Berkenkotter’s Study and the ‘Lab Rat’s’ response

• In “Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer,” Carol Berkenkotter attempts to explain her case study involving the writing processes of an accomplished writer. She argues that the previous methodology behind studying such processes were faulty, due to the laboratory settings and time constraints used. She introduces the article with the story of how she was able to meet Donald M. Murray and how Murray became her subject of research.
• Berkenkotter’s method of studying Murray’s actions was very detailed and provided Murray the creative freedom that a writer should have. Berkenkotter and another coder reviewed several tapes recorded by Murray during his writing process; they used them to describe the theories of incubation and introspection to readers. She also addressed the recursive writing process implemented by Murray and the external and internal revision that is involved in writing.

In “Response of a Laboratory Rat—or, Being Protocoled,” by Donald M. Murray: he’s simply responding to the findings of Carol Berkenkotter in her study of his writing process.

• Murray makes notes about his surprises and his thoughts. He states that “Writing is an intellectual activity,” and it involves both writing and thinking.

• Murray agreed with mostly all that Berkenkotter had to say, however, he did introduce the concept of “Bathroom Epiphanies”, which Berkenkotter failed to mention. Overall, Murray viewed this study about his writing process as a learning experience.

• Berkenkotter states, “Great and small decisions and revisions…form planning. These decisions and revisions form an elaborate network of steps as the writer moves back and forth between planning drafting, editing, and reviewing.” Here it is clear that Berkenkotter truly learned just how intertwined the steps of the process are.
• She also mentions that Murray’s planning activities came in two kinds- process goals and rhetorical goals. Throughout the study, Berkenkotter came to realize that all the steps of writing occur simultaneously and that planning accounts for nearly half of the writing process.
• Revising appears to happen less frequently but that is only because the other steps of the writing process bring forth many more ideas and the paper/writing essentially works itself out.

I found this study to be quite interesting because the author and the writer (Murray) are able to view the writing process from a new POV. It would be quite interesting to view my actual writing process, but I don’t think anyone has that amount of time or audio to record! I have a tendency to surf through Writer’s Block with most writing projects, due to my crammed and full schedule, but like Murray, I do take notes.

I believe I’m pretty skilled in note-taking via pen/paper and jotting ideas in my Apple Notes when I’m on the go. I, too have “Bathroom Epiphanies” because this seems to be the place where I find peace and calm, which allows me to think clearly and rare points of interruption. This week’s articles will definitely assist, in preparation for our upcoming Process Paper for our Intro to Writing course.