“The Composing Process”

Perl’s research about invention and editing (aka “revision”) provides useful data about student writers. It also applies to more experienced writers. It’s easy to fall into the let’s-get-it-done trap. The time spent thinking about ideas and how they relate to each other to form new ideas takes second place to thoughts of family and job, social obligations, and deadlines, including writing deadlines. There are also the thoughts that wipe out invention: Well, I already know about this, so why do I need to free-write about it? The lesson is that spending time on invention is a little bit like doing vocal warm-ups before singing. The payoff comes later with better performance and less vocal fatigue. It’s easy to forget the benefits when you’ve got a list of life’s obligations facing you.

Editing-as-you-go is a hard habit to break. Maybe this is because writing is inherently recursive. The mind wants to stop to think of a better word or turn of phrase. Or stray ideas pop into one’s head. I guess that jotting down words and peripheral ideas are harmless, so long as they don’t lead to premature editing. The mind also gets distracted and wants to follow a branch off the main path and decides it likes the inviting little brook along the way before it has a chance to hike the whole mountaintop. I sometimes forget that when I’m following a new fork, I need to slow down and examine the foliage and geography along the way—more invention. I’m going to give it a try for my literacy autobiography. Maybe there’ll be a payoff.

Perl’s thoughts about student rule confusion seems like a feature of composition where a teacher can exercise only minor influence. Students, especially ESL students, have a tendency to hyper-correct, to use language over which they still lack control, mistrust what they do know, and misapply what they think they know. As an ESL teacher, this is an area I want to think about and develop ways to help my students. Her ideas about selective perception and egocentricity apply to most writers—developing and experienced—to some extent, which is why peer editing is so helpful.

Her conclusion about editing and how “it breaks down the rhythms generated by thinking and writing” brought to mind an idea unrelated to editing: the idea of tape-recording one’s ideas. I may try this because between my conversations in my head and the writing down of my ideas on paper, something is lost in the translation. The rhythms and natural language that initially made me want to write about a topic often disappear, and I’m left wondering, “Why did I think that was so important? I may try this technique. It could be helpful or a total waste of time. Who knows?