Working With Sources: Helen Vendler

When writing, I usually don’t start a paper or even a paragraph until I have a good couple first sentences, then I am golden and can write the whole paper in a sitting. Call it unconventional, but that is how I work; frozen in my chair as I try to assemble the perfect introductory sentences in my head. Sometimes I will even walk away from whatever task is at hand and be unable to continue until I have consumed some sort of candied snack. This is the more creative process involved in thinking, because thinking itself is a rather analytical process. Unfortunately, this process isn’t given the credit that it is due, although it is a critical part of the thinking process. As Harvard University Professor Helen Vendler writes, “Many complex, and sometimes profound, operations of the mind must precede our final arrangement of an argument, finding a path of explanation, or staging a deduction.” In other words, before resolving a problem or following through on an idea, other less mathematical and organized processes help in the creation of a final product.