Chapter 10 Fit Your Process to Your Task
5. Compare and contrast two pieces of writing in different forms--a researched essay with a persuasive essay, for example; or a reflective essay with an analytical essay. Draw a line down a page in your daybook and outline the main features of the first essay on the left, the second on the right. Discuss your findings in class.
7. Think of a career you might like to enter . . . and brainstorm a list of forms of writing you think you would do in that field. Then arrange an interview with employees in the field, and ask them to describe in detail their writing tasks. Ask to see copies, and note down the main features of particular genres.
14. Join a group of classmates to study three or four genres of television shows (a sit-com, a drama, a detective or cops show, a documentary, a mystery, a made-for-TV suspense film, a magazine or news program, etc.). Assign one kind of show to each person. Take notes as you watch. Think of the writer's role and what features of the genre he or she must emphasize. What kinds of elements characterize certain kinds of shows? Get together as a group and write up an analysis comparing and contrasting the different features of particular television genres.
23. Take a task that you are familiar with on the job, in a sport, or in another course, and list the steps in the process you use to complete the task. Compare that with how you write to see if there are ways you can apply those familiar, successful methods to the writing task.
Murray, Donald. M. Write to Learn. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College, 1998.
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