A Tedious Process
This new writing process, incorporating history and my own philosophy with methods taught in “They Say, I Say”, has been quite complicated. Why was it complicated? Because providing an interpretation of the historical facts and views of others, while maintaining my own opinionated philosophical insights, and implementing a flowing grammatical infrastructure isn’t exactly simple. But, if achieved, the process can result in a very well done, persuasive essay. The initial “disease” of my writing process gradually “healed”, as the techniques I began to apply created a domino effect that continually improved my drafts.
The organization of my writing process for this essay wasn’t correct, in terms of finishing the steps in chronological order. I didn’t finish my outline in time, so I chose the topics for my body and persevered in finding the information for those topics. This process is the exact opposite from what was advised, which was to first find the information for the body, without predetermined, conclusive thought about what you were trying to find (especially crucial for historical writings). This was my primary mistake, and it resulted in an abundant amount of additional work. This essential error resulted in drafts that needed numerous large scale revisions. But, in the end, my writing process did improve; as my perception of the fundamental frame or outline improved, so did the flow – or readability – of the paper.
Writing about historical events truly requires a writer to find the information and then proceed to formulate ideas, rather than first deciding on a topic and then finding information. This is because historic information is limited and extremely difficult to find. I spent a tremendous amount of time searching for historic information because I decided on the content I wanted to include in the body before I found it. My searching methods for finding information on the web have improved, but they still need to become more efficient. Also, finding the needed interpretations of events and paraphrasing them in order to address my point was semi-difficult. Controlling the “they says” of history (summaries, quotes, paraphrasing, etc) with my voice was a critical issue within my drafts. My opinionated philosophical insights throughout the paper weren’t evident in the earlier drafts; therefore it seemed as if “I” wasn’t included within the paper, and thus the purpose of the writing seemed absent as well.
In essence, a writer’s philosophical insights are what create the purpose within a paper, and “I” didn’t initially make “I” evident within “my” paper. The “they says” basically dominated my paper throughout the early drafts. I aided the problem by framing or outlining the “they says” with my own words. Making one’s philosophical insights apparent within this seemingly very structured format, including the “they says”, isn’t easy. Deliberately punctuating the paper with my philosophical voice was necessary to distinguish me from them, and to truly deliver to the reader my essence (what makes me, me) and purpose for writing the paper.
To resolve these issues for future essays, I need to let an outline come to me, rather than me to it; control the “they say” voice with my own, by deliberately punctuating the text with my philosophical voice; and avoid trying to accomplish perfection. The remainder of this reflection concerns not being a perfectionist. It’s a good habit to be obsessed with conjuring the most significant subject or wisest answer for the given content and try to write with sophistication. All that is necessary, though, is for the subject to be relevant, purposeful, and interesting. If it’s irrelevant to the topic, then it’s confusing; if it doesn’t contain a purpose, then it’s without direction; and if it isn’t interesting, then it’s just plain boring. Writing with unnecessary complexity can make an incomprehensible message; I should seek clarity through simple, efficient language. I can at times be a perfectionist, trying to manifest the best answer or subject material. I think this perfectionist behavior results in unnecessary consumption of time; there is no right or wrong answer.
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