Sondra Perl’s Felt Sense
Sondra Perl is an English professor at Lehman College. She has written six books in which they are based on writing. She is also the founder of the New York City Writing Project. She has contributed many ideas in the field of theorizing the writing process. The most important idea Perl has contributed is the felt sense.
According to Eric Kaufman the felt sense is a “technique of acknowledging the importance of the body and the self of the writer.” The felt sense is a technique that writers can use to help better themselves. As writers write about a certain topic, they have different feelings about what they are writing. They take those feelings they have and they are transferring it on paper. “We respond to certain topics in certain ways, and learning to accept and embrace this unique felt sense is crucial to the composing process” (Kaufman). What Kaufman is saying is that we shouldn’t ignore the felt sense. Writers should learn to accept it because it’s a major concept to becoming a better writer.
Perl accredits Eugene Geundlin who created and describes the felt sense as “the soft underbelly of thought . . . a kind of bodily awareness that . . . can be used as a tool . . . a bodily awareness that . . . It is felt in the body, yet it has meanings. It is body and mind before they are split apart” (Perl 31). The felt sense is important to writing because you shouldn’t put your feelings aside from your writing; use those feelings to help the paper. The body and mind are working together when thinking about the topic. Then they become separated as the paper is written. It is a tool that writers can use the felt sense can help them understand more about what they are writing.
The felt sense is a writer’s guide into their mind and body. It guides writers through the process they take when writing. The felt sense is the “internal criterion writers seem to use to guide them when they are planning, drafting, and revising” (Perl 31). The felt sense can be vague, but when a writer understands they’re felt sense they can feel it in their body and they will have a reaction. This reaction can help writers with their planning, drafting, and revising. Once the writer has their felt sense, it allows them to move forward and get through the ideas and concepts they have in front of them.
Though the felt sense is vague Perl says that “We get new leverage in our writing if we realize that there is always something there “in mind” before we have words for it” (38). What Perl is saying is that we never have to say that we don’t know what to write. We all do know what to write, it’s all in our minds. We just have to dig deep in to our minds to make it into words. We have to focus and concentrate on our writing to understand the thoughts we have in our minds. "Felt sense" is what Eugene Gendlin has named this internal awareness that we call on” (Perl 39). We all need to learn to call on to this “internal awareness” and once we master this, we can express it on paper.
In order for us to learn how to call on the felt sense, Perl has come up with a process that can help. “The crucial operation in the Perl process is when you pause and attend to that felt sense” (39). In this process you need to pause and ask yourself specific questions to help get out what you want to say. For an example one of the questions that are on the Perl process is what’s my feeling for what I’m getting at? Then you ask yourself follow up question, have I said it to make sure that you’ve said what you wanted to say.
Another important part of the Perl process is when you answer no to the questions you asked yourself. This tends to help you move closer to what you want to write. When saying no to your questions, “you tend to experience a click or shift that moves you closer to knowing…In short, pausing, checking, and saying "No" usually lead you to better words” (Perl 39). When doing this part of the Perl process, it helps you progress in your writing. It makes it easier for you to eliminate words that you don’t need.
The most important idea that Perl has contributed to the field of theorizing the writing process is the felt sense. The felt sense deals with you mind and body. It makes you dig deep within yourself to bring up what you want to say. The Perl process is the important process to help you call on the felt sense.
Works Cited
Kaufman, Eric. “On Felt Sense: Sondra Perl’s Composing Guidelines.” Web. 8 Dec. 2008. http://languageandthinking.bard.edu/2010/12/on-felt-sense-sondra-perl%E2%80%99s-composing-guidelines/
Perl, Sondra. “Understanding Composing.” College Composition and Communication, Vol. 31, No. 4. (Dec., 1980), pp. 363-369.
Perl, Sondra. “Composing Guidelines.” Web.1987.
You've got a quality paper here Vanessa! Your introduction could have went more in-depth to entice the reader, but you did a good job of getting to the point and proposing your thesis. The way you organized your ideas was effective, it had a hierarchical structure to it. First, you introduced Perl, then explained felt sense, followed by how to apply it in writing. Then you tied the knot with a no-frills conclusion. Your introduction and conclusion fall short of the body segment of your paper, which was well done. One more thing I would like to add, in the paragraph that begins "Though the felt sense is vague..." and your concluding paragraph, you had a series of sentences all beginning with the same word, which sounds repetitive when reading. I don't know if you did this on purpose or not, but I figured its worth mentioning because sometimes, I do the same thing without realizing. Aside from being rough around the edges, this is a very solid paper. Keep up the good work Vanessa!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Matt that you have some quality work in the body of this essay, but that your intro and conclusion are in need of development. As Matt says, get right into defining felt sense in your opening. And push your conclusion further instead of just repeating what you've already told us.
ReplyDeleteYou do have some slight problems with repeating in this essay. While I really appreciate your effort to follow up after each quote by explaining what the quote means, you often do no more than basically repeat what the quote says without changing he words significantly. Try pushing it further. You certainly can reiterate something if it feels too complex for your reader to understand right away, but even in those cases, a reader would expect you to say more, make more connections. Why is what you just quoted important? What implications does it have for the overall theme of the writing process? Have you had experiences with any of this that you might draw on or describe? Try looking at Matt's paper for a good example of how to use your own experience in a paper.
Good research, and good quotes. I think you have a great start here, but a revision should really bring it to the next level.