The Novice: A Classical Educator Speaks To The Writing Process

In modern day life, writing is a necessity, which many people learn, but most never perfect. Learning to become a skilled writer is a very important process that I believe everyone should have insight on, since writing is a way for people to express themselves and their feelings on whichever they choose to write about. In The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year, it talks about what it was like for college freshman to start writing at a college pace. One quote from one the the featured students in this article that I could relate to was a quote by Lisa which said: “When you are not writing papers in a course, you take more of a tourist’s view of a subject because you don’t have to think in depth about any of the material.” In this

In these, the writer rereads his or her essay and looks for any parts that can be improved. If you don’t find anything that you can make better in your rough draft, you’re either not putting enough effort into revising, or you’re doing what I’ve done and combined these stages with the production of your first draft. In the article, “Quintilian: A Classical Educator Speaks to the Writing Process,” the author, Janet Bloodgood writes about how the Roman rhetorician named Quintilian viewed the writing process and how students should utilize the writing process. As far as revising and editing go, Quintilian saw these as crucial steps in the writing process because he believed that student’s first drafts should contain many flaws which should be revised later. In Bloodgood’s article, Quintilian makes a good point about revision at the end of the seventh page; “Individuals and peers can take responsibility for making revisions that improve the content of their writing and address grammatical and mechanical aspects of their work. However, often it is the teacher who has the expertise (and tact) to lead students to the finer points of revision and editing.” I strongly agree with what Quintilian stated about the instructor being the one to lead students to higher levels of writing. Finally, when you’re done with these seven stages of the writing process, you should have a complete essay that’s ready to be shared with your intended