           When we look at Donald Murray’s “The Interior View: One Writer’s Philosophy of Composition”, we can see that Murray is trying to address the importance of letting writers explore their own thoughts through their own writings. He points out the broken structure of our education system while pressuring the writers themselves to express what they think and feel with pen and paper. The underlying argument throughout the reading makes you think of writing in a brand new way. Most students are corralled into the “correct” way to write a paper, limiting them to unoriginal thoughts and ideas not allowing them to be an individual. The purpose of Murray writing directly to us is to open up our minds to a new way of thinking, and more importantly, writing. The writer must find themselves through their own writing and disregard what the general audiences will like. In the end, the writing will portray what the writer feels not what the writer thinks the broader audience wants to read. He wants us to communicate with ourselves through the ideas we write down on paper. The language and discoveries we make while writing shows what we are actually thinking and not what the larger audience wants to hear. The reader should see what you felt and not a cliché paper. Writers should focus on writing from their hearts, what Murray calls ‘interior’ writing, as opposed to trying to write simply to satisfy a prompt, “exterior writing”. All writing is meant to be read at one point in time but not before the reader first expresses what they feel. Texts are revised but not trained to be perfect. 

           When I read Murray’s philosophy, it made me reflect on how I’ve been taught my entire life. Since elementary school, students have received the same prompts, and have developed a system to answer them. This results in a systematic approach to writing that creates bland, repetitive papers that don't require any analytical thinking or creative writing. The education today is flawed and doesn’t allow students today to expand their mind through the discovery of their own words. I have become accustomed to strictly following prompts that tell me exactly what sources to use and what point to argue from. Without the prompt sitting in front of students some just shut down or don’t know what to do. They are accustomed to a formulated process that they don’t even know how to handle a new situation unguided. The lack of creative writing in our schools has limited every student and left them unprepared for what real writing is all about. If everyone today wrote the same way they did in high school, we would be reading the same thing repeatedly with different wording and identical meanings. Murray cites Jane Austin when she says “No, I must keep to my own style, and go in my own way; and though I may never succeed…” (Murray 26). Murray is trying to show the reader how important it is to some writers to be their own individual. I feel that once you discover yourself throughout your own thoughts and processes then you become more confident in your work and take pride in it. The prompts most schools do today don’t allow you to discover yourself in that way. I believe this is the first time in my life I have ever written without thinking of the meaning behind it except my own. When you write with the only purpose being to discover your own thoughts the results differ greatly from others. The goal is not to please the whole audience-as that will never be possible, but to please yourself then edit the language not the thoughts. This is the separation of interior versus exterior writings.

           One of the biggest parts of Murray’s philosophy was his explanation of differences between interior and exterior views.  Murray says (teachers), “will see certain patterns of development repeated in our students” (Murray 30). This helps portray the exterior views all students take on when writing for prompts. Murray is encouraging all writers to find meaning within themselves in order to create meaning. Your writing must express yourself, or else the result will be a broken paper. The exterior writer is someone who is writing to be informative and uses facts presented to them using information that they already know. The writer will not learn anything new and neither will the reader. The one meaningful result of schooling is the teaching of practical academics and the base line way to write a paper. The interior way that he is trying to make us discover is our own individuality through “interior” writing. Interior writing “allows the student to use language to explore his world” (Murray 29). He is calling on both the teacher and the writer to create environments that allow the students to learn and discover new ways to write down their own thoughts and ideas. He wants all of us to embrace each other and allow everyone to have their own individual writing styles, even unorthodox. The student needs help harnessing their strengths and fixing their weaknesses, but not discouraged and told that there is only one way to write. At all times the writer must feel open minded and find what they are thinking by writing. The only thing that should be critiqued is the use of their language together as a whole and how to use it together for the purpose of their own discoveries. He states, “language should be used wastefully and even promiscuously, because it is usually necessary to use the wrong word to get the right word.” (Murray 30). This is yet another example of letting the writer express themselves and then edit after. You can find what you were trying to say and use the mistakes to find the “right” word to get your personal message and discovery across.

           The process of writing for me has completely transformed after reading Donald Murray’s philosophy. It opened up paths to questions and exploration, allowing me to better understand who I am as a writer. The difference between interior and exterior views were laid out for everyone to interpret in their own manner. This challenges me to be more of an interior writer, writing what I truly mean instead of what I believe aligns most closely with the prompt.  He challenged schools, teachers, writers, and students to all think of writing from a new perspective while allowing themselves to enjoy the act of writing. He supports his findings with his lifelong research and personal experience as a writer and teacher. Donald Murray discovered the perfect way to write a paper, by writing a paper.
