Writing a paper on the writing process is pretty hard. The writing process is different from one person to another. You come across questions like, What exactly is the writing process? and Must you follow one persons writing process if yours is different? This is where I came across the answer to my questions, write however you wish to write. If one person likes free write first and another person likes to write a draft first, let them do how they please.

The writing process is something that you figure out yourself as you go through school. I personally think that is why they make us take English for so many years. Through the years, I found that some teachers forced you to write certain ways. I believe that this keeps the student from expressing their true feelings about the topic. They end up thinking more about how much they hate the assignment or the teacher. I do agree that you must teach the students how to write. That is where the English textbooks come into play. There, they can expand the student s mind with new ideas. Whether or not they decide to use them is up to the individual.

In Elbow s writing, he says, The most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do free writing exercises regularly (Elbow 62). Because I am not one to write in a journal everyday, I cannot personally agree or disagree with his comment. I do believe that the more you write, the better you become. I do see that people who write often also do better in their English classes. Elbow also says, The main thing is that a freewriting must never be evaluated in any way; in fact there must be no discussion at all (Elbow 63). I don t agree with him. The only way for someone to improve his or her writing is if a peer reads over it and explains what could be done to improve it.

In The Maker s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript, Murray says, Writers must learn to be their own worst enemy (Murray 87). He is trying to say that when it comes to editing, you must be able to accept criticism from others and be suspicious of it. Just because they say that you should rearrange that paragraph doesn t necessarily mean you have to. The way you wrote the paragraph could be in your own voice.

Your papers should be filled with your voice. Voice is what makes your writing personal. But your voice could be different depending on what you write about. I would put a lot more of my feelings in a paper about food, than a paper about how the polar ice caps are melting.

Revising and rewriting a paper is a common step in the writing process. Personally, I think your paper would be crap if you skipped these steps but I m sure someone has done it before. Every writer has revised and rewritten a paper. Do you think that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in one shot? I don t think so.

In conclusion, writing is up to the writer. If the writer decides to follow the formal writing process, then that s their choice. Nothing should be forced when it comes to writing. Then the writer does not put out their best work possible. Thank you for reading my paper. I didn t know if I would make it longer than two pages, but here I am. The writing process is something that changes from person to person depending on their education and experiences.