Emily Hoeppner

WR 13300
Dr. McLaughlin
January 30, 2015
Process Reflection
The writing process is a tedious task. I realized this while working
on my audio narrative assignment. The writing process is not a one
and done. It involves many drafts and revisions to produce a paper that
has been meticulously crafted. My writing process began in class while
doing a free writing exercise. It was then that I let my ideas run free
and the brainstorming process began. Out of the two pages of free
writing I had scribed, only two or three sentences were worth
expanding upon. It was those few sentences that developed into the
premises of my paper.
The next step was the drafting process. It was here that the
advice of Dr. McLaughlin really helped me push through. Even when I
did not know what to write, I kept writing. This has always been difficult
for me because when I come to a stalemate I usually give up, but with
this assignment I persevered and completed what I had started. The
first draft was ready for revision. The next day in class my peers edited
my paper and gave me hints on organization techniques to give it a
better flow. Before, I was losing my readers and after the revision I
organized my paper in a way that kept my audience on track. After

listening to others narratives though I found that I had taken the

prompt was too seriously and was thinking inside the box when it came
to the topic of my paper. That night I highlighted every word of my first
draft and hit delete. I then realized that was a poor decision and hit the
undo button because I knew that at least some of my first draft could
help with my second. So I started over. This time I was approaching my
narrative from a different angle that would be more compelling to my
audience. Some of the example narratives we read in class helped
open my eyes to the creative opportunities available with this
assignment.
The second draft was a lot easier to write because of the
extensive drafting process I had already been through. Yet, when I
finished my second draft I did not call it quits. Instead, I booked an
appointment at the Notre Dame Writing Center. During my
appointment, my peer editor made suggestions on how to strengthen
my thesis by changing my concluding sentence of my introduction. We
also worked on making certain parts of the narrative a little less wordy,
and also did some small fine-tuning. I also went of the two literary
devices I added, by instruction of the course, which were allusion and
analogy. With a thumbs up from my Writing Center appointment, I
knew I was ready to record my audio narrative.
Using Garage Band, I recorded my essay in different segments.
At the end of my recording I found that my audio was 30 seconds over

the time requirement. I went back through the essay and took out the
sound effect in the beginning and also went through my paper with a
fine-tooth comb and decided what was really necessary to convey my
story. After some changes were made, my audio essay was finally
finished. I ran just a couple seconds over five minutes, but that was
deemed okay by Professor McLaughlin. This paper made me realize
that writing really is a process and that it takes time and attention. Yet,
if you work hard, you will be rewarded with an outstanding piece of
work.