ENGL 505A

In her article “Understanding Composing,” Sondra Perl illustrates recursiveness and retrospective structuring in writing. To do so, she looks at the writing process of writers such as college students, graduate students, and teachers. Her demonstration reminded me to emphasize to my students the importance of rereading bits of their writing, identifying their key terms, and using what Perl calls felt sense, or what one may call inspiration, inner voice, intuition, or a visceral reaction to the topic.

After reading Perl’s “Understanding Composition,” I decided to reflect upon my own writing process to see if I could capture the elusive “felt sense” of which she speaks. Of course, as soon as one captures it, felt sense is transformed into something else, something tangible, like the way feelings of gratitude get turned into “thank you” cards. However, by looking carefully at my own routines, I hope to catch at least a glimpse of the creature before it flees back into the darkened recesses of my mind.