
     Donald Murray repeats the phrase “a writer is an individual who uses language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it” several times in this text, each time expressing a fundamental key to becoming a successful writer. He bolds certain sections of the phrase purposely to force the reader hone in and concentrate. 

   “a writer is an individual who uses language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it” Donald explains that one must follow his own intuition opposed to getting misguided by the outside world. We as humans are easily influenced and quick to turn a blind eye to personal truth as a result of the thoughts and biases of others. Murray pleads that we shutout the external world and look within ourselves while we write to maintain individuality and uniqueness. He claims that if we conform, ideas grow bland and content becomes stale.

   “a writer is an individual who uses language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it” Language is a beautiful thing, helping us to express thoughts and abstract feelings bottled up in our heads. Words can be manipulated and thrown around to create a masterpiece. The author exclaims that we must be experimental when it comes to our word choice and sentence structure and that great writing comes when we are careless and even reckless with words, fully believing that an unorthodox approach can take us to places never before imagined if we choose always to follow guidelines and believe preconceived notions about writing technicalities.

   “a writer is an individual who uses language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it” The process of writing is a journey taken by the author. The voyage requires deep reflection which leads to personal discovery and by rummaging through these thoughts and instances we gain insight never previously uncovered. By looking between the lines we allow ourselves to find meaning that wasn’t present on the surface yet noticeable when given a double take. 

   “a writer is an individual who uses language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it” Donald Murray has an interesting take on communication, believing it is the authors job to lay out his own thoughts while not revealing a set in stone interpretation of said thought. Contrary it is up to the reader to interpret. If the author attempts to mend himself to fit an audience, he has lost the true essence of the art form, automatically lowering the grade of his creation by default. We must allow the reader to use their personal lens to decipher and draw conclusions.

   The quote repeated in this text is broken down into individual parts. Interpretation of this quote can be deemed more insightful when we isolate smalls chunks and pick it apart piece by piece. Donald Murray does a fantastic job of making us look at the same quote in several different lights, allowing the reader to discover layers of truth within the same words by using repetition and context. He uses rhetorical devices strategically to crawl underneath the surface and wash away what we believed to be true about the quote at face value. His technique has greatly changed my perception of the writing process and the true nature of the journey a successful writer must take.
