Bowen 1 Krystal Bowen Professor Wolcott English 1101 October 12, 2012 Introduction While learning how to write

as a student I was always given a set of guidelines that was suppose guarantee success from my teachers year to year. Yet, the guidelines differed from teacher to teacher who required various rules; such as maintaining a five-paragraph structure to elaborations and hooks were the must haves in order for my paper to convey what is needed. However as I grew as a writer and my teachers changed new things became must-haves. As a result it left me with a lot of rules and not much of anything, because they simply overwhelmed me, which caused severe writers block. So I started to decipher which ones helped me, and which hindered my writing process. That is why I choose to do the weeklong study because I felt that I am aware of my mental process that I go through as I prepare to write a paper. I write-reread-edit-repeat. I tend to focus on the most minute of deals until I have nothing else to say; yet I never know how to start, and lacking true consistent organization without a pre-constructed structure, my papers tend to be filled with good content and a lot in between. That is why I found it useless to learn about what I am already aware of, so I became inclined to want to learn about what environment I would thrive in especially after reading Stephen King What Writing is? In his essay he places great emphasis on what writing can do, and how knowing

Bowen 2 were you can write as a writer can help shape the way that you write. Through the use of his metaphor of comparing writing to telepathy he managed to convey the endless possibilities in a simplistic and relatable format that it caused me to question. Were do I write the best? Do I need music? As I braced my self for the information I was about to gain from my weeklong study more question arose. How much do I actually achieve in one day? Do I sleep then become productive, or am I productive before I go to sleep? For me the answers lies within my weeklong study because it could teach me more about my writing than a think aloud could. I personally found Sondra Perls experiment The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers to be very intimidating and contained various outliers that werent accounted for. In her experiment I like how she devised a system to analyze the writers writing and decoded the format of the paper because it allowed me to see there mental process that they go through allowing me the ability to relate to them while, also teaching me that I have been doing things I am unaware of such as recursiveness. However despite of how detailed she got I felt that the experiment was clouded with bias because I dont understand how she aimed on to recognize peoples writing process while placing them in such a controlled environment, such as the lab because that could affect what they say and the quality their of work. Not taking into consideration how an environment can impact your mental status was some I have never taken into consideration until reading Perls experiment. This is why I choose to do the week long study because it shows how you work in and the level of intensity and quality implemented in any writing, due to the fact that in takes in account all times of the day and location. Why as I am

Bowen Bowen 3 writing this paper must I listen to soothing music at 2:17 am instead of writing it early in the silence of the library when I had time. Is there a relation between music and how effortless it is for me to write?

Bowen Methodology For this research I had to record what I did for each hour within the day for six days straight. To ensure the accuracy and to limit variables that were a factor in Perls experiment I tried to remain as consistent with my day-to-day activities, and not change my routine due to my documenting. My environment consists of me doing various activities around school whether in my room, at the library or hanging out with my friends. So to begin the documenting of this process I started off the first day by making my chart that I copied from the assignment rubric and added a column for notes that entailed what I did, and also added the hours of the day and printed out seven days worth. In addition, I added a column in the right hand corner where I am able to identify the days of the week from Monday- Sunday because I wanted see the different activities I did impacted my overall productivity. Throughout each day I mark down everything that I did each hour in my phones calendar, in my agenda, and or on a piece of paper I am working on through out the day. At the end of each day I filled in the chart with the information I had recorded throughout the day. After I finished transcribing my hourly activities I label each activity on a scale from one to five in intensity, affect, productivity, and materiality; then I recorded there total impact. At the end of each day I add up each columns

Bowen 4 total and found the total percentage of work I did in each, also I labeled with what activity corresponded with the high and lowest numbers, to uncover if there were any significant correlations. Which during the calculation process I did see higher numbers when it comes to me communication and maintain relationships with others similarly to the ones I would give for studying when it came to the productivity factor. Results Throughout my research I learned that I have acquired some bad habits within my schedule that could be significantly crippling my productivity level. This week long study has had a similar impact on me like Carl Berkenttoers Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer; however, unlike his action of decoding a professional writer I am forced to analyze and reflect on my habits and actives to see how much I do ad the impact it has on my writing. Firstly, I have noticed that I sleep in odd increments of time, I regularly go to bed at three or four in the mourning, and sleep until I have enough time to prepare for class and read my blogs and check my email. Yet, I always give sleep a five in productivity, and because I feel as if I am refueling my body even though I may take a nap after all my classes I commonly wake up prior and review or go to the Math Mall. Another Thing that I realized is that I give all my classes high numbers on the scale of one to five even though now reflecting on it my film class isnt as intense but making it there is what raises its intensity. Overall I learned that I am either overly productive or I am sleeping, as a result I lack true balance, because either I sleep for hours, or I study for hours then I am so exhausted again I have to sleep.

Bowen 5 Throughout this research project I learned that I tend to function a lot better in a structured environment such as the Math Mall or the Library because once I go there I tend to stay there for long hours and get a lot accomplished, but as soon as I return to my room I fall asleep. In Kings(305-307) paper he tells the writer to learn what environment suits their writing needs and I have learned that is true because since transitioning from high school to college my environment has changed. Prior I was always able to work in my room and get a lot done, but now away at school it is not the same. I can only assume that this is due to the fact that there is much more occurring within my room between the constant flow of people, and the many places it acts as it now has become the most distracting place for me to accomplish anything. In summation I found out through out my research process that my preference of work location has changed since arriving at college. I once was able to thrive in my room now as soon as I walk in I am overwhelmed by exhaustion and automatically fall asleep despite having the greatest intentions to work. I feel that my best work is done similarly to Perls experiment, which is within a control setting. The time of the day for me that affects my level of productivity depends whether or not it is on the weekday or the weekend. During the week I tend to sleep after my classes and sleep during the day and start working late at night, but during the weekends rather to go to the library and get my task accomplished. The scaled score of my school writing and non-school writing varies drastically with school writing being three times as much as non- school because I predominantly only take part in writing activities only if they regard towards my school work. Ironically

Bowen 6 through doing this assignment I have seen a relation to the time in which I do work for this class and it tends to be at 1am in the morning or later. I truly benefited from this analysis of my habits because I was truly troubled by my lack of a structure, my sporadic sleeping habits, and has taught me what environment I excel in. I have already begun to make changes in the way I conduct my day to day activity by waking up early in the mourning, being more productive throughout the day, going to bed in a timely manner and getting a book to read in my down time. This research has taught me that there are no set guidelines to writing, as more research is done it will change, but before that surrounding will change and we have to learn how to adjust. Perls had the structured decoding format of your paper that reveals your mental processing, but was missing normal setting that didnt overwhelm the writers. Berkenktotter focused more on a professional writer than how the average writer writes but he created a sense of relate ability that took away the pressure of writing. This is why my research helped me because it was in a normal setting as I focused on my self, and learned my place of writing while always being ready to attack any piece of work.

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Work Cited
Berkentotter,Carol. Decisions and Revisons: Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston. Bedford/St.Martins, 2011.216-300.Print King, Stephen. What is Writing. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston. Bedford/St.Martins, 2011. 305-307.Print Ransom,Dominieq.How do I Write? Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston. Bedford/St.Martins, 2011. 292-298. Print Perl,Sondra. The Composing Processes of Unskilled and College Writers Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston. Bedford/St.Martins, 2011. 191215. Print