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Real Writers in Action: Joe Hemmerling
Joe Hemmerling worked as a research assistant, helping to build this web site. Among other things, he is responsible for the great graphical representations of each writer’s process. Here is how he describes his own writing process: I’ll share with you my own personal process for creation. In the past, I’ve worked as a freelance editorial assistant for Sapientia Press, and helped edit two published works Literary Giants, Literary Catholics by Joseph Pearce, and Science and Belief in the Nuclear Era by Dr. Peter Hodgeson. I’m currently working as a sixth grade teacher at Kingswood Academy in Darien, Illinois, and teach two sections of remedial English at Moraine Valley Community College. Prewriting After receiving an assignment for class, I usually spend a day or two just thinking it over in my spare time, letting the information sort itself out in my head. If I’m writing about or responding to a written work, such as a novel or an article, I’ll skim the source material for ideas to see what jumps out at me. I always try to find some aspect of the assignment that interests me, or grabs my attention, and focus on turning that into a workable thesis. If the project requires a research component, I’ll hunt for sources related to the topic and see what others have written about it. Organizing As I am honing in on my topic, a loose mental outline usually starts to form in my head. Unless the assignment is a research paper, this is all I will need for my academic work. In all my years writing for class, I’ve never worked off even a loose written outline. I usually only need to keep a handful of major points in my head, and then I just find evidence to prove them as I am writing. The exception to this rule is the research paper. I take down notes from my sources onto index cards, looking for related points of consensus or divergence among the texts I’m using. Once I’m satisfied with the evidence I’ve collected, I rearrange the cards into an intelligible order, and this forms a kind of loose outline for my paper. Drafting Once I’m satisfied with my mental picture of the assignment, I sit down in front of my computer and start writing. The first paragraph is usually the hardest and may take me an hour or more to write, but once it’s out of the way, the rest of the paper usually flows easily. I work in increments ranging from one to three hours at a time. Every time I sit down to work, I reread what I’ve already written to refamiliarize myself with the material and to revise any problem areas or fix any mechanical errors I can see. Occasionally, while I’m writing, I realize that a point I wanted to make is weak or inapplicable. When this occurs, I’ll return to my source material (my research or the written work that inspired the prompt) and search for something to replace the unusable point. Revision Most of my revision takes place during the drafting stage. I am constantly rereading my work as I go to make sure the sentences flow, and that I’ve made my point explicitly enough. When the paper’s finally finished, I’ll set it aside for a day or so-- depending on how much time I have left before the paper is due-- and then go back, looking first to be sure that the conclusions I’ve drawn are adequately supported by my evidence, and that I’ve given enough background information for an outside reader to follow along. At the same time, I check my spelling and punctuation and revise any awkward sentences to make them more elegant. I seldom go through more than two drafts of a paper, and the changes I make to my papers between drafts tend to be largely cosmetic, with maybe only a sentence or two added for the purposes of clarification. Editing I have to confess, I’m not terribly meticulous about my editing. As a rule, I tend to fix my spelling and mechanical errors as I make them, and the few that manage to slip beneath my radar generally don’t affect my grade. The biggest stumbling block I have, mechanically speaking, is comma placement. As I’m writing, I tend to place commas wherever I would want the reader to pause, and, as a result, the sentences can come out a bit choppy. For very short pieces or items for which surface correctness is vitally important (i.e. business letters), I’ll read the finished product backwards line-by-line to look for mistakes. -- Fall 2006 |
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