Tevis Tucker

Ms. Wolcott
ENC1101-0M10
15/9/14
Writing Self Study
I got a dig bick. You that read wrong. You read that wrong, too. This tricky play on
words has been circulating the internet for years, so odds are it didnt catch you, but this happens
to us more often than we think. Sondra Perl, an English professor at Lehman College, described
this phenomenon, selective perception, and many others, in The Composing Processes of
Unskilled College Writers. Selective perception is something I realized about three years ago. I
would always read through my papers before submitting them, but I always read through them in
my head. The problem is, I was reading what I wanted to hear and what I thought I put down on
paper instead of what I really did. Since this epiphany, I now read my papers out loud, word by
word, to make sure they still make sense.
Egocentric writing is the other major phenomenon I wanted to discuss. Everyone goes
through the preoperational stage of cognitive development, which is dominated by only our own
ideas and the inability to see from others perspectives (egocentrism), as famed developmental
psychologist Jean Piaget proposed. This approach in writing can be troubling because the writer
takes the reader for granted and fails to communicate ideas clearly. The writer has to be very
thorough and concise with every word, to make sure that any one in their target audience can
follow along.
Perl wrote about how these two processes impacted unskilled writers in a study. The
study was extremely thorough and Perl collected a copious amount of data varying from the

number of editing errors to the time spent writing each sentence. Even though Perls data is solid
and widely excepted, I believe there is one variable that may have been overlooked: the time of
day the study was conducted. Nowhere within the dozens of pages of data is a time of day listed
(only the time certain tasks took from start to finish). I believe this variable can have a huge
effect on the experiment, because throughout the day, humans have certain hours where more is
accomplished and certain hours where less is accomplished.
The focus of my own study was to pinpoint when and how I write, and during what hours
of the day I am most productive (and why). Throughout my research, I learned I am most
productive after a two hour period of eating and relaxing. I believe this result is largely based off
the chemistry of our body. After the body has been replenished of vital nutrients and given the
proper rest, all of the stored up energy can be converted into work.
I conducted my research on an hourly basis over the span of five days using a process
log. Paul Prior, English professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, discusses the
benefits of the log in detail in Tracing Process: How Texts Come into Being. Any reading or
writing done during this time was recorded into six categories, each of which is explained in
detail below.
The date lists the day and hour that each activity was completed. The intensity describes
how hard the activity was on a scale of 1 (easy) to 5 (hard). The feeling describes how I felt
about the activity on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good). The productivity describes how I productive,
efficient, and important the activity was and how I think I managed the time on a scale of 1 (bad
use of time/little work done) to 5 (good use of time/lots of work done). The media/environment
describes where the activity was (and any observations made during it), what was used to
complete the activity (Ex: car for driving or computer for typing), and possibly the purpose of

the activity. The distractions described any excess thing that may have slowed or prevented the
completion of the activity.
Before I start to discuss the findings of the experiment, I would like to point out that five
days that the study was conducted on were not what I would call typical days for many
reasons. The first reason is that my parents let me borrow the car for that week, so the amount I
was driving I did was much higher than what I am used to none. Also, two of the days were
special occasions that arent usually in my weekly schedule. That Friday was my moms
birthday and that Saturday I was helping out at University High School (which is primarily only
a summer job for me). So for the purposes of this experiment, I am only going to go in depth
(hour by hour) on my Wednesday schedule because that is the most normal and school-work
heavy day. By analyzing my Wednesday schedule, I feel it will help me out with all of my
other weekdays as well. I will also analyze the week as a whole and any patterns that stood out.
This Wednesday started like most other days: by scrolling through Facebook in the
morning. Intensity and productivity were low as for most social media encounters. From there I
completed a career interest survey for MHS2330. The intensity stayed low because of its ease,
but productivity definitely rose because I was completing homework instead of wasting away on
social media. I then walked to CHM2040 and proceeded multitask by writing down any
important notes from the lecture while completing a few problems of math homework. It was
the highest intensity of the day (2) and because I was completing two school tasks at once, the
productivity was high (3). After that class, I ate a later than usually lunch at 3pm at Knightros.
The next stop was MAC1105C where there was a quiz. Because of how easy the class is to me,
the intensity was only a 2. But because I knew I was doing well, the feeling and productivity
were high (5 and 4 respectively). The last class of my day was next, which caused my feelings

to stay relatively high (3). But because it was an easy class, not much was done, and I could
virtually taste the end of a long day, my intensity and productivity were low (2 and 1
respectively). Next, I drove home to have dinner with my family (because their house is just 10
minutes away from campus). After dinner I attended the candlelight vigil for Steven Sotloff.
This was one of the few activities I logged that had little or nothing to do with reading/writing. I
felt it was important to show support because he is not just a fellow Knight, but also a fellow
American that went through something that is horrifying and absolutely unacceptable. I felt I
was doing something good by being their so my feeling level was very high (5). The next
activity was going to the gym. I felt pretty good about going to work out (3), but felt I didnt get
as much accomplished as I normally do (2). After that, I went back to my dorm room, showered,
and then went to bed.
This was the most normal day I logged and I could take a lot from this and the rest of
the irregular week. The first thing I noticed is that I was on social media way more than I needed
to be. I couldnt go a day without it and it was taking up way more time than it should. The next
thing noticed was I had certain times during the day where certain activities usually happened. I
was usually awake by 10am, but I wasnt functioning until at least 11am. This makes me really
glad that most of my classes are after noon. My normal meal times were noon for lunch and 6pm
for dinner. 7pm was the prime social media time and 10pm was the prime entertainment time
(TV, gym, etc.). 10pm was also the end of any chance of productivity. More specifically, my
most productive hours of the day were between 2pm-6pm and 8pm-10pm. Interestingly, both of
these windows of maximum productivity started two hours after a meal. The correlation leads
me to believe that my body needs food and the down time to recharge during the day, and then
afterwards, my body is ready for anything. I also noticed very high feeling ratings in my work-

related activities. I think enjoyment and interest in what youre doing can positively affect
productivity. Also, liking your job is important. I am very happy to say that I love my jobs and
wouldnt trade them for the world.
I think that knowing when youre most productive is very important and will help make
you more efficient in the long run. Trying to do intense activities when your body isnt in peak
condition is counterproductive. I believe planning your day around your body is crucial. I
encourage everyone to find their productive hours and maximize their potential. Perls study
would have been much more interesting and valuable if she would have done the experiment
during their most productive and least productive hours. I think the results would be vastly
different. Be productive and find out when youre most productive.

Works Cited
Perl, Sondra. The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers. Research in the
Teaching of English. Eds. Wardle and Downs. 13.4 (1979): 31736. Print
Prior, Paul. Tracing Process: How Do Texts Come into Being. What Writing Does and How It
Does It. Eds. Wardle and Downs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004. 167-200. Print.