Margaret Simon’s DigiLit Sunday prompt is to reflect on process vs. product.
I wonder, is our process for the product or for the development of the process itself?
In writing, we produce a tangible product. Something to hold in our hands. But what’s fascinating to me is what happened along the way and what might happen next in the writer.
Margaret talked about how her students created found poems from Wonderopolis. The first go round wasn’t a product that felt right, so students went back to it. Studying their process, looking closely at their product and revising. In the end, the product improved, but the learning accomplished was something that may reach well beyond those poems.
Writing is an outgrowth of a process; that continues until the product is satisfying. The process keeps evolving, reiterating and morphing and the product develops.
And in the end, when we acknowledge the process, could that writer in some way be the product. We writers are works in progress. Continuing to develop through our process and reflecting on the products we create.
The other day, one of my students asked if it was ok to continue to revise a piece of writing that she had written on google docs and published. Revise writing? That’s like asking if it’s ok to reread a book. I was thrilled. The process is ongoing as is her development as a writer.
Product and process are interdependent. Each pushes the other.
To Read To Write To Be 