Ferguson Amanda Ferguson Professor Leslie Wolcott ENC 1101 23 July 2012 “They decided to establish independent. I didn’t even know it was raining and it just thundered.” Although that may not make much sense to most people, it was interruptions like that that were vital to my research. Sondra Perl has done research very similar to what I’ve done, but she observed her subjects where as I observed myself. She also observed them in a sound proof room; I observed myself writing in my normal comfortable environment much like Carol Berkenkotter did. However, my research is not entirely like Berkenkotter’s either. I’m combining the two to make a research plan to effectively gather the data I need. Researchers have studied everything from environment to time constraints but no one has really studied too much into distractions. I focused my research on the effects of distractions on my writing process. This paper will describe 1
Amanda Ferguson observed herself writing and her thoughts she had while writing. She transcribed the recordings and wrote about her findings.
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Transcript
Ferguson
Amanda Ferguson
Professor Leslie Wolcott
ENC 1101
23 July 2012
“They decided to establish independent. I didn’t even know it was raining and it
just thundered.” Although that may not make much sense to most people, it was
interruptions like that that were vital to my research. Sondra Perl has done research very
similar to what I’ve done, but she observed her subjects where as I observed myself. She
also observed them in a sound proof room; I observed myself writing in my normal
comfortable environment much like Carol Berkenkotter did. However, my research is not
entirely like Berkenkotter’s either. I’m combining the two to make a research plan to
effectively gather the data I need. Researchers have studied everything from environment
to time constraints but no one has really studied too much into distractions. I focused my
research on the effects of distractions on my writing process. This paper will describe the
steps I have used to research my own writing, the results from my study, and what these
results mean.
Methodology
I started my project off camera, behind the scenes. I researched as much as I could on the
topic. I was writing a paper for my history class. For which my topic was: “Even within
English colonies, the makeup of individual colonies varied greatly. Write an essay
comparing and contrasting Virginia and Massachusetts. In your analysis, make sure to
consider the various pressures on establishing these colonies, the original purpose of the
settlers, and the different areas that dominated each colony’s main concerns.” Remember
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as Perl said though, this project will not explain what I wrote but rather how I wrote it
(Perl, 198). I did most of my research off camera so that when I started to record I would
have to do minimum research and I could just focus on my writing. I was set up in my
room, at my desk. I had my Diet Coke and my laptop; my textbooks were assessable if I
needed them. While I was writing I spoke every thought that crossed my mind, this
research style is called a Think Aloud. I recorded myself using my iTouch. I took a three-
minute break in between my 45-minute writing sessions. I also recorded myself editing
my paper on the following day, but came to find that I had enough information in my
writing recordings alone. My editing process also displayed a very consistent and
predictable pattern of rereading and editing. My first draft of the research paper can be
found in Appendix A.
Then I listened to my recordings and typed everything that I said. I left them
uncensored and direct. The original transcripts can be found in Appendix B. The next
class period my classmates and I devised a code to use when coding the transcripts. A
complete code can be found in Appendix C. Then I coded my entire transcript and wrote
my code out separately. My coded transcript can be found in Appendix D.
Results
From this transcript I have found out a lot about my own writing styles and
techniques. I have found where my strengths and weaknesses are and a lot of factors play
into my writing process. For example, being my dark room with lights on and no outside
light coming in made it much easier to focus. If my blinds were open I can almost
guarantee there would have been many more distractions and pauses in my transcript.
Then it started to rain while I was writing. This added a sense of relief, knowing that I
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couldn’t be doing anything outside anyway and I wasn’t wasting my whole day writing
the paper. I write much better when I am secluded from the outside and it really does
help to know that it is raining outside. Being in my room is also a very positive place to
write. My room has an intellectual feel to it, with my bookcase filled with books, my
bulletin board filled with UCF requirements and helpful and inspiring quotes written on
sticky notes. It makes me get in the mood for academics and promotes concentration.
After reviewing my coded transcript a little more critically I decided I wanted to
focus on my distraction, or more specifically what I did after I was distracted. I noticed a
pattern in my coding that after my attention was diverted I had a productive streak of
either editing or writing. It is obvious in this portion of my transcript:
…-- D - RR – W – RR – D – E – D – W – D – RR – W – RR – W - E-…
It’s very clear in this portion of my transcript that after being distracted my
productivity increased. This portion is from the end of my writing process where I was
being easily distracted because I had been writing for almost two hours. My distractions
were a variety of things. Sometimes it would be a self-made distraction, such as my mind
just wandering away from the task at hand. Other distractions included my cell phone,
Facebook, and the drastic weather change mentioned before. These distractions varied in
lengths but the time spent distracted didn’t have much of an impact on my writing or
editing streaks. When reviewing my written out transcript you can see after the first
distraction I recorded the silence as “Prolonged writing, no talking.” That distraction was
only me fixing my hair, where as the second distraction was a text that took a longer
amount of time to reply to and I was just as productive after.
Table 1 is a breakdown of the amount of time I spent with each writing process in
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my coded transcript. As seen in Table 1, I spent 16% of my time distracted. That’s a
pretty high number of distractions, all of which benefitted my writing when I refocused
back on my writing.
Table 1: For all the writing processes I recorded I broke them down into the number of times they occurred and the percentage of the entire code they took up.Writing Process Number of times it occurred Percentage of whole
Planning (PL) 7 4.17%
Rereading (RR) 29 17.26%
Relevant Thoughts (RT) 10 5.95%
Writing (W) 46 27.39%
Pause (P) 8 4.76%
Distraction (D) 27 16.07%
Editing (E) 17 10.12%
Complaining (C) 12 7.14%
Rewriting (RW) 2 1.19%
Research (R) 10 5.95%
Total 168 100%
One other interesting thing I noticed in my code is that my relevant thoughts normally
helped spark a writing streak. This piece from my coded transcripts shows what I am
talking about.
… - RT – W – P - … - RT – W – R – W - … C – RT – W – R – W – P - …
It is like my relevant thoughts sparked ideas for what I need to write next. It also
prompted research too. Maybe my relevant thoughts offered my brain a question I did not
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know the answer to. The question may have been a good thing to add into my research
paper. I also think that relevant thoughts are the closest thing to a distraction without
being completely off topic. This is the minds way of wandering without being distracted
from the task at hand. It allows for the mind to take a break from the rigor of writing and
allows for a little creativity and curiosity. This is why it sparks a writing streak and
promotes research to be done.
Meaning
By observing my writing behaviors I was able to calculate the benefits I
gained from being distracted from time to time. Although I was distracted a total of
27 times during my total writing session, 21 of those times a productive writing task
was preformed after the distraction. This research will help myself, and writers like
me. It will show that their distractions are not just a delay in the writing process and
that distractions are actually beneficial for creating new thoughts. They give the
mind a little bit of a break so that when the brain returns to the writing it is
refreshed and may have created positive new additions to the writing. A little break
from intense writing is a good way to recharge the flow of ideas.
Relevant thoughts are also extremely helpful for my writing. They allow for
my mind to divert away from the sentence currently being written but still let the
ideas pour out. Relevant thoughts spark ideas for research and for writing spurts.
This is almost like having some one else read my paper and jot down the questions
they have as they go along. This helped find the gaps in my research, where I might
lose the reader. Obviously I lost my own attention, there must be something missing.
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Without distractions and relevant thoughts my paper would not be as far
along as it is. I would have fallen behind and would have found myself too caught up
in the detail to get my point across. I also would have felt completely exhausted by
the end of writing my brain would have felt drained. So distractions and relevant
thoughts are a crucial part of my writing process and anyone else who is concerned
that distractions are just a waste of time needs to take a step back and realize that
they serve a valuable purpose.
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Appendix B
Transcript
Okay introduction time. Okay… Although (typing). I’m going to have to rewrite my
opening that’s for sure. Diet Coke. Colonies all (typing). Most came for profit erase; most
came for in hopes of finding profits. The uncharted land of the Americas made for. The
unchartered land of the Americas made for. Pause. I hate when I can’t find the word that I
want to use. The unchartered land of the Americas held vast opportunities for the settlers
in this paper we will be addressing, I will be addressing, the differences between
Massachusetts colony. I hate spelling Massachusetts because I always spell it wrong, just
like that. Massachusetts’s colony and the Virginia colony. They were different in many
different ways. Many different ways but also had a few similar traits, maybe. Period.
I don’t want to do this. And distractions, cell phone. Okay fix my printer. Okay let’s see.
Ohh big distraction, phone call. Hello. Hi. Because you don’t have anything else to do
today. Yes. Clicking on computer. Editing. Yeah I’m working on it right now. Long
pause, listening on phone. Yeah well I have to finish this within the hour because my
mom wants to do something. She asked me do you have to do homework and I was like
kinda and she was like I have about an hour worth of yard work do you think you could
be the majority of the way done in an hour? I was like I guess and I’m probably going to
be really tired of writing within the hour too, I mean I’ve done the research part of it
already, so you should actually see my wall is it a disaster it has sticky notes all over it
from the notes I took from the book. Yeah I don’t know what we are going to do she just
asked me. Okay. I’ll talk to you, I’ll probably text you.
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Okay not that I don’t enjoy little distractions but I’m only one paragraph in, and it’s a
really poopy paragraph but I don’t worry about that yet. Jamestown was the first English
settlement, permanent English settlement. English settlement in the New World. All I’m
thinking about is I don’t think about nearly the things they talk about in these studies, I
just sit here and think about writing. Maybe I would have been better doing the weeklong
study. Oh well, don’t care. Okay let’s indent these paragraphs. Jamestown was the first
English settlement in the New World. I don’t think they planned on it being a permanent
settlement though. Yep. Was not planned to be a permanent settlement either. But when
the colonist arrived they were expecting to make a quick profit and go back to England.
When the quick. I hate using the word however, because I end up using it a thousand
times. However. They did not make the quick profit they were expecting. Prolonged
typing. I don’t know how to spell sufficient. I think I have it on one of these sticky notes.
There it is. S-u-f-f-i-c-i-e-n-t. And passageway is one word, quick little editing half way
through a paragraph. Okay. I don’t even know how to spell my teachers name to cite her,
oops. Ignore. Okay the settlers were not self-sufficient and relied on the Indians to
survive. Diet Coke. Eventually. Oops, Eventually these settlers. Well eventually John
Ralfe. Might as well put his name in there. Led Jamestown to. Pause. He didn’t really
lead them to anything. Eventually John Ralfe made money for. Eventually John Ralfe.
John Ralfe, alright let’s take out eventually. John Ralfe is the savior of the Jamestown
settlement. He. Okay. John Ralfe is essentially the savior of Jamestown. He finds that
tobacco grew very well in Virginia. Oops I spelled Virginia wrong. Virginia. Distraction
making faces in the camera. I have sticky notes all over the wall. Tobacco became the
cash crop for Virginia. I spelled Virginia wrong again, come on Amanda. Tobacco.
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Virginia was able to pay back all the loans to the investors in England. Okay. Virginia
settlement. There are too many “I’s” in Virginia. Man I’m already at 17 minutes man I
hope this thing can record for a long time. Diet Coke. Okay. The Viriginia community
had several unique characteristics. I don’t know how to spell that, oh yes I do. Unique
characteristics. First of all, after a harsh winter more than three fourths of the population
was killed. This made. This did not bode well. Well for. Advertising. This did not bode
well for advertising. Erasing. Ploy. Faces in camera. Ploy. Ploy. Whatever I will have to
come back to that. Advertisement ploy. That’s poly, no that might be ploy. For getting
more Englishmen to the Americas therefore family sizes were small and very few
women. I should probably look up how to spell my teachers name before I spell it wrong
all the way through and have to go back and redo it. Oh I was close, spelled it right the
first time, wrong the second, figures. When one husband would die the woman would
often remarry within the week. That’s pretty fucked up. Chesapeak kept close emotional
ties to it’s mother country. I haven’t even mentioned Chesapeak yet so I should probably
just keep calling it Virginia. Virginia kept close ties to England. They still went by the
English laws. My Grandma’s dogs is here which means my Grandma’s here, yayy!
What’s wrong with England, I hate when. Hey I’m almost done with the first page, that’s
cool. Close ties with England. English laws. Good things this teacher says over cite
instead of under cite because I just cited two different sentences. Out of Many, 57. I keep
getting distracted and editing. I’m so bored with this paper and I’m only 321 words in. I
think it is going to get easier when I get to the Puritans and the Pilgrims because I have a
lot of information from them. I didn’t have that much from Virignia so this is kind of the
harder part. It’s going to get easier once I get to Pilgrims and Puritans. Okay both of my
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book sources, and online sources are from Massachusetts, man I have so much
information for Massachusetts. Virginia section is going to be dwarfed by the
Massachusetts section. Okay. When one husband would die the woman would often
remarry within the week. Indians were savages. Jamestown earned itself a reputation for
being a cruel town to the American Indians. They believe the land that the Indians were
using went to waste and therefore they could use it. Ooo text message. Christians were
obligated to respect. Pause, rereading. Alright I’m just going to keep writing and come
back and make this better later. Going to take all the Virginia sticky notes off my wall
real quick because it is kind of distracting. I only had 4 sticky notes for Virginia and 10
for Massachusetts. England. The Church of England. No. I have to start the
Massachusetts part in England so they know why they were coming to America in the
first place. Long pause, Writing streak. Alright put these down here, I want to flip in my
notes until Massachusetts. Pushing that people could pay there way into heaven. Many
people found that this was wrong. The first group to speak out against it, against the
church was a group then called Separatists. Prolonged typing. No talking. Decided they
had to establish independent. I didn’t even know it was raining and it just thundered. I’m
going to look outside real quick. It’s not that bad it was a big thunder I thought it would
be worse outside. Back to writing. Why does this computer have a problem with
Pilgrims, I thought that was a pretty common word. Am I spelling it wrong? Let’s see, I
don’t think so. The Pilgrims sailed to America on the Mayflower in. What year did they
sail here I wrote that down somewhere, ah here, 1620. I hate the word Massachusetts I
hate it so much. The Pilgrms landed in Massachusetts Bay. Prolonged writing. No
talking.
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The next group of Christians to make a move against. The next group of Christians. I
can’t focus because my grandma’s talking and my mom’s talking. I can’t focus. Faces in
camera. The next group of Christians to make a move against the Church was a group
called the Puritans. They believed the church, in reforming and purifying the church from
within. Yes (responding to Mother). Here comes my mother. My stupid mom and her
stupid computer.
Okay I guess she fixed it before I got there. It doesn’t want to stay right there
anymore. Okay. Where was I? Oh wait I was up there. The Mayflower Compact
mentions the Pilgrims were undertaking this voyage for the glory of God and the
advance. I think I reworded this. Yes I really did reword this so I don’t have to leave
everything that was capitalized capitalized. Have you ever realized in old documents they
always capitalize random ass shit that doesn’t need to be capitalized? Okay. The pilgrims.
Okay that’s kind of a random thing. These angry Christians decided they had to establish
independent congregation The Pilgrims sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620. The
Mayflower Compact mentions that the Pilgrims were undertaking this dangerous voyage
for glory of God and for the advancement of the Christian faith (Mayflower Compact).
The Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts Bay. The Pilgrims. Too many “the pilgrims”. Diet
Coke. I will put they landed in Massachusetts Bay it’s kind of obvious who I’m talking
about there. They landed in Massachusetts Bay. The Pilgrims after some initial help from
the American Indians were able to establish a self-sufficient community. They supported
themselves by farming, and paid of the investor’s debts with fishing for cod. That’s a
little rough but it’s okay.
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The next group of Christians to make a move against the church was a group
called the Puritans. They believed in reforming and purifying the church from within.
The Puritans differed from the Pilgrims in that they. In that the Puritans. In that the
Pilgrims never considered returning to the Church of England even if a reform was made.
Okay. Typing. No talking. Distraction. The Pilgrims differed from the Puritans in that the
Puritans never considered returning to the Church of England even if a reform was made.
The Puritans sailed to Massachusetts. Typing. No talking. The Mayflower Compact,
done. Massachusetts. Hey I spelled Massachusetts right. The Dispersed communities.
Okay. Looking through notes. Was required to have a public school and. Prolonged
typing. No talking. The next group of Christians to make a move against the church was a
group called the Puritans. They believed in reforming and purifying the church from
within. The Puritans differed from the Pilgrims in that the Pilgrims never considered
returning the Church of England even if a reform was made. The Puritans believed the
Church of England could be repaired and could function successfully again. However, the
Puritans eventually decided “the only way to protect their congregations was by
emigration”. So, the Puritans sailed to Massachusetts Bay and lived in the same
community as the Pilgrims. The clustered settlements and strong communities
distinguished the Massachusetts colonies. Diet Coke. from the dispersed and weak
communities of Virginia colonies. Another major difference between the two colonies is
Massachusetts impressive education system. Any town with more than 50 families was
required to have a public school. Pause. Look for more information. Typing. No talking.
Distributed by social status. Typing. I just had a thought about how if it still worked like
this and children were still married off by age, I’d be screwed because my sister is never
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going to get married therefore I would never get married. Depressing. Married by age.
Distracted. Pause in writing. Writing. No talking. I don’t know if this is called
Massachusetts Bay Charter or the Charter of Massachusetts Bay. I don’t have much
longer. These. These highly contrasting colonies show how even though the two colonies
both originally came from England they have vastly different purposes for being in the
New World and their cultures were very different. Awe crap I’m missing two sources. No
talking. Just writing. Back to the book, guess I didn’t do my research well enough. Carl.
Not nearly as puritanical. I kind of wonder about the puritans because they are Christians,
and I guess it’s because we don’t have many people that pure anymore because this book
says that they were suppose to be opposed to music and art, but most just didn’t approve
of it in the meetinghouse. Cause I don’t get that because now every Christian church
plays music. Maybe that is just something we have outgrown. Their religion said they are
suppose to be completely opposed to music and art. Back to the book. Some well-known
American Puritans. Writing no talking. Pause. Puts book up. Writing. No talking. Pause.
My mom and Grandma are talking about me, so that means they are going to walk in
soon. So although the Puritans name would imply that they were the most by the book
Christians they actually bent the rules as well.
These highly contrasting colonies show how even though the two colonies both originally
came from England they have vastly different purposes for being in the New World and
their cultures were very different. Distraction from my mom asking me to fix the TV. Oh
my gosh I’m so close to finishing and she is so annoying. Okay. These highly contrasting
colonies show how even though the two colonies both originally came from England they
have vastly different purposes for being in the New World and their cultures were very
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different. . The Virginia colonies were established for. Pause, research. The Virginia
colonies were established for profit for England. The Massachusetts colonies. WHAT?
Now I can’t focus, thanks mom. The Virginia colonies were established for profit for
England. The Massachusetts colonies were almost like a dump. Were almost like a. I
didn’t even mention the city on a hill thing. Oops. I should probably go back and add
that. Pause. Rereading to self. Prolonged typing. Okay. Big sigh. . The Massachusetts
colonies were almost like a. It’s not like a dump yard it is like. . The Massachusetts
colonies were almost like an escape for religious freedom. Typing. NO talking. Pause.
Distraction. Fixing hair. Rereading while fixing hair. The Massachusetts colonies were
almost like an escape for religious freedom. Massachusetts was almost like. Typing. No
talking. Both Massachusetts and Virginia colonies pushed the American Indians off their
lands. Distraction. Text. Editing. Replying to text. Okay. Sigh. Writing. No talking. Text
message, ignored. My hair is gross, I’ve got like a dreadlock. Distraction. Okay. They
also both held the Christian belief that they had the right to the land. Both Massachusetts
and Virginia pushed the American Indians off their lands. Virginia needed the land to
grow more tobacco and Massachusetts needed land because they had a never-ending
population increase. Typing. No talking. Both colonies. Also. They had the right to the
land. Typing. No talking. Editing. Facebook distraction. I want to take a nap but I’m not
going to. I need to find where all this information came from, because there is a part in
the book that sounds kinda like that. Let’s try 60 something that’s where all this
information came from. It was like right at the beginning. I’m really not looking forward
to listening to these recordings, these almost 2 hours of recordings to do what I have to do
for this project. I think I’m going to be done for now because I don’t know how to end
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this exactly. Typing. No talking. Well I will save this as my first draft. And I will turn it
in with the rest of the stuff I will turn in with this project. And my edits whenever I get to
them, which won’t be anytime soon because this paper isn’t due until the 19th.