the blasted writing process

I wrote a book prospectus this summer. I asked a couple of beloved colleagues to read it and help me and they did. And I haven't really looked at it since early August. When I sat down yesterday morning at Panera to dig in again, I was struck by how many claims I was making (I have been accused of claim proliferation more than once in my short academic career) and by how much I was assuming my readers knew and understood. This prospectus wouldn't fare so well in my own rhetoric course. I'd probably give myself a C+.

I decided I'd go through the whole thing and try to hierarchize my claims, my evidence, and the implications of these claims. This is indeed a lot of work, but just doing that made me feel so much better. It's gonna take a few days to get through this hierarchizing, but in the end, I think it'll be time well spent.

Claim 1: writing processes mature as the writer matures
Evidence: look at me go
Implications: be nice to yourself

Claim 2: blogging has made me a better writer
Evidence: you don't know what I was like before I blogged, so you have to take this blog as evidence that I've gotten better. Just look at the entries on Euphony, for example. tee hee
Implications: be good to your blog