Growing up in today’s education systems, students have specific expectations to meet when it comes to writing papers.  Whether it be a research paper, a persuasive essay, or even a book review, students are always given an outline or example of what their assignment should look like.  This idea, and the idea of rubrics, are bringing about a false representation of writing.  This type of writing is forced, uncreative, and goes against the whole purpose of writing, to express oneself.  When we look at “The Interior View: One Writer’s Philosophy of Composition” by Donald M. Murray, we can see that a good writer writes for himself, making discoveries throughout each piece of work.  This is important because most people believe being a good writer means creating flawless work just to appeal to an audience.  

Murray stresses that “writing is an individual search for meaning in life” (Murray, 25).  As a writer is producing a piece of work, he should be discovering all of his new ideas.  This discovery entails mistakes, bad ideas, and ideas that some people may not agree with.  This is the concept of writing.  A good writer does not write to appeal to his audience or produce ideas they want to hear; a good writer writes for himself.  When an individual decides he would like to start writing, he does not go to the library or go online for ideas.  Murray explains that the good writer will sit down at his desk, and experience a sense of aloneness.  He says, “If the writer does not feel that through writing he will discover something which is uniquely his, he may soon concentrate on craft rather than content and speak with tricks rather than truth.” (Murray, 26).  He is saying that the writer must be true to his ideas.  When it comes to the opinions of others, the good writer should only accept criticism when he sees it is valuable to his work.  Murray gives examples of quotes by famous authors who explain that individuality is key to writing.  Jane Austen in particular says, “No, I must keep to my own style, and go in my own way; and though I may never succeed…I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.”  (Murray, 26).  This is a perfect representation of Murray’s point.  They are both teaching that writing anything other than your thoughts and ideas is almost a failure to writing, and it goes against the whole concept of personal writing.  

A misconception one may have to these points is that if an author is only writing for himself, what is the point if there is no appeal to an audience?  When an author writes his immediate ideas and focuses purely on himself, he will connect with an audience in a unique way.  Going out of his way and trying to intepret an audience to give them what they want to hear goes against the process of personal writing.  If an audience listens to new, different ideas of an author, it will expose a new reaction each time.  This will make pieces of work relatable to bigger crowds.  I feel this is the intended goal of writing, to emotionally affect both the writer and the reader.  If the writer does his part, the reader will hopefully gain something out of the work he is reading.  The writer should be making discoveries, and the reader should be relating to these and further, using them as a base on his own ideas.

The expressing of one’s personal ideas in writing is based primarily off of the writer’s communication.  Language is used to try and piece together the discoveries being made by the writer.  Murray refers to language as a “living tool”, leading a writer to understanding (Murray, 27).  For example, students in high school do not take advantage of the exploration in writing.  Students use language to convey the ideas they think their teachers or mentors will agree with, which is the result of teachers trying to teach a student how to write.  Instead of teaching a student how to write, Murray exhibits an alternative of creating an encouraging environment (Murray, 27).  This concept makes so much more sense than a teacher handing a student a rubric.  If we are being taught in school to be ourselves and be creative, we should be given the opportunity to do so.  Guidance is necessary, but writing is all about individuality, and a teacher’s instruction has the capability to ruin that.  Journaling during one’s free time is the only true opportunity that a student taking common core classes has to write completely based off of his personal thoughts.  This is not something every individual does, but the process of journaling each morning, or each night, increases our writing skills and encourages the flow of new ideas through our brain.  

Each student writer is filled with completely different ideas and is experimenting with his personal way of conveying these ideas.  Beyond the slim classification of student writers, no writer knows how to write “properly”, because there is no proper way.  If each individual is writing to discover himself, this brings me to a conclusion that all writers must then be student writers.  Every writer is still writing to try and explore his world, learning new thoughts about himself.  Each time a writer decides to start a new piece, he starts from scratch.  At this exact moment in time, no matter if he is a published novelist or the opposite, he is a student writer.  He knows just as much about this writing as any other writer does that is beginning a piece.  It is important to continue to be a student writer, because this is how one discovers himself and his newest thoughts.  

Murray’s piece interested me the most out of all the reading options, because I could personally relate to this.  As a current college student, I have experienced forced writing throughout all of my school years.  I have dealt with the painful experiences of trying to write what my teacher wanted to hear, for the good grade.  I was never given the opportunity to sit down and write what first comes to my mind.  Murray showed me an entirely new perspective on writing.  I am hoping his points affect more people, so that in the future kids will be able to write in the correct way.  I hope the educational systems learn that one cannot learn to write, and one cannot teach to write.  Writing is an individual experience that one must encounter on his own.
