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 same strategy will not always be followed and it is

important to realize this before you begin writing. They emphasize the importance of

“posing,” and the difference between it and “composing.” The posing part of the process

comes before you begin your research or note taking, while you are planning your

strategy. 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 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.” By this they mean writing is often messy and never turns

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. 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,” 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. They also discuss the importance of the medium in which the writer has

access to while they write. Access to computers, quiet work space, resources and lighting

all effect the “actual process and product of the papers they produce.” 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 we have seen, writing is not always as neat and orderly as we would like.

Composing a paper is like composing notes to a song, and the right words are needed to

make the paper flow.