Common Theme Reading/Activity 3
2
Read Donald Murray’s “Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product” (1972)
. As you
participate in your conference meetings this week, think about times in your life when
“process” was more important to you than “product.” For example, consider a young
child who attempts to make breakfast for a parent. The process of making the breakfast
is a gesture that shows patience, dedication, and love--even if the product is ultimately
burnt toast and raw bacon.
Post a response in this discussion board that reflects on “process” and “product” as they
relate to you. Your response can take the form of structured paragraphs (around 250
words) or it can be more creative (personal narrative, poetry, comics, music, video,
collage, etc). Use whatever genre best makes your point. Be sure to connect your ideas
to Murray’s with effective quotes, paraphrasing, or other citation strategies. Try to also
connect your post with the current writing process you are participating in with regards
to the context of this class.
This is the link for the article:
file:///C:/Users/abdulghani%20almutana/Downloads/Murray-process.pdf
sample work for my classmates ( please do not copy any idea or any thing):
1)
My family has taught me extensively about the process and product when concerning
learning. They always say that they don't want to be like my teachers who "spoon feed"
information rather than allowing me to discover the information. This is similar to when Murray
writes about the injustices that teachers perpetuate when they try to teach writing. Murray
writes that teachers often give prompts and a format and the students fill in the blanks to create
a product that fits a mold instead of the students undergoing the process of forging the
mold. This is applicable to real life, often people don't have an understanding of how things
work, but they know that it works. Take a computer for example, everyone knows that pressing
the little compass opens the safari web browser but they know nothing of how the shortcut
works. So when something happens, they can't troubleshoot the problem. This is analogous to
writing where we make mistakes during our process, but because the mold is already there we
can make mistakes and get away with it. However, when given free reign over what the topic or
format is, most writers struggle and make remarks like "how many paragraphs?" or "How many
words?". Questions like these should be somewhat intuitive given the circumstances but
everyone is used to filling a bucket with words and turning it in. I'd like to think that the best way
to learn writing would be via trial and error which develops your own unique style. Take Truman
Capote, who is known for his elaborate lists and imagery, has his own style that is easily
noticeable. If turned in as a paper he would most likely be punished due to not being
concise. The current practice of teaching discourages the development of personal style.
2)
Throughout our educational journeys we have been required to achieve and maintain a certain
standard of grades to be considered an intellectual being or to exhibit dedication to a course.
The grade itself is often held on a pedestal and its a tendency to forget the process (doing the
assignment, learning material) that results in the product (the grade). A process that I have
learned to appreciate over the products it yields is that of acquiring information, of learning. I
have grown to seek knowledge rather than merely aiming for an A because this knowledge
allows an individual to prosper in all aspects of life; it allows me to see new perspectives, be
inventive and "creative". Learning, separate from authority/"teachers" influence, permits me to
introduce a unique style of conducting assignments. Murray states that "it is not the job of the
teacher to legislate the students truth", we must take responsibility and create our own reality of
the situation. Through writing draft after draft of the same paper I have discovered habits I have
made in my writing process, some of them good, others not so much. But through this process I
have learned something and that is what is most important. Currently I am experimenting with
my style of writing and learning that there are "no absolutes, just alternatives" and through the
process of writing Murray is conveying I will acquire these techniques when I see writing "as a
process, not a product".
3)
Junior year of high school, I took AP English Language and Composition. My teacher was a
very harsh grader and typically gave his students low grades on their essays. He would explain
to everyone that there was a certain 'format' we had to follow in order to get a good grade from
him. As a class, we would be shown the essays that he personally liked and he would highlight
the aspects of the essay that we should follow. I always aimed for an A in all of my classes, so
when my english teacher tells me that I need to have a format in my paragraphs to get a good
grade, that is all that I focus on. I would stress over getting the perfect layout and having an
essay that had exactly one topic sentence, one for evidence, and two for commentary. Looking
back, I see that I wasn't able to freely write how I felt would give me the best paper because my
teacher told me that the only way I would succeed in his class was to follow his rule. I was
worried more about the process of writing correctly rather than the outcome of my work. This
relates to Murray's ideas because he says in his paper that teachers need to give less
instruction and allow the student to write however they seem fit. This gives the opportunity of
learning and discovering the type of writer an individual is.
4)
Throughout my high school career, grades have always been stressed as a top determination of
how successful you were. Because my high school was so competitive, it seemed that all that
mattered was what grades you made, your class ranking, and your test scores. This caused me
to believe that at the end, high grades were all that mattered and the process to get there was
irrelevant. Through this experience, I eventually learned that grades do not matter if the process
to learn the information is not there, because what is the point if you do not learn anything
through the process of getting the grade? In the article, Murray writes, "you don't learn a
process by talking about it, but by doing it." This is largely true when talking about how process
is more important than product because through a process you are fully grasping a topic and
understanding, whereas if you just shoot for an end product, it will not give you the full
knowledge of a topic. In the essays that I write, I begin by focusing less on structure and more
on the content, and eventually on to revising sentences and editing errors. This allows me to go
through a process in which I am able to be more focused and aware of how and what I am
writing. In essence, Murray's writing technique on process over product is especially relatable as
we write our essays.
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