Coding Composing Processes

TranscriptOkay. So I’m looking at it and I have three sort of sections, or maybe four, that I need to look at. I have the introduction to Mulvey, which is basically—I don’t need to do anything with it, but it’s there. Um, [typing] and then I have people reacting to Mulvey, and so maybe I’ll start looking at this. I need to sort of organize it by categories. So, I’m looking at the people that I have: I have Cherry, Kern, Mulvey’s response to herself, Patricia Johnson… I probably need to go back and look at...Oh, here’s Losano, which is a transition into the female artist stuff. I probably need to go back and [sigh] look for more… people doing film stuff who are reacting to Mulvey, but… okay. So I need to summarize [sigh] that people are saying about Mulvey. Um…Okay, so my last sentence when I was talking about Mulvey is: Doubly marginalized as both woman and artist, doubly blessed with both the ability to observe others and the ability to see herself as the object of others’ gaze, the character of Avis ruptures essentialist assumptions about vision, and confronts the reader with our own role as both subject and object of the gaze. Okay, so I need a transition between talking about how Mulvey applies to Avis, to what….. mhm…. how people... are reacting to Mulvey, so I’m arguing that people are having problems with Mul—er, no, I’m identifying a problem with Mulvey’s thesis—this is hard, to talk out loud. Um…I ’m losing my train of thought. Okay. So people say…I’m saying that, um, I am complicating Mulvey’s thesis, so I need a transition into other people complicating Mulvey’s thesis, so, um…[typing]… [sigh]… Cherry… shoot, it’s in bold [typing].. .Cherry recognizes the import of Mulvey’s analysis in initiating a dialogue… conversation… because it’s more than one person, it’s not just a dialogue. Initiating a conversation about… female spectatorship? Or, alternatively, gendered vision. Um. [reading unintelligibly from Cherry quote] Whereas Mulvey’s essay has become a catalyst in [unintelligible] a more urgent interrogation of the feminine spectator so I should probably not use female spectatorship, because that’s the language that Cherry actually uses. So, gendered vision it is.

Code (very simplified)

Planning Writing Reading Editing Talking

Coded TranscriptOkay. So I’m looking at it and I have three sort of sections, or maybe four, that I need to look at. I have the introduction to Mulvey, which is basically—I don’t need to do anything with it, but it’s there. Um, [typing] and then I have people reacting to Mulvey, and so maybe I’ll start looking at this. I need to sort of organize it by categories. So, I’m looking at the people that I have: I have Cherry, Kern, Mulvey’s response to herself, Patricia Johnson… I probably need to go back and look at...Oh, here’s Losano, which is a transition into the female artist stuff. I probably need to go back and [sigh] look for more… people doing film stuff who are reacting to Mulvey, but… okay. So I need to summarize [sigh] what people are saying about Mulvey. Um…Okay, so my last sentence when I was talking about Mulvey is: Doubly marginalized as both woman and artist, doubly blessed with both the ability to observe others and the ability to see herself as the object of others’ gaze, the character of Avis ruptures essentialist assumptions about vision, and confronts the reader with our own role as both subject and object of the gaze. Okay, so I need a transition between talking about how Mulvey applies to Avis, to what….. mhm…. how people... are reacting to Mulvey, so I’m arguing that people are having problems with Mul—er, no, I’m identifying a problem with Mulvey’s thesis— this is hard, to talk out loud. Um…I ’m losing my train of thought. Okay. So people say…I’m saying that, um, I am complicating Mulvey’s thesis, so I need a transition into other people complicating Mulvey’s thesis, so, um…[typing]… [sigh]… Cherry… shoot, it’s in bold [typing].. .Cherry recognizes the import of Mulvey’s analysis in initiating a dialogue… conversation… because it’s more than one person, it’s not just a dialogue. Initiating a conversation about… female spectatorship? Or, alternatively, gendered vision. Um. [reading unintelligibly from Cherry quote] Whereas Mulvey’s essay has become a catalyst in [unintelligible] a more urgent interrogation of the feminine spectator… so I should probably not use female spectatorship, because that’s the language that Cherry actually uses. So, gendered vision it is.

Composing Style Sheet

P-T-W-P-R-P-T-P-T-R P-E-T-P-W-T-W-E-W E-W-P-R-E

Let’s make our own code.

Review Perl’s code.

Page 238– General planning– Local planning– Global planning– Commenting – Interpreting– Assessing– Questioning– Talking leading to

writing– Talking and writing at

the same time– Repeating

– Reading related to the topic

– Reading related to one’s own written product

– Writing silently– Writing aloud– Editing– Periods of

silence

Color-code your transcript.

Use highlighters to mark up your transcript, choosing one of the following categories for every part of your transcript:– Planning– Writing– Editing– Unrelated

Example: Okay, so I need a transition between talking about how Mulvey applies to Avis, to what….. mhm…. how people... are reacting to Mulvey, so I’m arguing that people are having problems with Mul—er, no, I’m identifying a problem with Mulvey’s thesis— this is hard, to talk out loud. Um…I ’m losing my train of thought. Okay. So people say…I’m saying that, um, I am complicating Mulvey’s thesis, so I need a transition into other people complicating Mulvey’s thesis, so, um…[typing]… [sigh]… Cherry… shoot, it’s in bold [typing].. .Cherry recognizes the import of Mulvey’s analysis in initiating a dialogue… conversation… because it’s more than one person, it’s not just a dialogue. Initiating a conversation about… female spectatorship? Or, alternatively, gendered vision. Um. [reading unintelligibly from Cherry quote] Whereas Mulvey’s essay has become a catalyst in [unintelligible] a more urgent interrogation of the feminine spectator… so I should probably not use female spectatorship, because that’s the language that Cherry actually uses. So, gendered vision it is.

Develop your mini-categories.

Try to develop a list of more specific composing behaviors that fit under the larger categories. – Example:

Planning: global, local, reading the question, reading the source, reading written text, reconceiving

Editing: grammar, structure, spelling, content, vocabulary, syntax

Let’s create a code.

Develop abbreviations for each activity, with a capital letter for the larger category, and a lowercase letter(s) for the smaller activity. – Example:

Pg=Planning, global Pl=Planning, local Prq=Planning, reading the question Prs=Planning, reading the source Prw=Planning, reading written text Prc=Planning, reconceiving

Code your transcript.

For each piece of highlighted text, choose one of the smaller activities and write the abbreviation next to it. (Pr, Pg, etc.)

Hint: It may be easier to do this one category at a time, i.e., all your planning, then all your writing, etc.

Create a composing style sheet.

On a separate piece of paper, write down the abbreviations for all your composing activities.

Example: Pr - Wb - Pl - Ws - Pr - El

Now comes the hard part…

Look for patterns, and try to figure out something about your composing process.

Think about how you will analyze the data; what kind of calculations will you make to find out more about how you write?

Let’s find some sources.

Forgot how?

CompPile, JSTOR, or ERIC

Try keywords related to “process,” “writing process,” “composing,” or “composing process.”

Other potential search terms (depending on your research question): revision, planning, writer’s block, writing anxiety, procrastination, writing environment

Look at works cited

Berkenkotter’s references– Janet Emig, The Composing Processes

of Twelfth-Graders.book; look up in library catalog

– Linda Flower and John Hayes, “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing.”

Published in CCC; look up in library catalog– Lester Faigley and Stephen Witte,

“Analyzing Revision.”Published in CCC; look up in library catalog

Some helpful hints

A lot of good research on composing processes was done almost 30 years ago, so for this particular topic, don’t necessarily throw out older sources.

Sources that conduct some kind of study like yours, Perl’s, or Berkenkotter’s will probably be the most useful/helpful in establishing your territory.