{"id":947,"date":"2020-12-08T16:48:12","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T16:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/?p=947"},"modified":"2020-12-08T16:48:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T16:48:12","slug":"profiles-in-process-laura-g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/2020\/12\/08\/profiles-in-process-laura-g\/","title":{"rendered":"Profiles in Process: Laura G."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes the best way to pick up new tips and tricks is to see how other people work through a task.\u00a0 With that in mind, here\u2019s a peek into the writing process of Laura, one of our illustrious tutors.  Thanks for volunteering, Laura!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>What are your favorite pre-writing strategies?\u00a0What works for you?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>My favorite pre-writing strategy is freewriting. I have a document for almost every paper I write in which I blather on to myself about the assignment, often hoping that ideas will evolve in the process. I start many a freewriting session with, \u201cI have no idea what my thesis is,\u201d or, \u201cI really don\u2019t want to write today.\u201d However, even if those things are true, it doesn\u2019t matter because if I put enough useless stuff on the page, eventually, something useful happens.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Are you a \u201cstart writing and see what happens\u201d kind of writer, or a writer who doesn\u2019t start writing unless they have a plan?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve done it both ways, but 95% of the time, I have a plan; often, a very detailed plan. Sometimes that plan involves multiple documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Do you have any tricks that help you get your first draft onto the paper?\u00a0What do you do if you get stuck?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>First, I make sure I have an outline, a thesis, and a collection of quotes (when relevant) before I start so I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m going in blind. However, even then it can be difficult to start writing, as starting the paper is usually the hardest part for me. However, what I find helps is giving myself enough time to break the drafting process up into multiple shifts, so I don\u2019t feel like I have to write the entire thing in one go (depending on the paper length of course). Another thing that helps me is to just start free writing until my thoughts start to sound coherent, and start from there. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>When you revise, what do you look at first? Do you have a pretty standard revision process, or does it depend on the individual paper?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When I revise, I send my paper off to someone else to look at it, as I feel like I am often too close to my paper to see what could use improvement. Alternatively, I will put the draft aside for a day and look at it with fresher eyes. That always makes it easier to revise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Is there anything you find yourself always having to watch for when you edit?\u00a0What\u2019s your kryptonite?\u00a0<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I use too many quotes. Quotes quotes quotes. I love them. I am very much a \u201cdon\u2019t reinvent the wheel\u201d kind of person, so when there is a good quote, I weave it in. Granted, I do this well, but too much. I have been told that by paraphrasing more, I can show a better personal grasp of the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Anything else about your writing process that you want to share with other writers?\u00a0<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is all good and dandy to collect pages of notes before starting my drafts, I often find that I go a little overboard. I believe this is a form of procrastination. In my mind, I\u2019m working on the paper by looking up quotes\/developing my outline, but in reality, it gets to the point where I am just stalling. Also, I find that often times, my careful planning ends up being less useful than I thought, as the outline shifts around and large swaths of quotes are never used. I have had to learn to recognize when it\u2019s time to put down the notes, and start writing the actual paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/60139144@N00\/245441395\">\"Hand with a quill pen\"<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/60139144@N00\" target=\"_blank\">Monceau<\/a>\u00a0is licensed under\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/2.0\/?ref=ccsearch&amp;atype=rich\" target=\"_blank\">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes the best way to pick up new tips and tricks is to see how other people work through a task.\u00a0 With that in mind, here\u2019s a peek into the writing process of Laura, one of our illustrious tutors. Thanks for volunteering, Laura! What are your favorite pre-writing strategies?\u00a0What works for you? My favorite pre-writing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":447,"featured_media":949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}