson fifteen minutes apiece to make a statement, and then open the meeting to questions and answers.
Fred Smithson must prepare the road contractor’s statement. Fred knows how to build roads and how to minimize their negative effects on the environment, but he knows nothing about upset parents. He feels helpless because he does not know what to say in this situation. So he beings by freewriting.
I know how to build roads, first the excavating, then the grading, etc, etc, but that’s not what’s wanted at this meeting. The parents are afraid to move their kids. Can I give them any advantge back in return? Like more safety on the highways. Statistics of numbers of accidents at the corners that the new road will eliminate. The new road will actually be a benefit environmentally because it will lessen the deceleration and acceleration along that stretch of road, thus lessening pollutants. But evidence, evidence, I’ve got to have facts to make all this believable -- to motivate acceptance from the parents.
Freewriting, as you can see, is a form of prewriting in which the author starts to write without concern for logic, organization, or grammatical correctness. This is a discovery technique for which the only rule is to keep writing -- do not stop for anything. Even if all you can write is "I don’t know what to write," do so. Do not let your pen or keyboard remain idle. Freewriting gets the juices flowing and allows the mind to put on paper what’s locked inside. Getting anything out is more productive than staring at a blank page.
Word Listing
Another useful discovery technique is word listing. This is similar to word association: a psychological examiner says a word and the client responds with the first word that comes to mind. By concentrating on the communication stituation at hand, the writer may come up with some important words that then stimulate her thinking. These key words can then be listed or grouped into related clusters. These clusters in turn may trigger further insight into the problem and perhaps even the beginnings of an organization for the document. Read the following to see how Fred used listing to get started with his writing.
Safety
1978: 25 accidents
7 fatalities
1979: 22 accidents
9 fatalities
Parents
children crossing street
familiar with old road
Environment
EPS standards for SO2, NO2, particulates
May 1980 study
too high
7.0 ppm SO2
5.7 ppm NO2
10.0 ppm particulates
Heuristics are also helpful for pre-writing. These develop ways to attack a writing project. For example, a writing scenario could be as follows:
Tom Johnson handles the payroll, accounts receivable, and accounts payable at the local hospital. His office is in the process of up-grading from a manual operation to a newly purchased computer to issue all checks and keep all records. Some of the employees are nervous about how this will affect their jobs.
Two pre-writing heuristic devices discussed below in relation to this scenario are Particle, Wave, and Field and the Pentad. Keep reading and see how Tom uses these devices to start writing.
Particle, Wave, and Field (Young, Becker, & Pike, Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, 1970)
This heuristic device allows the author to analyze the writing situation from three viewpoints: particle, wave, and field.
1. Particle Perspective
Look at the writing as a "particle," that is, in isolation.
See below how Tom isolates factors about the situation itself.
The computer will help keep records accurately and be able to retrieve them. It will print all the checks, automatically taking out the proper amounts for taxes, insurance, and other deductions, and deposit funds directly into appropriate employee or supplier accounts. It can keep a running account of all expenditures and accounts payable and receivable, and can process all insurance claims and checks, crediting each to the proper account.
2. Wave Perspective
This perspective allows the author to look at the writing as a "wave," that is, as part of a sequence or in its developmental context.
Read the following to see how Tom looks at the situation’s history.
Over the past ten years, hundreds of human errors about proper income tax withholding, proper discount on supplier invoices, and crediting checks to the right patient’s account have occurred. The old manual system often requires a week to generate payroll checks.
3. Field Perspective
This perspective allows the author to look at the full context of the writing situation: the writer considers what implications the writing situation has for the world around it, in what cultural and situational contexts the writing is set, how the writing situation is connected to things outside itself.
Read below and see how Tom looks at the context of the situation:
Computer technology surrounds me and the employees every day, from video games to bank statements. The hospital upgrades all its medical equipment constantly, striving to be up to date.
Notice that these jottings are not even a first draft for Tom, but they have helped him to start thinking logically about the writing problem.
Pentad
Another useful heuristic, formalized by Kenneth Burke (A Rhetoric of Motives) under the term pentad has been long familiar to the journalist as the five W’s: who, where, when, what , and why. Burke’s new terminology is,
Act: What was done?
Agent: Who did it?
Agency: By what means was it done?
Scene: Where and when was it done?
Purpose: Why was it done?
Burke’s terms stress the human element in communication. For instance, the word act implies a humanly motivated happening, while what may refer to an unmotivated event resulting from physical laws. A tree falling in the forest is a physical event, which could be considered under the reporter’s what, but not under Burke’s act. However, a logging company that fells trees for profit is humanly motivated, and hence performs an act. Similarly, the who question for a reporter might include a fungus that weakened a tree and caused it to fall, but the term agent for Burke implies more than a physical cause. For all the terms, Burke focuses on human involvement in the rhetorical situation.
·Notice how Tom applies the pentad to his communication about the new computer before attempting to write a rough draft:
Act: A computer will be installed. This act is in the future, not completed yet.
Agent: The hospital board of directors, putting increasing pressure on the hospital manger to change, wants the computer installed. Thus the agent in this case is coming form the top down -- with authority.
Agency: I realize that the way the act is done is everyone’s main concern. No one disagrees with the act itself, but people are nervous about how it will be accomplished.
Scene: The decision-making where and when do not concern most of my audience. However, the installation and start-up where and when concern many of my fellow workers. Purpose: Red ink and inefficiency motivate the decision. The new computer will not replace anyone; rather, the computer should benefit all employees and the hospital itself.
Once you have understood this lesson, you should:Go on to Assignment 1, Discovery Techniques and Heuristics
or
Go back to the writing topic pageE-mail Greg Larkin at Gregory.Larkin@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-4911
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