“The element on which writers may spend a majority of their time is development.” (page 28)

Development is mentioned in the passage by Murray on numerous occasions and has the purpose of ensuring that the writing is clear for the reader. To fully develop a piece of writing, it may take several attempts until the work is fully completed. The definition of fully developed to me is when there are no questions that remain unanswered in our writing.  that Murray says  “Each section of a piece of writing must be adequately developed”. Adequately stuck out to me because the author is working to get their point across to the reader and has to develop the work until they have satisfied that criteria. If a piece of writing is not fully developed, it is severely lacking in the information that every reader is looking for and will likely keep them focused on the work without quickly losing interest. Development in writing can be defined as when the piece of work has been properly balanced and reads clearly in an informative way. Revision and development are not only exclusive to writing, I know that many musical artists have to work so many attempts on one verse until they have reached the final product they are satisfied with. Revision in this case can be applied to both musical artists and writers, as well as artists, movie directors, and other professions that rely on perfection in their work. There is no certain way to gauge if a piece of writing is complete, but each writer has their own method. Development and revision can be intertwined in writing because they both lead to the same end goal.  When developing a piece of writing, It may take several times until the writer is satisfied to finish their work. 

In my personal work, I would say i’m not the most advanced writer, but I like to plan out my work before I begin writing as it allows me to think about each section instead of going head first into an assignment. Revision is the most important element in the writing process because of the perspective after their work is “complete”. While Revising, as Murray says “ Most people think that the principal problem is that writers are too proud of what they have written”. This mentality while writing is detrimental to the whole writing process and it does not allow the writer to get the most out of their work from the thoughts of others who can provide helpful insight. The best writers are not satisfied with their first draft, these writers take the first draft to criticize their work and through this, revision is able to occur and their best work is a result from the revision process. I believe that the process of developing a piece of writing is just as important to revision as without a developed piece of writing, the whole entire work will not resonate with the reader. While revising, getting the criticism from someone else is just as important as the reader revising their own work. The more criticism results in overall better work. A work that has not been revised is full of errors, grammatical flaws, and other issues that can be easily fixed. 

In High School, I would occasionally take the easy route and skip multiple revisions in the attempt to get the stress of a paper off my chest. Unknowingly, I was ultimately hurting myself instead of trying to be the best possible writer that I could be. A personal experience in writing in which I have begun a piece of writing in High School would be when I wrote my College Essay. The struggle of completing a successful college essay involves numerous attempts, the process of writing the essay involves deleting and adding many points after they have been reviewed by counselors and other teachers. This relates to the Murray reading as we all worked towards creating our best work possible to be admitted into our dream colleges. This article by Murray has allowed me to realize that writing is a long strenuous process, but in the end, the work pays off knowing that every ounce of effort was put forth onto every assignment.