Process
7
Bridget Bosca, Anthony Fontana, Joseph Perrotta
Whether or not you like writing, it is an essential part of people’s everyday lives. From something simple like texting to something more elaborate like writing ten-page essays, a person writes almost every day. This chapter is designed to help with achieving a better understanding of the way you write and how to revise your writings. It will focus on the revision of papers and essays so that you may grow to be a better and stronger writer.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the difference between the algorithmic and heuristic style of writing
- Understand the benefits and weaknesses of each in regards towards writers block.
- Understand the differences between editing and revision
- Understand how these concepts contribute to improving your writing.
Vocab/Key terms
- Algorithm: a strict set of rules used to formulate a specific set of answers to a problem
- Heuristics: simple but efficient rules used to formulate a more general answer to a problem
- Bathroom Epiphanies: Sometimes taking break and walking away from the writing to clear your mind helps the creation of new ideas.
- Revision: Adding, deleting, substituting, and rearranging material to better suit the author’s purpose and audience
- Edits: Reviewing and fixing grammatical, mechanical, and stylistic errors
- Reflection: The process of contemplating on your past, present and future writing projects.
Algorithms
In writing, algorithms can be difficult to work with which can discourage writers from using them in their works. In order to understand why these algorithms can create issues, we must first understand what an algorithm is and how they are used. Mike Rose defines algorithms, in his article “Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block,” as “precise rules that will always result in a specific answer if applied to an appropriate problem”. This creates a sort of double-edged sword. Although they do provide specific answers to specific situations, they can lead to writers being unable to confront unforeseen issues as they come up. They can also lead the writer down a path heading towards writer block.
In his article, Mike Rose gives many examples of ways algorithms can be unhelpful. Below are a couple of examples of students he studied:
- Ruth: spent way too much time on the opening paragraph and she focuses on grammar more than anything. Her algorithms stems from the fact that, in high school, she was told that a good essay grabs people’s attention. She also believes that if her sentences must be grammatically correct for her to use them. By following the logic that the introduction paragraph is what grabs your attention, and that you must be grammatically correct, Ruth has trapped her writing within two limiting algorithms. Her excessive following of these rules is what harms her writing rather than help it.
- Laurel: had to have an essay that consisted of three main poi