Writing--Process vs. Product

Your initial readings have concentrated on the “process of writing, or that writing itself is in fact a process. This idea is Writing 101—something we all learned in our beginning writing classes. But the concept bears revisiting, especially because writing doesn’t feel so much like a process when ultra specific instructions await you with strict deadlines and short turnaround times. Then it can feel like a product, something that needs to be churned out, finished, checked off the endless daily list of tasks. So which is it?—concern with being happy with the results, or the ability to crank out the communiqués rapid fire? Of course the answer is both.

The first step to understanding writing/communication as process is to focus on understanding or knowledge. The more you know before you begin to write, the better off you’ll be. Not really break-through information, but important to remind ourselves of. Doing the necessary research means knowing your subject matter. Understanding your audience allows you to make choices about tone, content, form. A strong grasp of your purpose is a foundation for all of the above. During the act of writing, a relatively short amount of time is actually spent writing—the rest is preparation. Though Adelstein and Elbow may have different views of what the “process” consists of and how best to proceed, both are generally preaching similar sermons. Once we break it down into its various processes, we begin to erase the “mystical” nature of writing, and turn it instead into something that is very manageable.