Dozens of composition teachers agree that writing should be taught as a recursive process, rather than a line process, and they also agree that most writers use certain writing strategies when producing drafts. Sandra Perl's article, Understanding Composing” shares these beliefs because she states: “writing appears to be recursive, but the parts that recur seem to vary from writer to writer and from topic to topic” (142). Perl explains that throughout the writing process, writers employ “a forward-moving action that exists by virtue of a backward-moving action” (141). Furthermore, Perl states that when writers plan, outline, and revise their writings, they use a process she labels retrospective structuring which involves paying attention to a writer's felt sense, returning to the topic presented, rereading what has already been written and reevaluate written words (145). Perl argues that the most important retrospective structuring feature involves writers paying attention to their felt sense, a term he borrows from Eugene Gendlin, a University of Chicago philosopher (142). Perl defines a writer's felt sense as a bodily experience or nonverbal thought that “surrounds the words, or what the words already present evoke in the writer” (142). Furthermore, when writers use the felt sense process, they stop and react to “what is inside them,” and writers appear to focus on “careful attention to their own internal reflections, often accompanied by bodily sensations” (Perl 144). Furthermore, Perl believes that skilled writers use their felt sense unconsciously while unskilled writers can be taught how to pay close attention to their felt sense (144). Perl then describes that when an argument is presented, w...... middle of article ......g (147). I think Perl offers some valuable insights into the composition process, and I agree with you that writing is a recursive process. As an English tutor, I always encourage my students to reread what they have written previously. By doing so, many students will find that some sentences in their drafts “just don't sound right” and will now be able to make the necessary changes, making their writing more coherent. I also believe that rereading topic keywords helps students generate new ideas and that topic keywords could be used during a prewriting activity, such as creating a clustering diagram. Finally, I'm thrilled that Perl gives a name to something that can't really be explained: felt sense. Now I will be able to tell my students to “recall” their felt sense as a way to help them with their writing.