English B60 The Writing Process

Your Homework When you wrote your writing sample, what was your writing process? What was the very first thing you did? How did that prepare you for your next step? Jot down your process. Number your steps and be as detailed as possible. Turn and share with a partner. How are your approaches similar? How are they different?

The Process While it isn’t always linear, the writing process does have several steps, and it’s best if you attempt to follow them in order.

Pre-writing The first step of the writing process gets you ready to write. Pre-writing means understanding the assignment and setting up a plan to follow. Pre-writing keeps you focused and allows you to have better structure and development in your writing assignments.

Listing Listing can be a very effective form of pre-writing. You can make various types of lists: Pros/Cons Examples References to a text or reading

Listing Listing can help you assemble reasons and evidence so that your essay is well developed Pro-con listing can help you choose a side or a stance on a debatable issue. It can also help you see the perspective of your opposition, which is helpful. It is quick and low-stress.

Word Web

Word Web Word Webs help you organize your thoughts. They group like ideas together and show a hierarchy of thinking—what is a major point vs. what is a sub-point.

Freewriting

Outlining Outlining is another means of organizing thoughts or ideas. It typically lays out the structure of your entire assignment, so you know what you’ll say and the order you’ll say it in. It is more formal than many other forms of pre-writing, and it works best in conjunction with other forms. Free-write, list, bubble map first, then outline after before you begin to draft.

Outlining

Practice If you used a form of pre-writing on your writing sample, choose a DIFFERENT method, and use it to pre-write. If you did not pre-write at all, choose one method to try, and pre-write.

Drafting While writing your first draft, you should be allowing your ideas to flow freely. Don’t worry too much about sticking to the plan you established in your pre-writing; also, don’t worry about spelling or grammar mistakes at this point. What’s critical here is that all of your ideas get onto the page, even if they aren’t in the exact order that you want them to be or aren’t as polished as you’d like them to be.

Drafting

Revising Even though your first draft is finished, you are not: you still need to revise your paper. When revising, you should focus on Content—Does my paper say what I want it to say? Do I stay on topic? Is my argument consistent throughout? Does my essay fit the assignment criteria? Development—Have I included enough examples? Have I referenced an outside source? Structure/Organization—Are my ideas presented in logical order? Do I need to rearrange any to make my argument more effective? You should NOT focus on grammar or mechanics and this point.

Practice Look at your writing sample and ask the revision questions. What should you change, if anything, about the assignment? Make a note of your proposed changes directly on your homework sheet.

Editing Editing is putting the final polish on the paper. This is where you proofread for spelling errors, typos, grammatical problems, and other such issues.

Practice Edit your writing sample. Proofread for any mistakes. Make corrections directly on your paper.

Backtracking