Amber Garvey

ENC1101
WRITING SELF STUDY

There are numerous authors that have studied writing and writing processes. I have
taken the time to study a few authors myself including Paul Prior, Sondra Perl and Mike Rose.
All of these authors have provided approaches that included the study of reading and/or
writing habits of a range of people (students, graduates, skilled, unskilled, etc.). My conclusions
are different from the other experiments and provide significance to readers for two reasons: 1.
I am a college student that attends a university. This is important and atypical because I am an
average writer who lacks the expertise the other writers have obtained from years of
experience. This is significant because I provide a new point of view and a completely different
mind-set about writing than the professionals do. 2. I studied my own reading and writing
process. This is unique to the other scholars whom only studied the habits of others. My
approach to the study allowed me to have more comfortable environments and circumstances
without the pressure of researchers, which ensured my conclusions were not biased.
Over the course of approximately three weeks, I have gathered a substantial amount of
data to support my claim that I indeed have my very own, personal writing strategies. I have
found that my most effective reading and writing environments completely contrast each
other. For example, I discovered that I read and interpret information best during night time
while I am completely alone in my room in complete silence. This applies to school readings and
also personal readings such as reading for pleasure, social network readings, etc. However, I
learned that my writing is most successful (in terms of completeness and motivation) during the
daytime in a well-lit room while listening to soft background music. This also give me the night
to interpret the research that I have gathered the previous nights.
I put my reading and writing strategies to the test by using the think aloud strategy
which was previously introduced to me by Paul Prior, a Professor of English and the Center for
Writing Studies at the University of Illinois. He explained the think aloud strategy as the process
which students say aloud everything they are thinking inside their head while they are reading,
interpreting and writing down information. After finishing the thinking aloud portion of their
study, the students then develop codes and assign the codes for each of the statements they
thought (distraction, relating, repeating, etc.) The codes they create then revealed any
reading/writing patterns that they have. I found that this task was very difficult and tedious, but
it was well worth the effort.
While using the think aloud protocol, I read the article The Composing Processes of
Unskilled College Writers, written by Sondra Perl, a professor of English at Lehman College and

the Graduate Center of CUNY and wrote a discussion post that corresponded to that reading.
What I found from my completed coding was that ultimately, I tried to find ways to relate to
every topic that is discussed in the reading to my own personal tasks. When I could not find a
way to relate to the reading, I would get frustrated and/or make comments to try retaining
information a different way, but it was difficult for me to do so. I highlighted these examples in
yellow. Also, I found patterns in my coding which revealed that I also tend to summarize
information that I have read up to that point at frequent intervals. I do this to ensure that I am
retaining material efficiently, as seen in the orange highlights in my code chain. However, I
think the most interesting finding in my code chain was near the end. I found a sudden increase
in BO and DS/DO codes, which stand for boredom and distraction. This confirms that as I
near the thirty minute mark of continuous reading and writing I become flustered and
frustrated with excessive amounts of data. This pattern of escalating irritation is highlighted in
pink.

My Codes and Data:

From the data that I have collected from my code chains I have come to a number of
conclusions. I noticed that am more successful reading and obtaining information if the piece is
relevant to my life. I can avoid becoming flustered about a topic that is not interesting to me by
doing research about the subject prior to engaging in my assignments. Another deduction that I
have made is to start writing down my mental summarizations. This will be helpful because I
will be able to refer back to them when I need to such as writing a paper and completing
assignments about the reading. Lastly, I realized that the only way I am able to retain
information efficiently is to make certain that I take plenty of breaks in between rigorous study
sessions. Because of my short attention span, these time spans must be no more than thirty
minutes long. This will ensure that I make use of my time in an effective manner.
My research is beneficial because it allows readers to study the reading and writing
process of an average college student. Readers who are also college students will be able to
obtain the data that I have collected and relate to it.

Sources/References:
Rose, Mike. "Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of
Writers Block." Writing About Writing, A College Reader. 2nd Ed. Wardle, Elizabeth, Downs,
Doug. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin, 2011. 532-546. Print
Prior, Paul. "Tracing Process: How Texts come into Being." Writing about Writing: A College
Reader. Eds. Wardle and Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 492-526. Print.
Perl, Sondra. "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers." Writing About Writing: A
College Reader. Eds. Wardle and Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 317-336.
Print.