thoughts about process and product

I'm beginning to get really interested in the dichotomy of "process vs. product". In our post-modernity, it seems an increasingly-investigated paradigm. As a writing instructor, as a writer, I'm consistently weighing the importance of process against the eventual--the expected--product. What use is a sterling piece of writing to my students if they don't understand how it came to be, and thus, can't reproduce it? What use is a savvy, strategic writing process if it is not applied to create a sparkling, written product?

Gin Ferra asks herself this question in relation to her knitting. Is the set of orange loops a sweater in process, or just a bunch of tangled yarn? Is there functionality and beauty in the process, or are we just after the endgame, the product?

I think it is important to investigate these questions. Considering process in our lives, from writing to knitting to relationships, may prevent our society's ultimate spiral into utter-egocentrism, into perpetual consumerism. But, while I perhaps can't take on the culture of the entire western world, I can teach writing that privileges a sound awareness, and deft use of, process. Acknowledgment and application of strategic writing processes do produce good writing, I've seen it. I continue to see it in my classroom. What comes next, I think, is examining what I see and articulating it so that others can understand it, can see it, too.

the word articulate

I've been thinking a lot lately about the word articulate.

One of it's definitions is joint, as in the spine

or foot.

It made me think of dancing, and how some dancers articulate movement as they dance, that is, they move each bone independent of the others, thus lengthening and sustaining movement.