Reading as a Writer

Taking into account what I have learned about 'reading like a writer', I ask myself, "what does this mean to me?" Well, the first thing that pops into my mind is confusion. How can you read like a writer? How is this going to help me when it comes to drafting the first part of my memory essay? When reading a paper "as a writer", certain aspects stick out more than they normally would. I look at word choice and why the writer has chosen that particular word. What were they feeling at that time? Also, I can pick out the main idea of the paper, almost as if I can work backwards and pick out the specific conventions they used and why. It helps me out when I started my first draft of my essay because it shows me how a finished paper should look like and how I can get there step by step.

The first draft of an essay is easy. Writing down ideas as they come to your mind (other than freewriting) is the most stress-free step of the process. I don’t have to worry whether or not the right words are used or even if the spelling of certain words is correct, although spellcheck is a helpful tool! :) After peer-review and other proofreading steps, I can see piece become more chiseled to perfection after all the unnecessary words are taken out and the structure takes its form; ideas become more clear and the reader can hopefully see exactly where I was coming from and feel the emotions that I wanted them to feel.

I haven't read the text, yet so I'm not sure what techniques were used. But as soon as I do, I'll work on applying those to my drafting process.