My Writing Process

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• What type(s) of writer do you consider yourself to be?

            After referencing the Student’s Guide page 38-9 that introduces the reader to four different types of writers, I would have to say that I relate most to the "heavy planner." When writing, I like to know what I'm about to dive into, or else I just feel overwhelmed. Having some sort of plan allows me to know if I have a good topic for my writings and if I'll have something meaningful to say. Even though people say quality over quantity, it's nice to have more than just a snippet to read, so making sure I have enough to write about is essential for my essays. I can also relate to the common procrastinator, however, I realized that I only procrastinate on assignments that I know I will be able to complete in short amounts of time.

• Does your writing process include several of the approaches above? If so, which ones?

            Being a heavy planner, when I have an essay due I tend to think about what I'm writing anywhere I go. I constantly search for new ideas, trying to top my old ones up to the point when I actually start writing. I do also tend to try and make my first draft as good as it possibly can be; I absolutely hate revising. Sometimes when I write I don't even read over my work and just turn it in because I am pretty confident with my work and I'm too lazy to read over it one more time because I revised so much while writing. I find myself picking at every sentence as I go along my papers which creates a frustrating and timely process, but it gets the job done.

• Does your writing process seem to be successful? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your approach?

            For the most part my writing process turns out to be successful. I'm pretty hard on myself when I'm writing and if something doesn't sound right and I can't figure it out, I'll take out the entire section that relies on that statement because I can transition into it properly. However, this can set me back because it makes my writing process longer than it should be. My major weakness would probably be that I hate reading over my finished product to try and revise it. Usually I'll get one of my peers to edit over it and I find that to be my best route when producing a quality piece of work.

• Do you think it would be beneficial for you to try a different approach? Why or why not?

            I believe I would become a better writer if I took advantage of the revision process and tried to do a majority of the corrections on my own. Doing this would help me initially catch these mistakes when I'm writing, and it would make me less dependent on others to correct my writings. Other than that, I feel like I am a fairly decent writer, looking past the times that I decide to procrastinate on my work.