When writing up my first assignment, a reaction paper written in crayon on construction paper, I found myself drafting my thoughts several times before actually committing my response to paper. At first I just let my thoughts flow naturally as they came onto the scrap paper I was using. With the second draft I began picking my various ideas apart. I added some sentences here and there and removed others.
By the time I felt ready to actually commit it onto the construction paper, I felt it would be a simple transcribe from my existing copy. But, I found myself making small tweaks in the sentence length. I found myself limiting myself even further, because the crayon wrote far larger than I had anticipated. I noticed I was much more careful in the entire process, from draft to final copy.
I almost never do drafting and it usually ends up hurting me, since I end making quite a few mistakes along the way. This felt so much more permanent to me though, so I really took my time trying to organize my thoughts on the paper. It was something of an interesting experience and it certainly pushed me towards the mentality of "measure twice, cut once."
Your use of the proverb "Measure twice, cut once." seems particularly appropriate here -- when writers deal in a new material, they are bound to be very, very careful about the product -- or at least the surface -- of the writing. But, here's the real question: did working with a crayon introduce new ideas or new language into your writing?
ReplyDeleteI think working with the crayon helped me form my ideas more fully. I didn't use any language that was beyond what I typically use. In my case, the continuous drafting process helped me reform my ideas and come up with new ones. With each iteration of my essay I changed my ideas and made several tweaks to the general content.
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