Chapter 3 ~ MWA2

Chapter 3 of the changing writing book focuses on the starting process of writing. The authors advise students to use the PACT system (purpose, audience, text, context) to create a general idea of what the paper is going to look and sound like. They also advise against procrastination, and giving yourself ample time in order to create and revise as many drafts as needed until the goal of the paper is sufficiently accomplished. Then comes the prewriting part that consists of brainstorming, flow charts, pictures, etc, anything to get your mind focused on how the paper is going to be organized. Once all the prewriting is done, then students should begin the long road to outlining and creating a first rough draft, and so on.
As for me when I was writing MWA 2, I felt like I spent much more time in the prewriting aspect of the process than actually writing the paper itself. Organization was my biggest priority since it was such a lengthy paper with so many different sources and arguments. Another thing I did differently than the book suggested was that I began with summarizing all my sources on paper first, then I grouped them together in categories that I thought connected them, and lasted created introduction paragraphs and added a title. This process may seem backwards in the changing writing book, but since I spent so much time organizing and prewriting, it was actually more helpful for me when I sat down to write it. The Changing Writing book also states that "getting the first words down" is the hardest part of the process. For me, the hardest part was sorting through all of my sources and narrowing them down to the ones that worked for my paper. Eventually, I narrowed it down to 15 which was well over the requirement maximum, but I felt as though each one connected to the others in a specific way. Once I had an idea of the categories I wanted to have for each of the two papers, it was easy to group the sources together in a way that made each argument as strong as possible. I didn't end up using the PACT system like the book suggests, and I really only made one draft and proof read that draft before turning the paper in. Changing writing may not agree with that way of writing, but I found it to help me the most and I was able to efficiently and effectively write MWA 2.