Sondra Perl

    Sondra Perl, who is an English Professor at Lehman College have many ideas about the writing process.  Some of her ideas include the recursive process and writing whatever you learn can help you to learn better.  However, her most important and enduring contribution to the writing process is asking your self questions.  She believes that a student develops their own voice when they ask themselves questions while they are writing. 
    According to the article “Through Teachers’ Eyes: The Portrait of Teachers at Work;
        Teachers’ goals of helping students find their own voiced inspired two             curricular choices: the first choice reflected the teachers’ uniformly held             belief that students’ writing is “most real” when they write about the             feelings and events of their lives.  Most of the writing in this classroom             took the form of experimental narrative or description. (Mirel. P129)
Mirel explains that students find their voice by writing about events that takes place in their lives.  Mirel also explains that teachers and students practices Perl’s contribution to the writing process by asking themselves questions.  They practices a way to find their voice by asking themselves questions and writing about feelings and events.
    In the article “A Community for Writers: A Workshop Course in Writing”, “The crucial operation in the Perl process is when you pause and say, ’what’s my feelings for what I am getting at?’”.(Elbow)  Elbow explains exactly what Sondra Perl wants us to stop and ask ourselves.  She want us to figure out whatever our feelings are towards whatever we are writing.  Than we can get a sense if we are headed in the right direction or not.  This particular comment takes us back to the most enduring contribution of Perl to the writing process.  We ask ourselves the question and our inner voice helps to become better writers.
    In the article “Understanding Composing”:
        Everyone in the group were given the topic in the morning during class             was told to compose later on that day in a place where they would be             comfortable and relatively free from distractions. (Perl  p.363)
According to Perl it is two very different aspects of looking at writing when one speaks out loud and on the other hand one writes.  When speaking out loud one can hear the questions that they ask themselves. It would give them a sense of what they are doing wrong.  They can also find out whatever they can do to make their writing better.  In many cases when people writes they makes mistakes it is easily fixed when they listen to their questions.  It may help them to get back on tract and know what they should be writing about.
    In “Understanding Composing” it states:
        Many writers reduce projective structuring to a series of rules or criteria             for evaluating finished discourse. These writers ask ‘Is what I’m writing             correct?’ and ‘Does it conforms to the rules I’ve been taught?’ while these             concerns are important they often over shadow all other and lock the             writer in the position of writing solely or primarily for the approval of             readers. (Perl  p368)
When writing students that ask themselves questions have a better understanding of the piece that they are writing.  When they ask themselves “Is what I’m writing correct?”  this will help them to get a closer look of whatever they are writing about.  In their writing they have to follow rules.  When following these rules it makes them write better.  Most students are thought to write a certain way and when they stop to ask themselves these questions it will help them to become better writers.
    In conclusion, the most important and enduring idea Sondra Perl has contributed to the field of theorizing the writing process was the idea of asking yourself questions while you are writing.  When students write after asking themselves what they are doing then they get a better sense of what is to be done. Sondra Perl’s idea is to stop and think of what you are writing and ask yourselves questions such as; Is what I’m writing correct” or “Does it conforms to the rule that I’ve been taught”  it help you to get a better sense of what you are writing.  In my point of view Sondra Perl have many great idea that was contributed to the writing process but the most important and enduring is asking yourself questions while you write give you a better perspective to your own writing.




Mirel, Barbara Ellis; Through Teachers’ Eyes: Portrait of Writing Teachers at Work;     Educational source spring 88, Vol.19 Issue 1, p.128, lep    

Elbow, Peter and Lanoff, Pat; A Community of Writers; A Workshop Course in Writing     University of Massachusetts at Amherst; State University of Ne York at Stony     Brook. Copyright (p. 118-120 124 126-128)

Perl, Sondra; Understanding Composing, College Composition abd Communication, Vol.     31 No. 4 Dec. 1980 p. 363-369