Importance of the writing process

      By reading Sondra Perl's "Understanding Composing",  I completely understood what the writing process entails. Basically, the important aspects in her essay are as described: Felt Sense, Retrospective and Projective Structuring. All these are different stages of the writing process and should be taken into consideration when beginning and editing a paper. Her first contribution as described is the concept of "felt sense". Felt sense explains the way you feel about a topic before, during, and all throughout your writing process. Felt sense can be described as someone's gut feeling and what is someone's opinion about a certain topic. As said by Eugene Gendlin felt sense, "encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time". Felt sense should just come naturally and in fact it calls for thinking deeply. Of course a paper cannot be written without a mind. Another concept of the writing process is the process of retrospective structuring. Retrospective structuring can be described as looking backwards and going back over your felt sense. It is also reviewing past drafts that the writer has previously written and looking at how you will incorporate and structure your paper for next time. Projective structuring is another process which is you (the writer) considering how the reader will feel when they are reading your paper. This can be done by putting yourself in their shoes and taking into consideration as to how they will interpret your paper and if they will understand it. All three concepts of the writing process; felt sense, projective and retrospective structuring intertwine but should not be misinterpreted as the same thing. In fact, as I recently discussed, felt sense, projective structuring, and retrospective structuring all had their own individual meaning and each play a crucial role in the writing process.