The article of this post is titled “Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer,” written by Carol Berkenkotter and Donald M Murray. As the title suggests the article goes over how professional writers utilize revisions and other writing strategies. The article starts with Berkencotter writing about the clearest memory she has of Murray. He was writing at a long wooden table which over looked the woods of New Hampshire. Beside him is a large frame poster of a small boy sitting on a bed. The boy stared at a huge dragon leaning over the railing glowering at him. On the poster he engraved the words “Donald Imagined Things” and he did, by addressing the problems each writer faced when they confront a new assignment.
Donald would record his thoughts as he wrote two articles, a short story, and an editorial. Berkencotter came to understand that the writer pays close attention to the environment of the writer. We must pay close attention to the context in which revision occurs if we are to understand how writers revise. Berkencotter met with Murray at the Conference on College Composition and Communication meeting in Dallas, 1981. Murray wanted to better understand his own composing processes and so he and Berkencotter started a collaborative effort. To date there haven’t been any reported studies of writers composing in natural settings that combine thinking aloud protocols. Researchers have been observing children as they write in the classroom. Certain researchers include Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, and Susan Sowers have worked intimately with children and teachers in the Atikinson Schools Project.
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