My writing process is constantly changing as I get older and as I have less “guidelines” in my assignments. When I was in high school we would nearly always have to turn in something resembling prewriting/brainstorming, then a rough draft with either peer edits, personal edits, or both, and then turn in the final draft. I have never been a big fan of prewriting, I almost never take the time to write out my ideas and how I want to structure them. As the Flower and Hayes article said, “the writers frequently appear to be working under a high-level goal or plan to explore: that is, to think the topic over, to jot ideas down, or to just start writing to see what they have to say” (Flower and Hayes, pg. 382). I prefer to start writing and see what I have to say, while I’m writing if I think of something that will fit better in a different place or later on in my paper I will write it at the bottom of the document and come back to it when I get to an appropriate point, or come back at the end and find where it fits best. As the text said, “Writing processes may be viewed as the writer’s tool kit. In using the tools, the writer is not constrained to use them in a fixed order or in stages” (Flowers and Hayes, pg. 376). This helped me to view the writing process as less structured than my teachers tried to make it, which works better for me. I was so wired when I got to college that I should be prewriting that when I would write papers I would feel like I was skipping a step, but I “pre-write” while I write, in the sense that I write down ideas as I go, and this reading helped me understand that there is nothing wrong with that.

I don’t believe this is the only way to write, it is just how I write. So I think students and other writers, especially new writers should try different methods to figure out what works best for them. Because of this I don’t know if I would require my students to turn in a ‘brainstorming page’ or a different kind of pre-writing activity. If it helps them of course I will encourage students to brainstorm and organize prior to writing, but I won’t force them to.

I’ve been writing for longer than I can remember, so I realize that my writing process is extremely different now as opposed to when I was in middle school when I was a newer writer. So I understand that writing can be difficult to a new writer and my technique of just writing and seeing what flows might not work for a new writer, it took me time to get where I am as a writer. My papers used to be so disorganized because of the random ideas and things I would recall as I write so it was a lot of editing. Now I’ve figured out how to do this without making such a mess, but it took time, so it is very unlikely that a new writer would understand my personal writing style. This blog includes 6 ways to improve your writing, which won’t necessarily work for everyone but it could spark some ideas to experiment with.

The only way I see my writing style changing as I write in an online setting is that I am less ‘formal’, I leave my academic voice behind for a more casual feel. However, that doesn’t mean I lack grammar, punctuation, and a clear message. When I am on social media I tend to leave out more punctuation, but I typically don’t write any differently than I would for this blog post.