John Miedema

Reading Causes Writing, Pt. 2

Readers write to give some shape to what they have read. It may be an artistic expression, a short essay, a book review, or just a thought. Readers are not necessarily experienced writers. The web can help with that.

Writing is often considered a solitary act. My writing is much improved by engaging in social processes.

We are taught to write in high school. I eked my way through high school essays, usually ignoring the red-inked comments, looking only at the grade. I learned a new approach to writing in a first year sociology course with Dr. David Flynn of King’s University College. Flynn had been introduced to John Parker’s writing process which was based on the assumption that since ‘real’ writers re-wrote many times so should students. As an experiment, he applied the method to his class. We would submit a draft of an essay. No mark would be assigned. Other students would give feedback, and we would submit the paper again. This continued for a few cycles. At first, it seemed like a lot of extra work. Once I made the adjustment, it was brilliant. One, instead of trying to get everything right the first time, we would just concentrate on getting the ideas on paper. Two, instead of being expected to see every angle on a subject, we could get some feedback from readers. It became a pattern for my writing.

Working in information technology, I have co-authored multiple large technical documents. Early on, I found it amazing to watch how these documents would get assembled. A root document is created off a template. Each person takes his or her turn filling out specifications. It is rare that one section is truly isolated from all others. Global assumptions and properties must be established. Each person writing the document knows that it is his or her workload at stake. Emails are exchanged; flash conferences are held. Details are re-written. Usually the changes are managed by source control software. Somehow, this social process winds up with a document. It is not literature, but somehow many different agendas and ideas coalesce into a workable document.

The web is the premier social writing tool. A reader who wants to say something about a book is only a tweet away. Simple feedback is as easy as a click; being ignored is another type of worthwhile feedback. Readers may not enjoy the local book club’s taste, but may find a passionate following for a particular book at an on-line book cataloguing site. A reader may not get his or her book review published in a literary magazine, but a blog won’t say no. Not sure about a fact? Look it up; the web serves as a fact-checking, error-correction mechanism as you write. There are readers who want to write about what they have read. The web provides that opportunity. What readers write may not be literature, but given how social interaction improves writing, it might become so.

Dr. Flynn said his method was also influenced by Cameron’s The Artist’s Way where she argues that anyone doing creative work needs to exercise their brain just as athletes exercise their body, hence, should write at least 3 pages every morning, by hand, not to be seen by anyone else.

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