 “A student writer is an individual who is learning to use language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it” (Murray 29). Donald M. Murray repeats this over and over in his passage “The Interior View.” The author uses repetition to make the point that a writer should be the one in control of their writing and should not let anyone influence their idea of writing. Murray defends his opinion by breaking down this quote and providing an in depth analysis of each part to the reader.

The first time Murray says “A student writer is an individual who is learning to use language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it,” (Murray 29) he wants his readers to understand that he believes writing is an extremely personal lifestyle, and those whom choose to write use their pieces to express who they are as an individual even if they are assigned similar topics to write about. Murray backs this up by saying 

“We must accept the individual student and appreciate his individualness. No class can move lock step through a writing sequence which is meaningful. The students do not start at the same place and 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).

Furthermore, he’s saying that each student develops their writing abilities individually. Toward the end of the authors explanation of this part of the concept he says, “The student should know there is a basic process of writing, practiced by most writers, but ultimately he has to learn the process for himself” (Murray 30). So even though the author feels the student should develop their writing abilities individually he knows that there is a basic process of writing that the writer should know. 

The second time Murray says “A student writer is an individual who is learning to use language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it,” (Murray 30) Murray then says “There are no absolutes in language. The student must get away from the idea of right and wrong in usage and develop the feeling that there is language which doesn’t work, and most of the time you only know what works by trying to make it work” (Murray 30). He is trying to say that the individual student writer has to learn to use language in their own way. He wants it to be understood that writers should get away from just knowing right and wrong and realize what works and what doesn’t by trying to make it work and learn from the things that didn’t work. The author uses a perfect example to back up his point, in the passage he says 

“While John Kenneth Galbraith was working on a book he called Why People Are Poor, he decided that title was undescriptive, and he called his manuscript The Opulent Society. It was not the word and Galbraith knew it, but it was getting there. Opulent was the necessary wrong word. It was a long step from Why People Are Poor to The Opulent Society. It was a short step to his celebrated title, The Affluent Society” (Murray 30).

 This backs up the authors point by telling a story about Galbraith and how he learned from trial and error until he found the perfect title for his book. The author uses this to defend his point that everybody is their own person and everybody learns their own way.  

The third time Murray says “A student writer is an individual who is learning to use language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it,” (31) he wants to tell the reader that all students have different experiences and the teacher must realize that their experiences aren’t the same as the students. Murray backs this up by saying 

“The student writer is searching for what is significant in his experience. That is what the writer does and that is what the student does. To allow this search to occur the teacher must realize that not all his students will have the same experience or find the same meaning in the same experience. What is meaningful for the student may not be meaningful for the teacher” (Murray 31). 

He’s saying that the reader can’t judge a student for writing about their experience when the reader can’t relate to that experience. The author is also saying that you can’t force an experience on a student if they haven’t experienced it because they are not you. “Discovering meaning in experience” is emphasized this third time to portray Murray’s beliefs that when a student becomes a writer, they should write about something that has a great significance in their lives. 

The last time Murray says “A student writer is an individual who is learning to use language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it,” (Murray 31) in this part of the concept the author is just stating how important the writer’s communication is. He defends himself by saying “The importance of communication cannot be minimized, for publication before the eyes of the instructor and possibly the class completes a stage in the writing process” (Murray 31). He is also saying that the writer/student has to communicate the experiences in THEIR writing. He says “If you do not have a subject you won’t have a reader; if you do not know what you mean you can’t say it; if language does not clarify your own mind it will not clarify your reader’s mind,” (Murray 32) he is saying that if the students writing does not make sense to him/her then it won’t make sense to anybody because it starts with the writer. This is the final piece to the concept and the author puts it all together by basically saying be the writer and let it flow. There’s one quote that sums up the authors idea and it says “I see but one rule: to be clear. If I’m not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.” -Stendhal  

Throughout the passage Murray breaks down “A student writer is an individual who is learning to use language to discover meaning in experience and communicate it,” he does this to tell the reader what he means in each part of the quote. The first part he breaks down is “A student writer is an individual,” the author is saying the student should write about their own individualness and develop their writing as an individual. The second part he breaks down is “who is learning to use language,” the author is saying the student should learn by trying things out then learning from the attempts that didn’t work. The third part he breaks down is “to discover meaning in experience,” he tells explains to the reader that the student should connect their writings to their own personal experiences and don’t let other people influence what you write about. The last part he breaks down is “and communicate it,” the author is basically saying put all that he talked about and communicate it. The authors main point about the whole concept is for the student to be themselves and don’t let others decide how to write, learn, or communicate because that’s not how it should be. It should start with the student.