• Writing is the using of words or language to convey a message or experience. The writer may be completely oblivious of the “meaning of her experience”, or what she wants to tell her readers. she writes to discover the true meaning of her experience, and then rewrites until she thinks that she wrote everything that she wants to say.

The purpose of writing is to discover the inner feelings of the writer, and to communicate it. Quoting Ellie Wiesel’s words, “I write in order to understand as much as to be understood”.

  • By “discovery”– which he says is an important part of the revision process- Donald Murray means that through writing and rewriting and going over the revision process the writer sees stories forming that he himself was not aware of. These are plots or developments in the story that the writer did not intentionally plan before his discovery.

By using the term “ignorance” Donald Murray means that most writers don’t know what they want to say when they start writing. In the re vison stage, they discover what they truly want to tell their readers about their experience.

  • Product is the final writing. Process is the writing through which that “product” should be reached.
  • Internal revision: During internal revision the writer reads her first draft and discovers her position on the subject. Then using language, structure and research information she develops what she has discovered. She only listens to her inner self during internal revision to make sure she says what she really wants to say. The writer is like a hiker who got lost in a cold hiking trail. She has created spark in some dry moss and is carefully analyzing the situation and is now patiently adding twigs. she smiles as she sees her embers slowly turn into a blazing fire.
  • External revision: During external revision the writer edits what she has written. She does not change what she has to say (the discovery she had during internal revision), and only tweaks her writing in a way that would make sense to her readers.
  • By “content” Murray probably means the research content the writer accumulated before she wrote her first draft. He could also refer to the content of the writers first draft.

Structure is the way the writer writes her paper.