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Writing Processes at the University Level: Pre-Medical Science Majors

Goals of the Study:

With all of the recent research on the topic of writing, I have continued on the path of studying

writing techniques and habits. With enlightening research from Sandra Perl and Paul Prior, I

seek to shed light on the processes of writing of pre-medical science majorsat large

universities. Perl, a professional on the scholarship of teaching, found in her research patterns

in the writing processes of unskilled writers. By doing so she opened up the doors for future

researchers to explore not just professional and exceptional writers but all writers. Prior, a well-

known English professor outlined the concurrent protocol in his work Tracing Process: How

Texts Come into Being. Through his studies he concludes that by being able to look deep into

the minds of writers (hear their thoughts), it shows the fact that the wring process is very rich

and diverse (Prior, 2011). The research from these two scholars on the writing process has

proven to be sound. In the following study I will demonstration the processes of writing for pre-

medical science majors. I anticipation finding what both Perl and Prior discovered, a hidden key

into the writing process. The medical field requires a great deal of professional writing, the

following analysis will allow major universities to better prepare their students for their field of

study.

Design:

This study took place at the University of Central Florida during the fall 2014 semester. The

student was selected in his ENC 1101 course. To collect the data the student was required to

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read a paper and write a discussion post based off of a piece from Sandra Perl, The Composing

Process of Unskilled College Writers. The student was required to speak aloud their thoughts

as the progressed. The students thoughts were transcribed and coded which will be discussed

in further reading. To ensure the accuracy of the transcription the student was recorded

through the reading and writing process.

Methodology:

The coding is used to help researchers describe the composition processing. Sondra Perl,

outlined the following reasoning behind the coding process. 1) Standardization, 2) Categorical,

3) Concise, 4) Structural, 5) Diachronic (Perl, 1979). The methods of coding were based of the

transcriptions taken from the student being studied. The codes encompass in total what the

student had said a loud. The codes along with their explanations can be found below.

1. [PL] Planning: What comes next?

2.

[C] Commenting: Sighing, making comments or judgments on topic.

3. [I] Interpreting: Rephrasing the topic.

4. [A] Assessing: Judging ones writing

5. [Q] Questioning: Asking Questions on topic.

6. [R] Reread: Rereading writing or book

7. [E] Editing: Editing ones work

8. [D] Distraction: Time taken away from reading or writing.

9. [REL] Relating: Relating topic to ones own life.

10.[BO] Bored: Showing signs of boredom.

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Transcription:

Q/FM/D/C/W/RR/W/C/RR/RR/E/PL/D/E/C/W/RR/W/FR/M/C/C/W/C/W/RR/E/PL/A/RR/C/Q

W/RR/W/C/RR/E/PL/RR/E/PL/D/W/C/REL/W/A/D/RR/E/PL/C/W/RR/W/RR/E/PL/A/D/W/C/RR/

RR/E/PL/Q/RR/W/C/RR/RR/E/PL/D REL/C/FR/M/A/C/C/W/RR/C/W/RR/ED/C/C/C/A/C

Analysis:

Using Sandra Perls [1-5] explanations of coding one can decipher the transcribed codes. From

the transcriptions there has been a clear pattern that can be discerned from this category of

writers. The repetition though a series of stages, starting with the First Stage: Writing,

Rereading then Writing again. The Second Stage: Rereading, Editing then Planning. These two

stages occur back to back each and every time, without fail. There was a Third Stage which falls

between every stage, which involves a series of commenting, assessing and questioning.

In these three stages we can clearly Patterns like these can bring to light the way pre-medical

science majors work through the writing process. When assessing the writing the student

paused often to reread and/or edit the previously written sentence or sentences. Anne Lamott,

an American novelist in Shitty First Drafts wrote about how writers should approach fist

drafts (Lamott, 1994). In here paper she pressed the issue of a writer fully writing through the

first draft of the paper without any editing interruptions. She believed that the editing process

can take away from the overall quality of the final paper.

We asked the student to compare their writing pattern with what Lamott spoke about in her

paper. The student explained that writing without stopping and assessing ones writing, and

planning the next step in the paper would be difficult. I believe that the student may be on to

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something. In Lamotts writing, could rereading and planning fit into her hypothesis on writing?

Without understanding fully what you have written how can a writer continue with the writing

process? With the data analysis of this study I believe that writers have intermediate steps in

writing. Using the speak aloud method you can begin to understand with greater accuracy the

processes.

Implications for teaching and research:

As far as science majors and other pre-medical students are concerned writing occurs ever

seldom during their undergraduate course work. In the professional field as medical doctors

and researchers, science majors write papers often. How do these student s bridge the gap

from English courses that are required during undergraduate course work? Further research

into the topic could allow teachers and advisors to better construct scientific literature courses

and course catalogues to better suit the needs of these students.

As for the future of education, studies like these will reshape and mold the model of modern

education. This study shows that the generalization of education will be soon out dated. When

students have different ways of learning a generalized education is inefficient. Individualizing

education will provide further enhancements and speed up the immersion in education.

Understanding how student can learn most efficiently and learning to correct the errors

properly will not only boost educational statistics, but it will also provide and extreme boost in

the countrys economy overall.

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Problems and Further research:

One problem with the Think Aloud research method used, was trying to get the student to

speak what they were thinking and not an abridged versions of their thoughts. Having these

condensed versions of thought may skew the date on the student thought process. Along with

altering the date the process of condensing thoughts then speaking them aloud may have

interfered with the students natural writing process. For a student who does not normally

think aloud during their writing may be further distracted as they proceed through their paper

and research.

Another problem with the research was the computer used to do the recording. The camera

and microphone are not the best quality. When I re-watched the recording there was a lot of

background noises and it was difficult to discern ever word that was spoken. This may be for

some missing patterns in the data. Fortunately, I was able to make out the majority of the

words and phrases spoken allowed.

With only one discussion post which required very few drafts is difficult to analysis. Further

examples of writing over a longer period of time would be more useful in terms of data

collection. As I work through this class I will be weary of my finding from this paper to see if my

findings are true for more than just discussion postings.

As technology progresses so will the research and information studies like these will be able to

tell us. In further research one could design a program to be able to record the writers

inscription as they proceed in their writing. Having this technology could make the data like the

writing, editing and rereading more accurate in their findings. Unfortunately the distraction of

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speaking out loud may not be controlled for until psychology can further its understandings on

brain activity during the writing process.

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Work Cited:

Lamott, Anne. "Shitty First Drafts." 1994. Writing About Writing. By Elizabeth Wardle and Doug

Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Leasa Burton, 2014. 527-31. Print.

Perl, Sondra. "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers." 1979. Writing About

Writing. By Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Leasa Burton, 2014. 615-39.

Print.

Prior, Paul. "Tracing Process: How Texts Come into Being." Writing About Writing: A College

Reader. Eds. Wardle and Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 492-526. Print.

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Assigned Peer Reviews:

Dear Corey,

The paper is very well written and organized. Organizing it the way you did is much easier to

understand and process what is being said. The one suggestion I would say is that you should

have a literature review section explaining how your piece is related yet different from one or

two of the piece's we have read from our textbook. You did a very well job of directing your

piece to a specific audience. I would suggest changing coding to methodology as your heading

and change bibliography to works cited.

Sincerely, Trey

Dear Corey,

This essay was extremely well written, you used very mature vocabulary and very good

sentence structure and you really targeted a specific audience to relate to. His thesis was In

the following study I will demonstration the processes of writing for pre-medical science

majors. The medical field requires a great deal of professional writing, the following analysis will

allow major universities to better prepare their students for their field of study. He states what

he will be demonstrating and his specific targeted audience and why it will better prepare this

specific audience. Your thesis does include learning, observations, and discoveries about writing

processes. The essay is not organized as a typical essay would be but I honestly think the way

you organized it is the best way to organize this scenario that we are writing about. The

organization of your essay enhances and supports your thesis because every subheading gives

you a main topic the following sentences will support. You did a good job at pinpointing main

ideas from the writers and making sure to quote them in your essay, using their examples to

truly support what you were saying more understandable. You identified the continuous

pattern and interpreted what it meant but I feel like you did not make it seem like it was your

self-study. It seemed as if you were studying another student that had this mythology, my

suggestion to you would be, make it feel like it is more personal and that your intended

audience can relate to YOU because you are the one that showed these patterns. I do not feel

like I am the intended audience for this essay because I am not a pre-medical science major. In

a way you have and have not connected with me as a reader because I am not part of your

intended audience but you also addressed problems that many people have outside of your

intended audience. When students have different ways of learning a generalized education is

inefficient. Individualizing education will provide further enhancements and speed up theimmersion in education. Understanding how student can learn most efficiently and learning to

correct the errors properly will not only boost educational statistics, but it will also provide and

extreme boost in the countrys economy overall. I feel this quote is composed of sentences

that were very well written and answer the problem as to why generalized education is

inefficient if a student does not learn to correct their errors properly.

Corina Roman