Drafting is a complex process of writing, which needs effective procedures to reveal a complete composition. In the draft process, writers proofread and modify the content by looking over coherence, unity, and emphasis to shape successful writing. In “The Maker’s Eye,” the author, Donald Murray, indicates that writers need to produce a progression of drafts. In the development of producing drafts, each draft can be changed and rearranged to be clearer. Writers have to welcome both negative feedback and compliments and be doubtful of both. Murray also stresses the importance of rewriting, which includes processes like scanning drafts and modifying problems which sentences are not relative to the thesis in order to make them readable (Murray, p.83). In addition, writers must remember to be more conscious of readers’ interests and be certain their readers want to receive the information which the authors are trying to convey accurately. In other words, writers must understand the expectations of readers and try to reply to their questions (Murray, p.84). Other characteristics of a good piece of writing, according to Murray, are 1) it has a compact structure, including logic, argument, narrative, or motivation, 2) it provides enough information to develop ideas, 3) it creates a balance and maintains proportion among its parts, 4) and it expresses content with a consistent and individual voice (Murray, p.85). Lastly, Murray mentions that writers need to edit by correct meanings of words. The revising process is a project that never ends. In this essay, three main ideas, which include criticism, audiences, and organization, are recommended to writers to help them revise in the process of writing.
First, Murray stresses the importance of peer criticism or ideas from others about writing as valuable. “Writers must accept the criticism of others and be suspicious of it” (Murray, p.82). Murray makes the point that writers must have the self-confidence necessary to determine how to respond to negative comments or compliments from other people about their writing; namely, writers cannot rely on responses of others but they can decide which are valuable to be accepted. For example, in the book Strategies for Successful Writing, the authors caution against becoming defensive about peer comments, “writers are trying to communicate with their readers, and that means taking serious the problems they identify. Of course, writers decide which responses are appropriate, but even an inappropriate criticism sometimes sets off a train of though that leads to good ideas for revision”(Reinking, 2001, p.55). Another writer describes how she utilized and incorporated a peer’s reaction to her writing, in an academic journal article “How Publishing Can Be More than Not Perishing” from Change. The author notes, “With my friend Rebekah’s comments in hand, I decided to change my writing or leave it as it was after I carefully reconsidered that segment of my work”(Theilheimer, 2003, p.52). Eventually, writers should be able to gauge their peer evaluation comments selectively, without digesting all of them. In the writing process, I used to be afraid of hearing feedback because I didn’t want to hear negative reactions and then feel depressed; however, I now realize that reflections from honest friends can provide useful feedback to improve my essay.
Second, Murray emphasizes the necessity of consideration of audience when writing. By putting themselves in the readers’ position, writers can present what readers want to read (Murray, p.84). As writers write papers, they must anticipate who their readers will be and what they need. For this reason, they certainly must try to understand their audience, maintain their interest to keep reading, stimulate their trains of thought, and persuade them to enjoy reflecting on many issues in their essay. Therefore, creating writing is not an isolated event. In the writing process, writers need to deliver messages and information which contain needs, special interests, and answers to catch audience’ expectation. There is support for this concept in the book The Essay, “Writing is frequently a lonely act because audience is not physically present. If writers create some mental picture of their readers to guide them, they can make writing less lonely and less difficult than it might be” (Goldman/Hirsch, 1986, p.4). That is, audience is important to shape writers’ essay. The same position is also stated in an academic journal article, “Tick Tock Tick Tock” from Writing, in which the author predicts that when authors become aware of their readers and determine the theses they can convey to them, their audience will receive the information that they expect (Bloom, 2005 , p.12). Deciding on writers’ audience is important especially in the step of prewriting. Often, writers ask themselves some questions to determine who they intend to talk to or what ideas they want to absorb for the readers. According to FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, “The Pen and the Sword”, the author mentions that starting typing at once when being assigned to write is amateur acting; their readers usually are confused and cannot have clear thoughts (Linkins, 2003, p.20). This support brings up the reality of how many students are rushed in the writing process. In my case, I am often in a hurry to produce my essay and careless to build up the relationship between me and my readers, so my readers may feel confused about the thesis. Through experience of writing practice, I have realized the significance of analyzing my audience. Basically, authors need to determine the readers who form the primary audience for their writing. Meanwhile, composers should anticipate that readers’ probable reactions are positive or negative. Perhaps, their readers know much or only a little about the subject, so they have to consider readers’ expectations from the essay. The target of writing is to convince and catch readers and hold their attention. In such situations, it is essential that writers should assess their audience in the writing process.
The last main idea which Murray dwells on is that well structured writing “is built on a solid framework of logic, argument, narrative, or motivation which runs through the entire piece of writing and holds it together” (Murray 84). After writers have gathered all of the information which is necessary in their papers, they need to organize all of them in the appropriate order. In other words, authors must properly arrange the order of their ideas, and connect the relationship between ideas and supporting details (Reinking, 2001, p.352). It may become hard for readers to maintain concentration if the articles which they are reading are short of logic. A lack of logical organization makes it impossible to present and convey complete details and ideas to an audience. In the book The Student’s Writing Guide, the author refers to the significance of form and structure, “A well-organized piece of writing reveals that the writer has established a pattern of relationships between the individual parts and between the parts and the whole composition” (Taylor,1989, p.18). Good writers should lead readers into their stories step by step through the processes which have been drawn up, and then the readers can imagine the features of the stories. The author in the book Writing with a Purpose describes that a paragraph that lacks orderly movement will not be coherent, because readers will not see how two sentences are related and then they cannot go easily from one to another (McCrimmon, 1984, p.209). The author of the academic journal article “Understanding University Success: Writing & Editing”, notes that successful writers interpret, compare, and contrast in order to develop logical arguments. Moreover, successful writers should know how to compound coherent paragraphs and regulate paragraphs in logical order (2003, 33). Writers have a responsibility to enable their audience to comprehend the description which has been conveyed. In other words, readers can also associate with writers’ contentions in thinking one sentence by one sentence and combine the paragraphs as coherent thinking. In personal experience of writing progress, I have found that when I am careful and pay attention to set my thoughts in order to organize sentences and paragraphs, I am clarifying my interpretation at the same time. In short, successful writers are able to determine whether their papers are well-organized or not and have the ability to fix or rearrange the content in a concise and logical way.
In the process of revising, writers not only proofread one word by one word or one sentence by one sentence but also overhaul and reedit the context. When manuscripts have almost been completed, in order to present the impersonal points of issue in writing, the authors need to have tolerance to receive different criticism to alter their contexts. Furthermore, they have judgments to choose which criticism is suitable to be adopted. Next, writers are not selfish to compose essay for themselves; however, the purpose of drafting articles is to communicate with their readers. Accordingly, successful writers are capable of thinking about the intellectual curiosity of their audience; therefore, they are able to compose essay with considering and imagining the authentic situations of their readers. Lastly, well organized construction is very important pattern to accomplish a successful paper. A piece of writing which is provided with structured arrangement can guide audience to apprehend the essentials of the subject. In many assignment of writing, it often happens that students are negligent of revising their composition. Through the experience of analyzing and researching this topic, the necessity of revising is re-demonstrated. In conclusion, researching about revising in the summary and analysis essay is not a simple procedure, but also involves with criticism, audience, and organization. Through making efforts in effective process of collation, drafts are able to be achieved to successful writing.
