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Lee Mandon

Dr. Rieman

October 21, 2009

Lu and Horner

The art of writing is one that some are naturally gifted with, while others must

work for. Drawing a blank in the middle of a sentence can often kill the flow of a paper,

along with the writer’s confidence. Lu and Horner discuss the process of writing in their

essay “Composing our Composing Processes,” and explain the importance of patience

and flexibility when writing. The writing process is different for every piece of work, and

it is important to keep an open mind when writing. They emphasize the importance of

“posing,” and the difference between it and “composing.” Posing is one of the most

underrated aspects of writing, because not only does it help to organize your thoughts

before you begin writing, but it also gives perspective on the piece of work. Because

every writer pulls from different experiences, this strategy changes from person to

person, topic to topic depending on the evidence and experience the writer has.

The process of writing can be taught differently, but the idea of collecting and

organizing your thoughts before you begin writing is one that is always pertinent to a

strong paper. Organization can be the downfall of a paper as well, and a writer must be

conscience not to get stuck in any one spot because the process of writing is “messy,

complex, recursive, unpredictable, highly unstable.” (6) They are describing writing as

often being messy and never turning out exactly the way you plan it, so rather than

getting caught up on any one part, allow your paper to unfold and correct it later. This is

where the reposing aspect comes in to the writing process. Rather than revising, reposing
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is the idea of going back to your writing and restating or elaborating on ideas you

previously wrote. I like this idea because through the years I have found my revising

strategies to be pointless and they never seem to help my paper. Using Lu and Horner’s

reposing technique after I have stepped away from my work for a few days has enabled

me to strengthen my papers with different perspectives and ideas. Along with the content

in the paper, the audience of the paper is also important to the pose because the language

changes depending on the person reading the paper.

Tone is one of the variables in writing that changes depending on the writer’s

audience. Lu and Horner discuss how “We use English differently when interacting with

different groups of people,” (22) and discuss the different contexts we are faced with

while writing. When talking to a teacher or academic audience, vocabulary and structure

tends to be neater and more stoic. Tone shifts to be more relaxed when talking to peers or

family members. An offensive tone in your paper could potentially turn off readers, and

therefore it is important to use appropriate tones in your writing. They also discuss the

importance of the medium in which the writer has access to while they write. Access to

computers, quiet workspace, resources and lighting all affect the “actual process and

product of the papers they produce.” (23) There are many factors that go into writing a

paper outside of writing, and the availability of resources is one of the most important

aspects.

As Lu and Horner say, writing is not always as neat and orderly as we would like.

It is always necessary to have a grasp on the direction of your paper, but it is also

important to allow your ideas to unfold within those parameters. This allows for

creativity and new perspectives to be brought to light in your work. Composing a paper is
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like composing notes to a song, and the right words are needed to make the paper flow.

Works Cited

Lu, Min-Zhan and Bruce Horner. Writing Conventions. New York: Pearson

Longman, 2008. 3-31.