This article taught me that writing is a unique language process. Writing is an artificial process. Writing is a technological device that actually requires a mechanism. This article taught me that writing is like the scientific method because you figure out what you would like to say, organize what you want to say, and then you write it down.

Professor Buchholz    

ENGL 327W

21 September 2018  

Short Response: Writing as a Mode of Learning

This article focuses on theories of teaching that centered on language. Writing is a unique language process.  Writing is an artificial process. Writing is a technological device that actually requires a mechanism. There are traditionally four processes of language: listening, writing, talking, and reading.  Emig stated in the article, “Traditionally, the four language processes of listening, talking, reading, and writing are paired in either of two ways.” Writing is a product because it comes from a person and is an expression of thought. It is more of a process so that we can create better writers. Rhetoric is effective communication. You figure out what you would like to say, organize what you want to say, and then you write it down. It is like the scientific method. We are constantly going back and forth through the phases of the writing process. This created the debate of whether it is more important to focus on the process of getting to the final product than the product itself. Emig believes that writing is the process itself. She believes that the art of writing goes deeper than simply communicating. In her opinion, we lose parts of the organic thought process when having to stick to these standards. Emig states, “writing is epigenetic, with the complex evolutionary development of thought steadily and graphically visible and available throughout as a record of the journey, from jottings and notes to full discursive formulations.” Does this mean that we have been forced into a set mold for writing that we can no longer separate our mental process from?