Muriel Harris: "Composing Behaviors of One- and Multi-Draft Writers"

Muriel Harris' purpose here is to "provide a basis for considering the pedagogical implications of dealing with individual differences".  She acknowledges that most people probably "exist somewhere between the two ends of the continuum....however, one- and multi-drafters do exist". She says we need to be involved in "enlarging our perspectives on revision and our instructional practices with students". 

Based on her findings, she says that there is a "real danger" on imposing a "simple, 'ideal' composing style" on students. She says this because both types of writers have pluses and minuses involved in their composing behaviors. Hence, she feels that we need to be flexible with our pedagogy; like when we assign freewriting to the entire class. Well, for some students this may not work. Ultimately, she says we need to be aware of how we talk about composition, and also making sure to talk to students about their own compositional practices in order to gain an awareness of where the student is situated.

This article resonated with me because I found that my own composing processes do fall along the continuum. I believe my composing process has changed over my academic career. I was mostly a multi-drafter because that is how I was taught. But now I am more of a one-drafter. Perhaps because I have internalized the process, and no longer need to belabor it?? Ultimately, my struggle is that I make all of my writing reader-based, when I would really like to make it more writer-based because I feel the complexity of my thoughts call for it, and I don't want to make my meaning so clear and succinct when the issues and thoughts I am trying to convey are more complicated than that.