1. Chapter Two The Writing Process
College Writing Skills with Readings, 9/e
John Langan

2. The Process: 4 Steps in a Nutshell
Prewriting--to discover a thesis
Developing Solid Support for Thesis
Writing a First Draft
Revising and Editing

3. Prewriting Techniques
Freewriting
Questioning
Making a List
Clustering
Preparing a Scratch Outline

4. Freewriting
Write nonstop for ten minutes and jot down in rough sentences or phrases everything that comes to mind about a possible topic.
There are lots of things I get annoyed by. One of them is politishans, in fact I am so annoyed by them the last thing I want is to write about them. Another thing that bothers me is noisy people at the movies. I used to love the movies….

5. Do not worry (yet) about spelling or punctuation.
Freewriting
Do not worry (yet) about spelling or punctuation.
[. . .] There are lots of things I get annoyed by. One of them is politishans. [. . .]

6. Questioning ???????????
Ask as many questions as you can think of about your subject.
Why?
When?
Where?
Who?
How?

7. (aka “brainstorming”)
Making a List
(aka “brainstorming”)
Create a list of ideas and details that relate to your subject.
Do not worry about the order of the list.
Traffic is bad between my house and theatre
Noisy patrons
Don’t want to run into Jeremy
Hard to be on a diet

8. (aka “diagramming” or “mapping”)
Clustering
(aka “diagramming” or “mapping”)
Write your subject in the center of a blank sheet of paper.
Jot down ideas and details around the subject.
Use lines, boxes, arrows and circles to show relationships among ideas and details.

9. Clustering/Diagramming
Traffic getting
to theater
Line at
box office
Might see
old boyfriend
Too many people
Movies
Temptations
Noisy People
Adults
Teenagers
Chocolate
bars
Popcorn
Coughing
and sneezing
Telling Plot
Yelling
Texting

10. Preparing a Scratch Outline
Think carefully about:
The point you are making
The supporting items for that point
The order in which you will arrange those items

11. Your Goals: Writing a First Draft State your main idea clearly.
Develop the content of paper with plenty of specific details.

12. Revision Set your draft aside for a while.
Work from typed or printed text.
Read your draft aloud.
Add your thoughts and changes above the lines or in the margins of your paper.

13. 3 Stages to the Revising Process
Revising content
Revising sentences
Editing

14. Revising Content Unity Supporting points must back up main idea.
The main idea must be clearly stated in introductory paragraph.
Supporting points must back up main idea.

15. Support Revising Content
At least 3 separate points must support the main idea.
Plenty of specific evidence must be provided for each supporting point.

16. Organization Revising Content
Have an interesting introduction, solid conclusion, and accurate title
Use transitions and other connecting words to connect ideas.

17. Use parallelism to balance words and ideas:
Revising Sentences
Use parallelism to balance words and ideas:
Correct: The mugger jumped out and scared her.
Incorrect: The mugger jumped out and scares her.

18. Revising Sentences Keep voice and tense consistent. Incorrect
Jean punched down the risen yeast dough in the bowl. Then you dump it onto the floured work table and knead it into a smooth, shiny ball.
Correct
Jean punched down the risen yeast dough in the bowl. Then she dumped it onto the floured work table and kneaded it into a smooth shiny ball

19. Revising Sentences Use verbs. Passive: Active: ACTIVE
The car was crashed by me.
Active:
I crashed the car.
ACTIVE
some passive verbs
Forms of to be: is am
are
was
were
been

20. Avoid slang, clichés, pretentious language, and wordiness.
Revising Sentences
Avoid slang, clichés, pretentious language, and wordiness.

21. Revising Sentences Incorrect The truck was speeding.
The truck was brown.
The truck skidded on some ice.
The truck almost hit a police officer.
The police officer was startled.
The police officer was young
The brown speeding truck
startled the young police officer
as it skidded on some ice
and almost hit him.

22. Check for and correct errors in:
Editing
Check for and correct errors in:
grammar
punctuation
usage
spelling

23. Suggestions for Peer Review
Identification: On a sheet of paper, write the author’s name and the title of the paper you read.
Scratch Outline: “X-ray” the paper for its inner logic by making a scratch outline.
Comments
Where did the paper “snag”? Suggest ways to fix problems.
Are there problems with support, unity, or organization? Try to help.
Note something you really liked about the paper.