ENG 1510 Murray & Berkenkotter Responses

Alex Gilkerson 

ENG 1510

9-11-12

Summary

These articles are trying to get across to us the fact that planning out your writings can help you tremendously.  Once you plan out your writings, it will make everything easier.  It will cut down the time of working, it will keep you organized, and it will help you work efficiently.

Synthesis

These articles were a lot different then the passed ones we have read.  Most other articles talked about what to do and what not to do while writing.  This article explains to us the importance of stages leading up to writing and after the writing.  It explained how to plan correctly to keep you time management in check.  It also talked about revising and editing.  That is a very important part of writing.

Questions for Discussion 

1. What stuck out to me the most was when Murray said he was surprised on the amount of planning he does.  Planning something out can make your writings ten times better.  If you set out all the information and get everything in order, it will make your time a lot smoother.  I feel that I need to do a little more planning.  Sometimes I will procrastinate or just rush into an assignment and not take the time to sit down and really think about it.  Like I said, one thing I do differently is the fact that I do not plan very well.

3.  Berkenkotter, after doing this research, found out how much time Murray spent on planning is writings and revising them.  She seemed a bit shocked.  She tells how the editor was editing the final draft and found more errors.  They had to take it back and buff out the problems.  On Murray’s Journal of Basic Writing, it tells that he planned 45% of the time for the writing.  That is a crazy amount of planning if you ask me.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.I feel I need to change some of my writing habits.  Sometimes, I’ll be focused and have good work, but other times I just rush and not have as good of writings.  When I rush, I don’t plan anything out and I will just skim the material.  It was a very bad habit to start.  When I’m focused, I believe my writing level is pretty good.  I have had to write plenty of papers in my day and have taken a lot of writing courses.  From my experience, I tend to spend a lot more time on the writing part, rather than planning and editing.

Meta Moment 

The biggest thing I got out of these two articles was definitely to plan my writings.  Planing your writings will benefit you so much.  It will keep you organized, help you understand the material, and mostly help you write a good paper.  The biggest thing is to have zero mistakes in your paper.  If you don’t plan time to revise, you may make simple spelling mistakes or punctuation mistakes.  Making little mistakes could ruin your paper and harm your grade.

Personal Reflection

I took a lot from these articles.  It really showed me that I need to plan my papers ahead more.  I normally wait till last minute and that won't cut it at the college level.  Once I get the due date for an assignment, I need to start organizing times to do parts of the work.  Breaking up the assignment would cut down time immensely.