I like putting emphasis on producing a finished
product. If we emphasize process too much, then we lose sight of the goal. Take the finished product you want to see, imagine it in your mind, then reverse-engineer it. The
process you need is a way of getting there. All those "shitty first drafts" and "rough drafts" should be invisible to the reader of the final product.
Ciaran Carson on Vermeer in "Fishing for Amber": "… that glossy finish in which every brush stroke is eliminated. The technique is inscrutable."
ReplyDelete"It's a process" has also become a buzz phrase for everything in life, I note. I like goals and think all the emphasis on process is cover for not having them.
ReplyDeleteBut, re writing, WPA standards have a whole section on process. Students must understand writing is a process, and on, and on. http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html
I, of course, have been organizing notes and drafts all day in non linear fashion, I recognize that one must do this at times, but I still love to think of the student who apologized for not having done the prewriting exercises: "I know I should have, but I was just so interested in my idea that I wanted to get straight to writing it up."