In the essay “The Interior View,” the author, Donald M. Murray, uses a unique layout and other techniques to help the readers understand what he is saying.  Two similar four lined paragraphs that are set apart from his essay are the backbone of how Murray lays out his essay.  Similar to how all paragraphs relate back to an essay’s thesis, all of Murray’s paragraphs relate back to a line in one of these two four-lined paragraphs.  “The Interior View” is an easy read because Murray breaks the essay down in a logical way that is easy to follow, he repeats key words that he wants to be in the reader’s heads for each paragraph, and he uses many examples to make his points clearer. 

Murray uses the word “writing” more than any other word in his essay because that is the topic of his work.  Since the whole essay is about two different types of writing, the interior view and the exterior view, it makes sense that “writing” is used more than other words.  As the author, Murray could have chosen to use synonyms to avoid using the same word in excess, but he was purposely repeating “writing” so that his readers would pay close attention to that specific word.  Also, in each section he repeats key words that relate to the specific focus of those paragraphs so that it is clear what point he is trying to get across to his readers. 

The layout of this essay is very helpful to the reader because Murray lays it out so that each section is about the bolded line of the main four-lined set off paragraph.  Before each section is the set off paragraph, “A writer is an individual / who uses language / to discover meaning in experience / and communicate it.”  The readers know the topic of the section they’re about to read because the bolded line in this set off paragraph is what the next section focuses on.  For example, the paragraph following, “A writer is an individual / who uses language / …” is going to explore and explain the importance of a writer’s aloneness and individuality.  Murray uses himself as an example in this section, “I have always found that at the center of the process I am alone with the blank page, struggling to discover what I know so I can know what to say” (Murray 26).  Since this is in the section about individuality, Murray uses the words “I” and “alone” to prove the individual part of writing he experiences.  He also writes in this section that, “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).  This sentence also fits in the individuality paragraph because it states that a writer should feel that through his or her writing, he or she should discover something which is uniquely their own.  If not, then that writer should focus on craft rather than content because if the content is not unique to the author, it is worthless.  After writing about what he believes to be important about individuality, Murray uses quotes about individuality from Jane Austen, Gide, and Stephen Spender.  He uses well known authors as examples so that the readers will know just how important individuality is; it is not just him, a writer that is not as well known, who thinks this is so important, but also famous writers.  

The next section follows the bolded line: “who uses language,” which tells the readers that this section is all about language.  Understandably, the most repeated word in this section is “language,” because it is the topic and the focus of these two paragraphs.  Murray states, “He knows language, no matter how much he delights in this tool, is never an end in itself. It is what the writer uses to lead him to understanding” (Murray 27).  This sentence explains that language is the tool writers use to find understanding in everything they experience.  Murray also includes different examples for readers who may not quite understand the example of writers as well as they can understand art by saying, “The painter doesn’t paint colors he has seen, he uses color on the canvas to see.  The composer uses the notes on the piano to hear.  The writer doesn’t write down words to photograph what is in his head…” (Murray 27).  This example shows that like the painter and composer, writers do not write down words to show what he already knows, but as an experiment to explore new ideas and new words put together.  The sections following the first stanza all have to do with the interior view, but he uses a new stanza when talking about the exterior view.

He uses the same layout for the last two lines of the four-lined paragraph I quoted earlier and then there is a new four-lined paragraph that is about the exterior view of writing that focuses on experienced writers.  This part of the essay is laid out the same exact way, but follows: “A student writer is an individual / who is learning to use language / to discover meaning in experience / and communicate it.”  The first section obviously focuses on a student writer as an individual, because that is the first line.  To illustrate the individuality of a student, Murray writes, “The students do not start at the same place and they do not end at the same place.  They do not proceed at a similar pace and they do not follow the same path through the course” (Murray 29).  Murray included these two sentences to show his readers that every student and every writer is different.  There are no two people that are the same and that have the same exact thoughts and ideas because everyone’s starting place is different based off their childhood and how they grew up.  Everyone has gone and experienced different things, and even if they have gone through the same experience, it probably effected each person differently.  

The third section of the exterior view is clearly about discovering meaning in an experience, because that is what is now bolded.  This is the section where Murray writes about how a student searches for meaning in his or her experiences so that the student can decide what he or she is trying to write.  For the student to be able to search for what is significant in his experiment, Murray says that, “the teacher must realize that not all his students will have the same experiment or find the same meaning in the same experience” (Murray 31).  This section is important to Murray’s essay because it is focused on letting the students write for themselves and have the control to be as creative as they want.  This paragraph is saying that teachers should not put too many guidelines for their students because students should be able to be their unique selves and not have to worry about writing what they think their teacher wants to hear.  This is very important because if teachers are too overbearing and strict, the students will be too focused on the grade they will receive than the actual lesson of writing for one’s self.  Murray believes that, “most of all there must be time in the writing course for the process of discovery to take place” (Murray 31).  If students are forced to write about a specific topic, and follow specific rules, they are not as able to discover new things.  Students learning how to write need to discover some things on their own so that they are able to find who they are.  

In conclusion, Murray uses the outline of his essay to produce an easy to follow essay that will teach student writers about how to become good writers and to provide examples of experienced writers.  He makes this essay easy to follow and understand by clearly stating what each section is going to focus on.   The many examples included in his work are helpful to understand the importance of the points he is trying to get across.  It is easier to understand his point after reading his examples of why language and individualness are so important to writing.  Murray does a great job explaining the interior view and the exterior view, this is a very good essay for young writers to read and understand.  