My writing style

"Though writing teachers have long regarded composing as an activity that occurs in "stages," most stage models are too simplistic. They do not account for individual differences among writers. They do not appreciate the complex intermingling of activities, decisions, constraints and goals writers juggle. Even a model like the one presented in this chapter is misleading. We can talk about prewriting, writing, and rewriting separately, but in real life these processes all interact with one another and are extremely difficult to distinguish." (Pg. 31)

When I write my academic papers, I do not do it in accordance with the traditional process described in the chapter. I do not use outlines, cluster maps, or any other prewriting techniques. Neither do I write in drafts and perform rewrites. My writing process is more reflective of the above quote in that the three processes are not performed separately in stages but rather I navigate back and forth between the processes in one sitting and complete my paper. My approach to writing an academic essay is to sit down and just begin writing. I have a vague idea of where I want the paper to go when I begin writing but it isn't until I began writing that I really find my direction. I don't write my papers in a linear sense, rather I am constantly jumping from paragraph to paragraph making changes and correcting errors. I look at it as constructing a paper rather than writing one. My primary concern initially is to get my ideas out my head and written down so then I can rearrange them into a coherent essay. Thus far this method has worked for me, yet I know it is not for everyone. In just about every writing class I was taught to perform some type of prewriting technique (outline, cluster map) before actually beginning the paper and I learned to perform these tasks well for a grade but I never incorporate them into the actual writing of my paper. So when the writing process is described as an act that is performed in stages I tend to disagree because this is not the way I do it. It is a good model but it is not the only way to go about writing.