Murray Reading

Prewriting, writing, and rewriting are the three processes Murray describes as the writing stages. "It is not a rigid lock-step process, but most writers most of the time pass through these three stages." As most of us would agree, these stages are important, and as writers ourselves, have learned. However, Murray brings up ten implications of the writing process. "We must respect our student for his potential truth and for his potential voice. We are coaches, encouragers, developers, creators of enviornments in which our students can experience the writing process for themselves." Which of the ten implication do you believe is the most important and why? Can you think of a time in your education when a teacher encouraged this process within your writing?

I believe the most important implication Murray brings up is number 5. "Implication No. 5. The student is encouraged to attempt any form of writing which may help him discover and communicate what he has to say. The process which produces 'creative' and 'functional' writing is the same. You are not teaching prodects such as business letters and poetry, narrative and exposition. You are teaching a product your students can use- now and in the future- to produce whatever product his subject and his audience demand." I feel this is the most important technique to teach writing because you do not know what kind of career teh student will enter, what kind of writing the student will use, and if you focus them too much on one type, they will not know how to handle creative writing in the future. There is no right or wrong way to answer a question or express and idea. In my narratives class at JMU I was taught to express tough life sujbects through creative, true, stories. I feel this helped me learn how to write about real-life struggles through a creative voice.