Recently, the National Council of Teachers of English defined writing as "habits of mind." I revised and condensed them into the "Write Attitudes," connected to my textbook, Writing the True Self. Think about your own theory of writing and whether it is working for you. Could applying some of these ideas in your process help you to access new ways of thinking, seeing, or being?
Consider that for authors, writing is all about attitudes: curious engagement, willing openness, flexible creativity, persistent effort, and caring responsibility. But a reader expects a "design thinking" approach: empathize with the user, define a point of view, ideate diverse solutions, prototype a physical form, test prototype and refine perspective. For a subject-focused strategy, John Swales suggests we establish a topic's importance, indicate a gap in the research, propose a study to fill the gap, write an appropriate piece, and submit for review. All are equally valid approaches to the goal of greater understanding.
