Starting the Creative Writing Process

If the exploration of your ideas, your experiences, yourself through writing interests you, then to some extent you are a writer, whether you have been published or not.  To be a writer is to love the things with which you are working: words, sounds, sentences and images, to list a few.  It is probably too early to decide who your audience will be--children, Latin Americans, upper class, for examples--but it is necessary that you think about such as you write.  The fundamental dichotomy in writing is public/private or universal/personal.  Your goal as a writer is to make universal thoughts and feelings personal and personal thoughts and feelings universal.  A balance is difficult to achieve.  If your writing is too universal, then your thoughts and feelings are grandiose, your expression of them is trite, and your work is boring.  If your writing is too personal, then your thoughts and feelings are narrow, your expression of them is incoherent, and your work is boring.

The only way to learn how to write is to write, and the more you write, the more you have to say.  Ideally you want to have spaces--physical, temporal, emotional--in which you are able to engage in the process of writing.  Such spaces will have an affect on your ability to write, on the kind of writing you do, and on your attitude toward your writing.  Thus, the components of one's environment are important.  Most writers agree that they work better without the intrusion of other people.  Writing is a solitary business, and there is less a set formula or approach than with any other profession.

Some writers have specific techniques to initiate the process of writing and to overcome any blocks to the process.  When you are not sure of what to write, reading can be an excellent stimulus.  Although you may not write on the subject of the work, reading will help you generate ideas.  Brainstorming is a technique by which you can generate ideas.  Write a thought at the top of a sheet of paper, and list any word or phrase that comes to your mind.  Set a time limit, and list the items as quickly as you can.  All items are legitimate for your list because an allegedly bad idea can lead to a good one.  Journal writing provides an opportunity to converse with yourself in your own language about what you have been experiencing.  You pose questions, develop ideas, reflect on experiences, speculate and explore, and try to pinpoint confusions.  Another method for generating ideas is to list the attributes a thing possesses.  Number the items of your list.  Then, ask what the uses or consequences of each attribute are.  After you respond to your questions, you may want to expound the most promising response(s) in a focused freewrite.  If you enjoy thinking visually, try mapping your thoughts.  Begin by writing your thoughts as briefly as possible; a single word is best.  Circle each thought, and draw three, four or five short lines from each circle.  At the end of each line, place one of the journalistic questions (who, what, when, where, why and how), making a longer line for every answer to a question.  Freewriting is a technique you may want to try when you have no ideas.  According to Peter Elbow:
     The idea is simply to write for ten minutes (later on, perhaps
     fifteen or twenty).  Don't stop for anything.  Go quickly without
     rushing.  Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to
     wonder what word or thought to use, or to think of a word or a
     spelling, just use a squiggle or else write, "I can't think of it."  Just
     put down something.  The easiest thing is just to put down
     whatever is in your mind.  If you get stuck [sic] it's fine to write
     [sic] "I can't think of what to say, [sic] I can't think of what to say
     [sic]" as many times as you want; or repeat the last word you
     wrote over and over again; or anything else.  The only
     requirement is that you never stop.* 
Focused freewriting provides the benefits of freewriting but with regard to a specific idea.  Freely write for ten minutes; reread your work; and mark any words, phrases or sentences that seem important or useful.  Then, freely write for ten more minutes--focusing on the words, phrases or sentences that you marked.  To generate more specific information, repeat the technique.

The following list may help stimulate your creativity.

1. Develop a character who never goes outside.
2. Describe a scent that evokes a memory.
3. Listen to instrumental music, and write about the images the music evokes.
4. Write a dialogue between you and someone you want to date.
5. Write about a physical movement.
6. Have you ever been someplace where you felt you did not belong?
7. Write about leaving a place you did not want to leave.
8. You are eighty-eight years old.  What occurred during your life?
9. Write about the scent of someone you love.
10. Tell a secret.
11. Write about a color.
12. Imitate another writer's style.
13. Remember a dream you recently had, and record it as vividly as possible.
14. Describe the most beautiful part of the human body.
15. Write about a kitchen utensil.
16. Create a complete wardrobe for a character.
17. Write the opening visual directions for a film.
18. Feel four different fabrics, and describe their textures.
19. You are on an exploratory mission to another planet.  Describe the planet to the mother ship.
20. You drive a truck.  Using stream-of-consciousness, describe a night of driving.
21. Use water as a symbol in five different ways.
22. Describe someone's yard.
23. Describe a funeral from the point of view of the dead person.
24. Using each sense, describe flat.
25. Write about a reunion.
26. Describe the inside of your car as it is now.
27. Find duality in five things.
28. Describe the worst way to die.
29. List five oxymorons, and write about one of them.
30. Describe the perfect meal.
31. Write a poem with no fewer than ten a and m sounds.
32. Write from the point of view of a character who is blind.
33. Describe a first kiss.
34. Define nausea.
35. Is it better to be single or married?
36. Explore the differences between men and women.
37. Record everything you see, hear, smell, taste and feel for ten minutes.
38. Describe the smiles of five different people.
39. Write a poem that contains a paradox.
40. Write about your worst haircut.
41. Describe someone's medicine cabinet, and explain what it suggests about him or her.
42. Create an immoral character.
43. Write about flannel and silk.
44. Use jewelry to describe a character.

One of the most important tasks a writer has is to capture details.  There are two ways to describe something: generally and specifically.  It is nearly impossible to write about something without making some general observations.  However, you want to include both types of description.  Specific information may be sensory details and/or objective details such as size, shape and color.  Such details make one's writing more powerful, grounding the work in particular physical and emotional contexts.  Specificity can emerge from your memories, experiences and imagination, and with respect to those, writers use sensory details not simply to record an event, place and time, but to make a scene real for the reader.  Unfortunately your emotional connection to an experience may hinder your writing, preventing your imagination from allowing a scene to emerge.  I suggest that, as you write, you pretend you are someone or something else or change the actual details to fit the subject you are imaginatively exploring.

Ultimately creative writing is a blend of memory, experience and imagination.  One of your tasks is to choose details--sensory and objective, real and imaginary--that help you create a new reality.  You want to present powerful, personal experiences and emotions that correspond to universal human experiences and emotions.  Good writing is authentic--that is, true.  When a work is true, it honestly reflects the thoughts and emotions of the writer.  That does not mean the events are exactly as you experienced them; rather, the work contains truthful depictions of your experiences.
_______________________________________________________
     *Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers, 2nd ed.  (New York: Oxford UP, 1998) 1.     

Essay One

Purpose 

The purposes of essay one are multifold.  First, it will engage you in the act of writing.  Writing is a process, a series of various activities that lead to a complete product.  You will generate, organize, create, compose, revise, edit and title--seven stages in the process of writing.  Second, the essay will involve you in the act of writing persuasively, argumentatively.  Third, it will situate you in this class.  In other words, the essay will help us (you and me) evaluate your abilities to think and to communicate creatively, clearly and concisely.  Fourth, it will allow you to define literature in your own terms. 

Content 

First, I want you to find a nonliterary thing, to describe it, and to delineate the reasons it is not an example of literature.  Second, find an example of a literary work, describe it, and delineate the reasons it is such.  Third, you must define literature in your own terms.  You may include other pertinent information, but the essay must not exceed 100,000 words or 400 pages.  You also may organize your information in a different way.  Format your essay in accordance with the conventions established by the Modern Language Association (MLA). 

Process 

I have determined your purpose for writing, which is to persuade; I have defined your audience, which is the class.  I also have provided you a topic, which is to define literature.  The next stage is to generate information.  We have discussed reading, brainstorming, journal writing, listing, and mapping--activities you may want to do rather than freewriting and focused freewriting.  However, for this essay you will freely write for ten minutes, generating as much information on the topic as you can.  Again:

     The idea is simply to write for ten minutes (later on, perhaps
     fifteen or twenty).  Don't stop for anything.  Go quickly without
     rushing.  Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to
     wonder how to spell something, to wonder what word or thought
     to use, or to think about what you are doing.  If you can't think of
     a word or a spelling, just use a squiggle or else write, "I can't
     think of it."  Just put down something.  The easiest thing is just to
     put down whatever is in your mind.  If you get stuck [sic] it's fine
     to write [sic] "I can't think what to say, [sic] I can't think what to
     say [sic]" as many times as you want; or repeat the last word you
     wrote over and over again; or anything else.  The only
     requirement is that you never stop.*

Focused freewriting provides the benefits of freewriting but with regard to specific information.  First, read what you wrote and mark any words, phrases or sentences that seem important or useful.  Second, freely write for ten more minutes--focusing on the words, phrases or sentences that you marked.  To generate more specific information, you will need to repeat the technique. 

Particulars 

You will be comparing and contrasting two things.  The outcome of your analyses will be your definition of literature.  You must use all three rhetorical appeals (logos, pathos and ethos), and you must follow Toulmin's scheme for argumentation.  You may include photographs, photocopies or excerpts of both things.  Bring two copies of your essay to class on the day it is due. 

Near the end of the semester, on the day of your final exam, you will submit in a portfolio your freewrite, focused freewrite, outline, first draft, and final draft.
_______________________________________________________
     *Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers, 2nd ed.  (New York: Oxford UP, 1998) 1.

The Process of Writing

Introduction 

To complete any task or chore, a person must go through a process, a series of actions that leads to a result.  Think about the process you went through to arrive at school or work this morning: waking, drinking, eating, showering, dressing, driving.  Each of those stages is a process, for there are substages within each stage.  For example, you likely slipped on pants before you stepped into shoes.  Did you struggle to complete the entire process?  There may have been external pressures, but you did not have to contemplate your actions at every stage.  The reason: the more experience you have in successfully completing a task or chore, the more habitual the process is.

Your process was different from mine in some way.  You may have combined some stages--drinking and eating while driving to school, for example--or you may have skipped a stage--bathing before you slept, for example.  Similarly, the process of writing is variable.  A writer does not necessarily begin at the first stage and progress linearly to the last stage.  Advanced writers are able to combine and skip stages without adverse effects, and they return to an earlier stage when they revise their works, which they do many times.  Furthermore, an advanced writer will adapt his process in accordance with the kind of writing he is doing.

With respect to e-mails, my compositional process consists of three stages: writing, revising and editing.  With respect to formal discourse--an essay such as this--my compositional process is more comprehensive.  After I conduct research, I generate information on sheets of paper, pausing only to refer to external information or to discover where my words are leading me.  The initial draft is messy, with proofreader's marks and misspellings everywhere.  After hours, days or weeks away from the draft, I read, evaluate and revise it.  As I type the text into the word processor, I revise it again, focusing on unity, coherence and development.  The next day I edit with respect to tone, punctuation, grammar and mechanics.  If I do not have a title, I create one, which is the final stage of my process.

The following process is even more comprehensive than the aforementioned one.  It is the process I adhered to when I was a freshman in college.  I suggest that intermediate writers adhere to it until they are able to combine or skip stages without adverse effects.

Purpose

Because writing is a social activity, a way to communicate with others, before you begin to write, you need to consider the reason(s) you will be writing.  You will write more effectively if you answer the following question: Are you writing to inform, to persuade, or to entertain?  Sometimes you will have multiple reasons to write.  For example, if you were to review a movie, you would evaluate it and persuade readers to either view it or not, all while entertaining them.  Thinking about your purpose(s) will allow you to identify a topic and will help you to generate and organize ideas.

Audience

Each time you write, you must think carefully about whom your audience is and how they will respond to your information.  Sometimes writers have to appeal to multiple and possibly conflictive audiences: teachers and classmates, men and women, rich and poor, conservatives and liberals.  At other times the identification of a particular audience is difficult, especially when creating a website.  Knowing just a few characteristics of your audience will help you anticipate and satisfy your readers' interests and needs.  Choose content, coverage, examples and tone in accordance with your audience's requirements, asking yourself the questions that follow.  Who likely will read your work?  What are some reasons they will read your work?  What do they know about your subject?  What kinds of information will they need?  What values and beliefs do they hold?  What kinds of examples will elicit positive responses?  How will you convince them to accept your argument?  You will need to continually think about your audience throughout the process of writing.

Topic

Because there are hundreds of ways to generate a topic, I will discuss only the most successful generative methods I have been using: reading, brainstorming, journal writing, listing, mapping, and freewriting.

Reading can be an excellent stimulus when you are not precisely sure of what your topic will be.  Though you may not depend on outside sources, reading about a tentative topic may help you generate ideas.

Brainstorming is a technique by which you can generate a topic.  Place a subject at the top of a sheet of paper, and list any word or phrase that comes to your mind.  Set a time frame, and list items as quickly as you can.  All items are legitimate for your list, since an allegedly bad idea can lead to a good one.

Journal writing provides you an opportunity to converse with yourself in your own language about what you have been studying.  You can pose questions, develop ideas, reflect on readings, speculate and explore, and try to pinpoint confusions.

Another method for generating a topic is to list the attributes that a subject possesses.  Number the items of your list.  Then, ask what the uses or consequences of each item are.

If you enjoy thinking visually, try mapping your ideas.  Begin by writing the subject as briefly as possible (a single word is best).  Circle the subject and draw three, four or five short spokes from the circle.  At the end of each spoke place one of the journalistic questions--who, what, where, why and how--making a longer branch off the spoke for every answer to a question.

Freewriting is a technique you may want to try when you are asked to write but have no topic.  According to Peter Elbow:

          The idea is simply to write for ten minutes (later on, perhaps
          fifteen or twenty).  Don't stop for anything.  Go quickly
          without rushing.  Never stop to look back, to cross something
          out, to wonder how to spell something, to wonder what word
          or thought to use, or to think about what you are doing.  If
          you can't think of a word or a spelling, just use a squiggle or
          else write, "I can't think of it."  Just put down something.  The
          easiest thing is just to put down whatever is in your mind.  If
          you get stuck [sic] it's fine to write [sic] "I can't think what to
          say, [sic] I can't think what to say [sic]" as many times as you
          want; or repeat the last word you wrote over and over again;
          or anything else.  The only requirement is that you never
          stop.*  

Information

All the aforementioned methods are also useful when you need to generate information, when you need to explore your own thoughts and feelings about a topic.  But in an academic or professional setting, you will be required to include material from outside sources, which means that you must be able to read critically.  The following strategy will help you do such.

Before you read look ahead, previewing the source and asking yourself which part of the source relates to your topic.  While you are reading, be active--underlining relative information, writing notes that summarize passages, writing sectional headings, and highlighting important information.  Monitor your progress while you are reading.  Do you understand the material?  How does the material compare with your predictions?  Do you need to redirect your efforts--that is, to preview another selection or to generate another topic?

After you have enough information to satisfy your audience's interests and needs, you will need to consolidate the information.  Review your notes; highlight important information; organize your notes.  Next, evaluate each source, distinguishing facts (verifiable statements) from opinions (interpretations of facts).  Finally, distinguish your assumptions from those of the author(s).

Assumptions also are known as warrants, core beliefs that shape the way each of us views the world.  There are three categories of assumptions: value, descriptive and definitional.  Value assumptions are beliefs about the way the world ought to be, about the way people ought to behave.  Descriptive assumptions are beliefs about the way the world is, about what is true.  Definitional assumptions are definitions of key terms on which a discourse rests.

I will discuss the importance of assumptions later.  What you need to know about them now is that an author may state his/her assumptions directly or indirectly--that is, they may be explicit or implicit.  Because assumptions provide the bases for decisions and opinions, if you do not distinguish your assumptions from those of the author(s), you more than likely will conflate them, which will lead to misunderstanding.

Organization

When you know you will incorporate information from numerous sources into an essay, you will need to read in a way that enables you to infer relationships among those sources.  To do such you will need to divide the topic into parts and to title each division.  Then, cross-reference each part, listing the specific pages of each source that treats each division.  Next, summarize the information or author's ideas about each part, considering the following inferences as you do such: comparison, contrast, example, definition, cause and effect, and personal response.  Comparison: does one author agree with another?  Contrast: does an author disagree with another author?  Example: does material in one source illustrate a statement in another source?  Definition: is there material in a source that may help you define or redefine a term in another source?  Cause and effect: is there material from one source that may allow you to explain directly the reason certain events occur in other sources?  Personal response: do you agree or disagree with points made in one or more sources?  Develop your response(s) by referring to specific passages.

Not all the information you have will be useful.  Therefore, you must select the most promising ideas and categorize them.  Organize information within categories to clarify your ideas and their relation to each other.  After you recognize patterns of relation within each category, you will be able to recognize patterns of relation across categories.  Identify main, or general, points within each category and the subordinate, or specific, points within a category.  Some examples of subordinate points, also known as backing, are moral principles, testimony of experts, statistical data, and empirical results.  Organizing material within a category is an excellent technique for revealing which of your main points will need further development when you begin to write a first draft.

Most intermediate writers skip the organizational stage, thinking that the creation of a formal or informal outline will consume too much time to be beneficial.  But advanced writers experientially know that organizing information within categories actually conserves time because it allows them to develop completely each main point.  For them the revisionary stage is a stylistic event, not a compositional nightmare.

Working Thesis

All your effort in thinking about your purpose, identifying your audience, selecting a topic, generating information, and organizing that information will lead to a thesis--a general, debatable statement about your topic.  Initially you will create a working thesis: a statement that, based on everything you know about your topic, is a reasonably accurate summary of what you will write.  In the act of writing, you will discover, discard and revise ideas.  Before you write you cannot determine how your draft will evolve and how, subsequently, your thesis will change.

What is a good working thesis?  A strong thesis is clear and concise, regardless of where it appears or how long it is.  A strong thesis focuses on a substantive issue, an issue that readers will want to read.  A strong thesis is debatable, which means reasonable people may disagree with it.  A strong thesis requires backing and will need qualification.

First Draft

Every writer needs a place, some space, and time to write.  Choose a setting that is comfortable, ensure that nobody will distract you, and reserve a significant quantity of time.  Your goal is to create and to finish a version of your discourse.  When you accept the fact that what you write in your first draft will not necessarily be in your final draft, you will be able to continue to write when you reach a troublesome part.  Do not allow your concerns about particular words or sentences block your momentum.  Complete one section of your discourse until you finish.

Revision

After some time has passed, read your first draft.  Reconsider your working thesis and the extent your work addresses it.  Create a thesis, a version of your working thesis that accurately reveals the primary point of your discourse.  Check for unity.  Do the sentences of each paragraph focus on a main idea?  Do the paragraphs of each section focus on a specific part of the thesis?  Do the sections of the discourse develop the thesis?  Check for coherence.  Are the sentences of each paragraph orderly?  Are the paragraphs of each section orderly?  Are the sections of the discourse orderly?  Check for development.  Do the sentences of each paragraph provide details that explain and illustrate each paragraph's main idea?  Do the paragraphs of each section provide details that explain and illustrate a specific part of the thesis?  Do the sections of the discourse provide important details that develop the thesis?

Editing

If you think your revision meets the interests and needs of your audience, you are ready to edit.  To edit is to rewrite at the level of the sentence.  You will need to focus on more than punctuation, grammar and mechanics.  Ensure your diction is concrete (perceptible by the senses) and specific (refers to particular people, places and things).  Remember, appropriate language suits your writing situation--your purpose, audience and topic.  Standard English is always appropriate.  Regionalisms, slang, colloquialisms, neologisms, technical jargon, and euphemisms are sometimes appropriate.  But nonstandard dialects; double talk; pretentious writing; stereotypes; and sexist, racist and ethnocentric language are rarely or never appropriate.  Ensure you are succinct--that is, you have avoided wordy verbal phrases (changing, for example, would like to work to want to work), redundancies (changing first began to began, for example), and strings of prepositional phrases (changing for the people in America to for the Americans).  You also need to analyze your transitions (words and phrases that connect sentences, paragraphs and sections), ensuring the discourse is seamless.  What you do not want to do is solely rely on your computer to edit your work, for it cannot assess context, and context determines, for example, whether a colloquialism is appropriate.

Title

You might have created a title before you began to write your first draft, and doing such probably helped you focus.  But your discourse may have evolved differently than you had planned.  Thus, your title is a working title.  You always need to ensure your title accurately reflects the content of your discourse.  On the basis of your thesis, devise a title for your discourse.  Readers like titles that help them anticipate what they will be reading.  Furthermore, titles contain keywords necessary for electronic searches.

Conclusion

The process of writing consists of many stages, and each stage has substages.  The more comprehensive your process is, the more likely you will achieve success.  If you are an intermediate writer, I suggest you engage in every stage, regardless the kind of writing, until you are able to modify the process without adverse effects.  There are four forms of writing that will recur throughout your academic career: summary, evaluation, analysis and synthesis.  Each requires more engagement in the process than the one that precedes it.

A summary is a brief, neutral restatement of a source.  A summary answers: what are the main points of the author's discourse?  To summarize a source, restate, in your own words, the author's thesis (central idea).  If the selection is short (one to ten pages), write several sentences about each section.  If the selection is long, try to identify divisions and write several sentences about each section.  Join your paragraphical or sectional summaries with your summary of the thesis.

An evaluation is a review of a source.  An evaluation answers: how effective is the author's discourse?  Introduce the author and topic in your first paragraph.  A sentence in the introductory paragraph may hint at your general impression of the source.  Summarize the source.  Introduce the author's main points, and discuss each point thoroughly.  Assess the source, explicitly stating your criteria for evaluation.

An analysis  is an investigation of a source that requires the use of a specific set of principles.  An analysis answers many questions, including: how does the discourse work, and what does it mean?  Determine what the main points of the thesis are.  Summarize each of the points.  Convert each summary into a specific question, and use each question as a basis to investigate the source.

A synthesis (a proper academic essay) is a compendium of material from several sources.  A synthesis also answers many questions, including: what are my views on the topic, and what are other views on the topic?  Do not be tentative about expressing your own thoughts and emotions, for they are just as important as the other views on the topic.  To synthesize information fully engage in the process I delineated.  It initially may seem overwhelming.  But if you habituate yourself to the process, you may--gasp--begin to enjoy writing.

Please refer to "Scenario" if the aforementioned process seems abstract.

_______________________________________________________

          *Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford UP, 1998) 1.

Managing the Complexity of Writing

Introduction

Before an advanced writer begins to write a sentence, he has nearly a million ways of writing what he wants to communicate.  But with each word he writes, the field of choices narrows.  The sentence seems to take the initiative, moving in the direction that Standard English allows.  The advanced writer responds to such constraints almost unconsciously, providing the words and structures that different contexts allow.  He may struggle sometimes to write himself out of an ill-formed sentence, but the sense of what he can and cannot do within the limits of the rules that govern formal writing is certain.  He struggles for clarity, conciseness and effectiveness, not merely correctness.  In other words, for him the formation of sentences is primarily a concern of style, of affecting his readers' eyes, mouths and ears.

Intermediate writers seldom enjoy such ease with writing.  Their concern is not with making sentences better, but with making sentences right.  Their concern is with correctness, for they lack familiarity with Standard English.  Much of their uneasiness can be blamed on the writing process itself, which, because it is different from the speaking process (refer to "Punctuation"), creates a rule-consciousness that can prevent a writer from communicating as clearly, concisely and effectively as she can in a speech situation.  

Men and women who have been speaking in sentences for years cannot be ignorant of sentences.  But when they write formally, which they rarely do except in academic situations, they often mismanage complexity.  There are three reasons for such mismanagement.  The first explanation will center on what the students have not learned about Standard English, the second on their attitudes toward themselves as students, and the third on their unfamiliarity with the process of writing.  Each of the explanations suggests a method of instruction: one that focuses on diction, one that stresses the value of writing, and one that focuses on process.

Diction 

First, an intermediate writer is not likely to have the diction to create the consolidations necessary in writing.  If writing forces one to be more explicit then one would be when speaking and if such explicitness requires various types of consolidations (refer to "Punctuation"), the student who has read and written infrequently may not be able to use some or many of the patterns that consolidate information.  There are at least three situations in which a lack of vocabulary negatively affects the formation of sentences.  A student may not know the word that would enable her to consolidate sentences; she may not know the grammatically appropriate form of a word for a sentence; she may not know a word's appropriate contexts.

Unfortunately vocabulary grows slowly, with the inclusion of a word's acceptable contexts acquired from reading.  Word-class distinctions--learned via exercises that increase students' awareness of suffixes--are also gradually incorporated into the sentences students write themselves.  Finally, students learn the allowable contexts of individual words usually by making mistakes, not by memorizing rules.

Value

Many intermediate writers have learned that words must be correct with respect to grammar, spelling and punctuation.  Because they fear the rules, intermediate writers are not able to use their language as effectively as advanced writers.  That leads us to the second reason for their mismanagement of complexity: first-year college students often lack confidence in themselves and are afraid that writing will expose their weaknesses.  Considering that writing is an act of confidence, an exhibition of one's experiences, emotions and thoughts, a feeling of inadequacy inhibits self-expression, hinders exploration and growth.  Furthermore, many of the assignments--and I am including those I struggled to complete as a freshman--are unmotivational and stipulatory.  Restricted to a particular topic (not her own), to an unfamiliar style (academic), and to an impersonal point of view (usually her professor's), an intermediate writer will not begin sentences with actual subjects, will use passive verbal constructions, will be obscure, and will be verbose.

Process

But even advanced writers initially have such problems.  What primarily separates intermediate writers from advanced writers--and this is the third reason for intermediate writers' mismanagement of complexity--is that advanced writers write through their problems and return to them after they have written a draft, often several drafts.  In other words, intermediate writers have an incomplete process of writing.  Attempting to manage everything at once, they disrupt the flow of their thoughts and attend to problems as they arise.  Writing, intermediate writers think, is about adhering to the rules, and spelling, punctuation, sentential structure, coherence, et cetera must be correct the first time.  But if an intermediate writer does not concern herself with the task of being correct, if she realizes she will be able to perfect her essay later, she will be able to concentrate on what she is communicating, not how she is communicating.  The gap between intention and execution is closed with additions, subtractions, substitutions and inversions--activities that require words to be on a sheet of paper or a screen.

Conclusion

The subject of the privacy and mess of writing--of how advanced writers work, of how and where they get their information, of how they shape it into form--such information is beneficial to intermediate writers.  Because most academic assignments--indeed most writing assignments throughout life--are stipulatory, an intermediate writer more than likely has developed a problematic strategy for writing that makes it difficult for her to judge the fit between her intention and her execution.  She thinks of purpose as what someone else wants of her.  She has learned that she must understand and capture the sense of what someone else wrote.  As a result, she discards what she needs most to be able to write well: her own responses, her own thoughts.  Teachers must inculcate upon their students the importance of noticing their responses to things and to value those responses as possible content for academic essays.