Sondra Perl's Composing Guidelines

1. a. I wrote down a list of everything that had been on mind lately, and that list was quite long. I ended up choosing the topic that is most significant to my current life.

b. When I would pause, or draw a blank, i would reroute myself back to the basics of the topic. If my mind had been going on a certain path, and all of a sudden i reached a dead end, I realized that i would have to retrace my steps, and then take a new path.

c. I wrote down everything and anything that came to mind. It didn't matter if I thought it was stupid, or if I had already written it down, I would write it down again. I just wanted to keep the thoughts flowing, and not stop because I am always feeling something, and I tried my hardest to analyze what I felt at all times.

2. a. I usually would just choose the first thing that came to mind because it seems easiest that way. It wouldn't matter if it wasn't important to me. Also, I rarely took into consideration how broad the topic was, and if it was too broad, how I could narrow it down.

b. I usually never had problems with the open-ended process, but a few times I ran into walls. Sometimes, the topic was unstable or too broad or too narrow. Perhaps it was sometimes insignificant or too difficult to find substantial research for.

c. There was no path. I would choose my topic and stop. if a teacher told me I had to narrow it, then I would narrow it down, but i wrote about a lot of broad topics. In argumentative papers, that's difficult to do since the writer rarely gets into specifics that would really challenge the thoughts or values of the reader.

3. My writing is quick and sporadic. I usually don't have many problems with mechanics, but I have to make sure that i go back and read what I wrote. Sometimes my writing is jumbled and has no clear chain of thoughts or actual meaning. In terms of language, I am more of a person to persuade via ethos and logos rather than pathos.