Berkenkotter and Murray responses.

Summary
In their articles "Decisions and Revisions" and "Response of a Laboratory Rat", Carol Berkenkotter and Donald M. Murray attempt to tell the reader that writers should talk while they write. They argue that it can help a writer revise and edit their papers because it gives a record of their thoughts as they go.

Synthesis
This reading is similar to other readings we have read because much like all of the others, this article gives us  more writing advice to add to what the other articles have already talked about, thus helping us to further improve our writing. This article is different from the others, however, because instead of only giving the researcher's point of view, they give the view of the subject being studied as well.

Pre-Reading
2. Yes, I do have to say that I have a couple of writing rituals, one being that I usually do have to write on paper before I type. I just feel more inspired to write when I have a pen in my hand than I do when my fingers are on the computer keys.

QD
1. My impression of Murray's writing processes as they are described here is that it helps him to talk when he writes and that he is aware of the audience as he writes. They compare to mine a little bit because sometimes I do think out loud and talk to myself a bit while I write to get the ideas flowing, but I don't always think of an audience every time that I write.

3. This study changed Berkenkotter's understanding of writing processes because she discovered that the way that a writer writes and plans to write differs when they are in an unfamiliar setting doing unfamiliar tasks. She found that she could observe things that writers think and do that would have been unknown otherwise, so therefore, her understanding of the writing process changed.

AE
1. I think that I would have to say that I am more guilty of the editing sort of correcting than I do revision, however, I am getting better about it as the years go on. I still have to say that I am a lot better at revising the pieces that I write for my own pleasure than I am official researched school papers. I tend to do more editing on those than I do expanding the ideas.

MM
I learned that writing down or saying out loud things that I am thinking about when I write may help me in the writing process, especially when I am writing about something unfamiliar and/or uninteresting to me.

Thoughts on the Reading
I will be completely honest, I really just couldn't get into this article, I did not find it very interesting much at all, I suppose because it was just so long. It was also a bit confusing too. It seemed like especially in the Berkenkotter part, she was bouncing around all over the place when it came to topics. I just couldn't keep it all straight.