The final phase I have identified is embodied well by this passage, from Expecting the Unexpected (1989)
My own revelations, perhaps better called confessions, are merely the speculations of one writer, and they should be suspect. They are not conventional research findings ... I am not a researcher. I am a writer and a writing teacher, who looks within to try to understand my subject matter. I realize better than my critics how eccentric this may be, but I hope it can be a starting place for more authoritative research into how we read while writing and write while reading. (72)
This was quoted in Susan McLeod's review of the book in JAC.
There are several other interesting items in this review.
A definite place to look when thinking about how Murray constructed an ethos for himself is the Preface of A Writer Teaches Writing (1968). Here's a quick look:
NESDEC approached the author, who teaches a course in writing for English Education majors at the University of New Hampshire and is also a professional writer. He had isolated and defined the steps followed by most effective writers—business and poets, scientists and journalists—and then made his students experience the process of writing followed by most professionals. His students, in turn, had success in making their students learn by experiencing the process of writing as practiced by the publishing writer.
The author met with eighteen experienced secondary school teachers, all but one of whom had taught for more than ten years, and presented his approach to them. They considered, reacted, attacked, debated, and discussed his ideas. The author then went home and hammered out the draft of a book, presenting his methods in a manner which might be appropriate for the secondary school teacher.
The author met again with the teachers and they tore into a draft of his book line by line. This draft was also shown to professional writers, to other teachers, to teachers of teachers, and to English professors. The book was twice rewritten and a third draft completed. At the beginning of the school year in September 1966 the third draft of the book was read by more than a thousand English teachers, college students who planned to become English teachers, writers, college professors, and public school administrators. The approach, in one form or another, was tried in hundreds of classrooms. The author used parts of the book in his university courses, and also tested it in Hollis, New Hampshire, High School in a program supported by Sanders Associates of Nashua, New Hampshire. Each page of the book was criticized by many teachers and students. (xi-xii)
