Cecily Rodriguez
Prof. Gallagher
ENG 220- 0878
Sept. 16th, 2001
Sondra Perl- Felt Sense (Draft 1)
I was given the question, what is the most important idea Sondra Perl has contributed to in the field of theorizing the writing process? In order for me to answer this question I needed to find out who this Sondra Perl is. Sondra Perl is a professor of English at the Herbert H. Lehman College of The New York City University of New York. She is also the founder of the New York City Writing Project. Perl also specializes in Composition and Rhetoric. While reading some of her work I came to the conclusion that the most important idea to Sondra Perl is “Felt Sense”.
According to Perl, while writing it does not occur with words but with “feelings or non-verbalized perceptions…the move occurs inside the writer, to what is physically felt” (Perl 30-31). The term felt sense comes from Eugene Gendlin who is a philosopher at the University of Chicago. As Gendlin puts it
the soft underbelly of thought…a kind of bodily awareness that…can be used as a tool…a bodily awareness that…encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time…It is felt in the body, yet it has meanings. It is body and mind before they split apart (Perl 31).
Felt sense is with in the body and deals with feeling while writing and also before your pen touches the paper.
In a flyer I seen to meet Sondra Perl called Felt Sense, Writing with the Body. This flyer was for a workshop which talks about felt sense and how “writing connects the mind and body. Learn to listen to what your body knows, to what is on the edge, but not yet in words, to cultivate ‘Felt Sense’ so that your writing comes alive. Felt sense is the key to understanding how new ideas come to us” (Web). Before we write we have to think about what we feel about the topic. For any topic we need to think about images, words, ideas, phrases and even our own thoughts and feelings in order to write a well processed paper. You have to feel what you write within yourself. Write what you feel is right, not just on the topic itself.
Felt sense is what writers use in order to guide themselves when they are planning, drafting, and revising. We have to ask ourselves a series of questions. For example, is this right or wrong? Are the words I picked right for me rather than for the paper? “Do they capture what I’m trying to say? If not what is missing” (Perl 33). All of theses questions contribute to felt sense. It deals with how we feel about what we have written. We have to feel it in our gut.
In Sondra Perl’s Composing Guidelines, she has a list of things you can do in order to “discover what is on your mind” (Belanoff and Elbow 36). These guidelines are what experienced writer’s do in order to write a perfect paper. They continue to write even when they don’t know where this will take them. The more you write the more you will learn from yourself. You should pause and ask yourself, “What is this all about?...periodically check what you have written against internal sense of where you’re going or what you wanted to say—your ‘felt sense’ (Belanoff and Elbow 36). I can relate to these things because while actually writing this paper, I did not know where I would end up by the second paragraph. I had no idea what I was writing about. But I kept on writing, paused and thought what I would write about and what point I wanted to get across. I also stopped after every paragraph to read what I wrote, to see if it made sense and if it felt good in my gut, in my “felt sense”.
While reading Perl’s work what appealed to me to be the most important idea was this “felt sense”. I had no idea what it was or what it meant. While I kept on reading, it clicked in my mind that it is a feeling in your body, that tells you what you have written is right or wrong for you. It is your gut feeling. I felt it was a perfect topic to write about because not many people know what felt sense is. It is also important because we use our felt sense almost everyday, for whenever we need to write. Not just for a school paper, but for work too.
Work Cited
- Belanoff, Pat and Elbow, Peter. Sondra Perl’s Composing Guidelines, A Community of Writers: A Course in Writing. 1987. P. 36-40.
- Perl, Sondra. Understanding Composing. P. 29-35.
- Felt Sense, Writing with the Body. www.stu.ca/inkshed/perl.pdf. Web. 2004.
What I liked: I like the subject matter. Have a better understanding of what "felt sense" means. I liked that use personal experience in the paper. Used really strong good quotes and didn't overload it with too many outside sources. I liked the quote from Gendlin. Described "felt sense" in own words real strong, reinforcing that it comes from the gut.
ReplyDeleteWhat needs work: The first paragraph seems cluttered with a little too much bio on Sondra Perl. You could focus the 1st paragraph on your thesis and make a 2nd paragraph dealing with who Perl is and what she has done. The thesis statement is also unclear; is it the most important idea to Perl or is the most important idea of Perl to you? The 1st sentence in the 3rd paragraph the wording is a bit confusing, I had to read it over a few times. The ideas in the 4th and 5th paragraph are very similar and thought it might work better if you combine the two. It seems to be the same idea just worded differently. Your conclusion could be stronger, "I felt it was a perfect topic to write about because not many people know what felt sense is" you can't really prove this and I feel you could strength the conclusion by adding something more substantial.
I agree with Ken that the first paragraph should lead up to your thesis. In college level writing, it is not necessary to repeat the question or refer directly to the feelings you have about fulfilling the assignment. Instead, just jump right into felt sense. While it can be useful to share some of Perl's bio, it isn't really a good thing to use as an opening statement.
ReplyDeleteThe second paragraph seems disorganized. The Gendlin quote defining felt sense works well. It might be nice if you started with some background, letting us know Perl got the idea from Gendlin, then lead into the definition, then try to handle Perl's discussion of how felt sense effects the body. Right now it feels like you're alternating between Gendlin and Perl/the body in a way that has my mind flopping back and forth. you also need more detail and explanation of Perl's sense of how the body fits in to the definition.
I like that you include the flyer, but then it seems like it is from a webpage? Are you citing this properly? Where is the flyer? Where is the workshop? What does its existence tell you about Perl or felt sense? Also, what you say right after that doesn't exactly feel related to the quote. Follow-up commentary after a quote should directly address/analyze the ideas brought forth from the quote. Also, with regard to the last sentence of this paragraph, one's writing still has to be "on topic" but it should also be what feels right to you--so it is what feels right to you when it comes to that topic.
In the next paragraph you develop the definition more and that's good, but it is too short and feels overly reliant on Perl's own words. If you are quoting, then use quotes. Then try hard to talk about this in your own words. Analyze or reflect on the ideas Perl has put forth. What does it mean to you? How does it effect or enhance your ideas of writing?
You DO get to these things in your final two paragraphs, which feel much more on target to me. One thing you might be forgetting: felt sense does not mean that you write until you figure out what to say and then just let that stand...it means going back and editing repeatedly to get that felt sense into the WHOLE paper. What you want to do is realize what you've realized in these last two paragraphs, then go back (recursive process) and rewrite the whole paper, constantly checking to see if your defining of the term and your own felt sense of what the term means to you are constantly being presented, and in a way that makes you satisfied.