1. The Writing Process Burkett – English III – English IV
Welcome to “The Writing Process.” This presentation is designed to introduce your students to three major elements that constitute the writing process (invention, composition, revision) and the strategies for inventing, composing, reviewing, and proofreading. The eighteen slides presented here are designed to aid the facilitator in an interactive presentation of the nuts and bolts of the writing process. This presentation is useful for the beginning of a composition course and/or for the beginning of a writing project. This presentation may be supplemented by OWL handouts, links to which are mentioned on the specific slides.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
How often do you read manuals? Only, when you buy something with “some assembling required” label? Would you be able to assemble your purchase without the manual? Most likely, you would. It might take a few hours of trial and errors, a few unnecessary parts left, and, probably, some disappointment in the purchase, but eventually you’ll get it assembled. If you follow the steps suggested in the manual, however, you will save your time and avoid the mistakes that can ruin your purchase. Manuals are helpful even if we do not like that they are too prescriptive.
Let’s consider this presentation the Manual to the Writing Process. You might choose not to follow every step in the manual, but knowing the stages, strategies, and techniques of the writing process will help save your time, so valuable in college; prevent frustration you might feel reading your teacher’s feedback, and, eventually, will help you get a good grade in a composition class. Manuals are a boring reading, but, after all, they are designed to walk you through the process rather than to entertain you.
Suggested warm-up activity: Prior to the presentation, the facilitator might conduct a brief discussion of what the writing process is and ask the students what steps they usually make when they write. (Optional: the facilitator puts on the board some popular elements of the writing process: writing an essay, generating ideas, coming up with the thesis, proofreading for spelling and punctuation errors, organizing support to the thesis in a certain manner. S/he then asks the students to arrange these actions into the order they follow when they write). The facilitator might also find useful to compare the writing process to the process we follow when cooking something. It is important to know the right sequence of actions when your cook. When cooking spaghetti, we don’t drain water before it boils for at least 7 minutes! Otherwise, we can end up hungry. However, unlike the linear cooking process, writing is recursive. Writers do not go straight from generating and organizing ideas to composing, they re-think ideas and re-organize the paper when they revise it.
Writer and Designer: Jennifer Liethen Kunka
Contributors: Muriel Harris, Karen Bishop, Bryan Kopp, Matthew Mooney, David Neyhart, and Andrew Kunka
Revising Authors: Elena Lawrick and Allen Brizee, 2007
Design Contributor and Revising Author: Veronika Maliborska, 2014
Developed with resources courtesy of the Purdue University Writing Lab
Grant funding courtesy of the Multimedia Instructional Development Center at Purdue University
© Copyright Purdue University, 2000, 2006, 2007
Burkett – English III – English IV
Courtesy of Purdue University – OWL Program

2. How Do We Write? Invent Compose Revise We…
The presentation starts with showing three major elements of the writing process, each of which is further discussed in terms of What is…? (i.e. its main stages) and How to..? (i.e. its strategies). E.g., the slide Inventing. How to invent? is followed by 1/the slide presenting major steps of invention and 2/the slide Inventing Strategies. The graphics presenting the writing process, i.e. the grey oval including invent-compose-revise elements, is consistently repeated throughout the presentation to make them memorable.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes: When we write, we conduct three actions: we invent, compose, and revise. And, we invent again, and then compose, and then revise. Hopefully, we can stop the circle at a certain point when we realize that the piece of writing we are working on is good enough for submission. Or, that we’ve run out of time….As you can see, three main elements of the writing process are invention, composition, and revision. Invention is a starting point of the process, at which writers come up with the game plan and ideas for the writing assignment. Composition focuses on generating the thesis and organizing ideas to support it. Revision consists of reviewing the paper for organization and support and also of proofreading it for mechanics errors. The writing process is “a circle in a circle” in a sense that the three actions take place at every stage. When writers brainstorm ideas, they jot them down and assess them critically: that is, writers compose and revise when they invent! When revision happens, writers work with ideas by cutting and rearranging them, or by adding new ones: that is, writers invent and compose when they revise!

3. Invention Invent Compose Revise How to…?
Invention a starting point of the process. At this stage the writer comes up with the game plan and ideas for the writing assignment.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Now, when you are familiar with the main stages of the writing process, let’s look at each stage in terms of “How to..?” and talk about the strategies that can be used to invent, compose, and revise. Remember, this presentation is your Manual to Writing , whose ultimate goal is to equip you with the bank of techniques you can choose from when you write. So, what exactly is the invention and how do we invent?
This slide can be complimented by invention and prewriting material on the Purdue OWL.

4. Invention Create a writing schedule based on the writing assignment:
Sample schedule:
Argument Paper
5-7 pages, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins.
Minimum of five cited sources: 3 must be from academic journals or books
Outline due: 10/17; Draft due: 10/24; Final Draft due: 10/30
This slide deals with What is..? part of the explanation and presents two necessary initial steps of writing: scheduling a particular writing process and assessing the assignment in terms of a rhetorical situation.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Do not rush to start composing right after you’ve received a writing assignment. Pause for a moment and think of it as of a business project. Devise a game plan, schedule your project: it will help you time-manage it, especially if you are a lover of procrastination. Are you the one? Then do not ignore this step: generating a game plan will guarantee that you will not “wake up” the night before a deadline.
Since invention is about generating ideas for the paper, which is a struggling process for many writers, thinking of the assignment in terms of a rhetorical situation can be a way out of the ‘labyrinth’. Do NOT think about the assignment globally: it can be overwhelming; think locally: just start answering simple questions. Who is my audience? What is the purpose of this paper? What is the genre of this assignment? What do I know about this genre? What about the style? Do I want to sound informal or formal? What kind of research do I have to conduct to gather information for the paper?
Sample schedule created using Google Calendar

5. Invention
Before you start to write ask questions to explore your rhetorical situation:
Purpose?
Audience?
Genre?
Style?
Research?
This slide deals with the most common invention strategies. The following slide provides more specific questions to ask.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Do not rush to start composing right after you’ve received a writing assignment. Pause for a moment and think of it as of a business project. Devise a game plan, schedule your project: it will help you time-manage it, especially if you are a lover of procrastination. Are you the one? Then do not ignore this step: generating a game plan will guarantee that you will not “wake up” the night before a deadline.
Since invention is about generating ideas for the paper, which is a struggling process for many writers, thinking of the assignment in terms of a rhetorical situation can be a way out of the ‘labyrinth’. Do NOT think about the assignment globally: it can be overwhelming; think locally: just start answering simple questions. Who is my audience? What is the purpose of this paper? What is the genre of this assignment? What do I know about this genre? What about the style? Do I want to sound informal or formal? What kind of research do I have to conduct to gather information for the paper?

6. Invention Strategies Explore classic topics Ask stasis questions
Ask more critical questions
Freewrite & brainstorm
Map & cluster
Keep a journal
Explore classic topics
Ask stasis questions
Use tagmemics
Record ideas without revising or proofreading
Invent and organize ideas visually to explore relationships, processes
Write personal explorations and reflections on ideas
This slide presents four strategies to generate ideas for the paper: 1) questions, 2) free writing and brainstorming, 3) mapping and clustering, and 4) keeping a writer’s journal. Each strategy is complimented by a short and vivid explanation/example that pops up on the left-hand side of the slide.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
There are several techniques you can use to come up with the ideas for your writing assignment. It is helpful to be familiar with and try all of them because you never know which one will work today. For example, you are experiencing a writer’s block: your mind got blank and not a single idea comes to it. Try freewriting, and then use it as a starting point for clustering the ideas. Or, you are having a whole bunch of ideas, but you do not see how they are related. In this case, listing and clustering will help you out. So, let’s built up the bank of strategies writers use to invent ideas.
Ask critical questions: The technique that works for every writer! Ask yourself simple questions nosy journalists love to ask: What? When? Where? How? E.g., what would I like to learn about it if I were a reader? When did it happen? Look how easy to work with reporter’s questions. Let’s say you wrote a sentence: Mike walked into the room. Boring? Then, be curious: How did Mike walk? What was the room like? Who was there? Why did Mike walk there? (This is a great opportunity for a facilitator to engage the audience, invite the students to come up with answers, and generate a sentence full of details and vivid words).
Brainstorm the topic: jot down any idea that pops up in your mind. Do not assess whether it is relevant or not, you’ll figure it out later. Your task now is to build up a collection of ideas you associate with the topic.
Freewriting is a useful technique when you experience a writer’s block. How many of you felt at least once that you were not able to squeeze anything out of your mind? In such cases, writing without stopping for five to ten minutes is the best remedy. Turn off you inner critic: forget about spelling or punctuation rules. You are not going to show your writing to anyone, you just give a voice to your mind! Besides being an urgent care for a writer’s block, freewriting is a great source of ideas. You will be surprised how many fresh ideas you can find among a junk yard of spelling errors and awkwardly-phrased sentences.
Mapping & Clustering: Have you ever created a web of ideas? Do you like to draw bubbles and put words into it? Even if you don’t, clustering is a great way to sort out the thoughts you have generated so far. (Or, the ones you have found in your freewritten passage). Clustering helps to see which idea is not developed enough or not supported with sufficient details.
Keep a journal: If you like to keep a record of the events happening in your life, or, if you just like to express your feelings on paper, then your journal can be an excellent collection of ideas for your writing assignments. Reread the entries: you might find something related to the theme of your writing project. Journals are not for everyone, but they might be the treasure cave for those who keep them.
Suggested activity: After presenting these strategies, the facilitator can engage the audience into a discussion of strategies students find more efficient as well as encourage the students to try new ones. As an optional follow-up activity the facilitator can divide the audience into six groups and ask each group to generate ideas for the assigned topic by using one strategy. All groups will work with the same topic, however the means of coming up with the ideas will be different. Class discussion wraps up the activity.

7. Composing Invent Compose Revise How to…?
Composing is a complex process ranging from conducting research to writing the first draft. Often, students struggle with writing a paper because they mistake composing with drafting; that is, they reduce composing to writing the first draft. Hence, conducting the research, narrowing the topic, developing the thesis statement, and arranging supporting ideas in a logical manner escape the students’ writing process. As a result, students have to deal with the issues of organizing papers and communicating ideas at the revision stage. It is essential to point out the importance of every step of composing and show how each step contributes to the ultimate successful first draft.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
The next element of the writing process is composing. Unlike the common stereotype, composing is more than writing a draft. It is a complex process that involves major decisions regarding the topic and organization of the paper, in which drafting is only a final step. It will be fair to sat that composition is the main strategic element of the writing process. After all, you are in an introductory COMPOSITION class. Just don’t forget that we can’t compose a decent essay without invention and revision.

8. Conduct research Narrow the topic Develop the thesis Organize ideas
How Do We Write?
Conduct research
Narrow the topic
Develop the thesis
This slide names the steps of composing: 1/conducting research, 2/narrowing the topic, 3/developing the thesis, 4/organizing ideas to support the thesis, 5/writing the first draft. It might be useful to stress that the composing stage of the writing process is linear and sequential. The key to a strong first draft is to follow the steps in the order listed: from conducting research and narrowing a topic to the developing a thesis statement and arranging its support. In the long run, this can save a writer time and effort.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Here are five major steps writers takes when they compose :
Research the subject. Research makes your argument more credible, it provides specific details and supports to the statements you make. There are different kinds of research: you can go online or to the library, conduct an interview, or even observe the subject—the research you’ll do depends on the writing assignment you are working on.
Narrow the topic. Think of your writing assignment: Is the topic you’ve chosen narrow enough? It is extremely difficult to discuss a broad topic like “Smoking on campus” on two or three pages. Choose one aspect of the problem you want to discuss. Broad topics lead to generalizations and shallow argumentation, that is why the topic should be narrow enough to give you space to develop and support your claim. For example, instead of “Smoking on campus” you can discuss the reasons why the students on your campus do not abide anti-smoking rules.
Now, when you know more about the subject, after you narrowed the topic, it is time for developing a thesis statement. The thesis is the major claim of your argument, it is a main strand around which you will weave other ideas. The way you will word the thesis will depend on a kind of paper you are writing: analytical, expository, or argumentative. (You will find more specific advice on creating a thesis statement on
The rule of thumb to organize a paper: ideas should be related to a thesis and support it. The choice of a manner of organization can vary: you might organize supporting details in a time, space, or importance (from the weakest to the strongest) manner, but do not forget that every detail should work toward the thesis and should be coherently connected with the others. Otherwise, the paper won’t flow.
So, you are focused on a specific facet of the topic, you have researched it, developed a strong thesis statement, and arranged the support: it’s time to write the first draft!
Suggested follow-up activity (next class session): The facilitator might follow up the presentation by conducting a case study of two drafts of a student’s paper which explores the problems with one of these issues: the topic is too general, or there is a conflict between the thesis and support, or illogical organization of supporting ideas, or the lack of the thesis statement/research. The facilitator can use this slide solely as a grid for the analysis of the paper.
Organize ideas
Write the first draft

9. Creating an Outline I. Introduction A. Set the context
B. Explain why the topic is important
C. State the thesis
II. Body
A. Build points
B. Develop ideas
C. Support the main claim
III. Conclusion
A. Reemphasize the main idea
B. Restate the thesis
C. Drop The Mic
This slide provides a sample of an outline and reminds students of the basis structure of an essay and the functions of each part.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Organizing the paper in the form of an outline helps visualize its flow and coherence of ideas. The outline you see on the left-hand side of the slide shows the basic structure of an essay. It contains an introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction grabs the reader’s attention and introduces the main idea or claim, often in the form of a thesis statement. The body consists of several supporting paragraphs that help elaborate upon the main claim. It is the body of the paper where you build points, develop ideas, and support the main claim, which you made in the introduction. The conclusion serves to wrap up the argument and reemphasize the writer’s main ideas.
Whether you created an elaborated outline, like the one you would submit to your teacher, or simply sketched the main points of your paper, you immediately have a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization of the paper. An outline shows your argument in a simple and comprehensive manner, so you can save time and effort and re-arrange ideas BEFORE you even start writing the first draft. Outlines are like maps: they show directions and guarantee that you won’t get lost when you write a paper.
This slide can be supplemented by the handout Developing an Outline from

10. Revising Invent Compose Revise How to…?
Although revision is the final element of the writing process, it leads to re-inventing and re-composing. Thus, the three elements make a circle.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Revision is the final component of the writing process. Simply put, we revise when we change a written paper. We can make global change to add, cut, or re-arrange ideas, or we can make minor changes to correct punctuation and spelling errors. But remember, when I introduced invention, composition, and revision, I stressed that writing process is recursive. Revision causes re-invention (writers brainstorm for new ideas) and re-composition (you have to re-arrange the support and re-write the entire paper). Since there is no revision without invention and composition, it is helpful to keep in mind the strategies of these initial elements of the writing process.
Suggested activity: The facilitator might ask students what exactly they do when they revise the first drat and, building on the responses, might explain that the efficient revision is two-fold: reviewing and proofreading, or editing. This brief discussion will make a smooth transition to the next slide.

11. Revising Review Revise Proofread
The presentation shows revision as a hierarchy of reviewing for higher-order concerns and proofreading for later-order concerns. Revising a paper can be an overwhelming business and students tend to focus on correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors; thus, loosing sight of the issues of organization, clear communication of ideas, and coherence. Therefore, it is helpful to divide revision into two stages: reviewing and proofreading. The facilitator might want to stress a prior order of reviewing over proofreading.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Every writer at least once felt overwhelmed while revising the paper. Revision is messy: you start with checking how clearly your ideas are communicated, stumble at a comma in the wrong place, and slide into correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It helps if the writer does revision into two steps: first, review the organization, coherence, and clear communication of ideas, and then, proofread the for grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Hence, revisions is not messy any more, and you focus on one thing at a time. It’s a bad, though tempting idea, to proofread before review since it’s easier to do. Reviewing might require major changes in your paper and adding new paragraphs, so you will inevitably have to proofread again.

12. Reviewing guide Revising Clear thesis? Clear ideas?
Organization of the paper
From general to specific
Information to support the thesis?
Paragraph structure?
Supporting details?
Conclusion restates the thesis and overviews the main ideas
The presentation shows revision as a hierarchy of reviewing for higher-order concerns and proofreading for later-order concerns. Revising a paper can be an overwhelming business and students tend to focus on correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors; thus, loosing sight of the issues of organization, clear communication of ideas, and coherence. Therefore, it is helpful to divide revision into two stages: reviewing and proofreading. The facilitator might want to stress a prior order of reviewing over proofreading.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Every writer at least once felt overwhelmed while revising the paper. Revision is messy: you start with checking how clearly your ideas are communicated, stumble at a comma in the wrong place, and slide into correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It helps if the writer does revision into two steps: first, review the organization, coherence, and clear communication of ideas, and then, proofread the for grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Hence, revisions is not messy any more, and you focus on one thing at a time. It’s a bad, though tempting idea, to proofread before review since it’s easier to do. Reviewing might require major changes in your paper and adding new paragraphs, so you will inevitably have to proofread again.

13. Reviewing strategies Revising Refocus Reorder Add Delete
In the process of re-thinking the argument, writers exploit the following strategies: refocusing, reordering, adding, and cutting ideas, sentences, and, sometimes, paragraphs. The strategies are self-explanatory; however, the facilitator might use the example of a sample outline to show how the clarification of the thesis can lead to changing of the arrangement of the support.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
There are several strategies to re-think the argument in the writer’s arsenal: The writer might refocus the argument, reorder supporting ideas, add new details or cut the ones that irrelevant or redundant. For example, after reading the first draft you feel that the topic is still too broad to cover it in one paper, and one aspect of it obviously dominates: it’s interesting to the reader and you have sufficient research to illustrate it. Concentrate on this aspect then and re-arrange the supporting ideas to show every facet of it. If the thesis is strong, but the ideas in paragraphs drift away from the main claim, the paper needs reordering the supporting claims. Or, if you discovered a black hole in your argument, brainstorm for new ideas, conduct necessary research, and add. From time to time the writer has to cut some sentences or even paragraphs. It’s a painful, but necessary activity. Remember, your main concern in review is the argument you are developing in the paper. Check for clear communication, coherence, and relevance.

14. Proofreading guide Revising The paper appears professional?
Spelling and punctuation?
Sentences clear and easy to read?
Documentation style (MLA, APA, etc.)?
After working on the quality of the content and organization at the reviewing stage, writers then need to take care of mechanics, including corrections of spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and documentation style.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Now, when global issues of the paper are taken care of, it is time to proofread for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and documentation style. These issues might seem not important, but they might impede the communication. After all, who likes to struggle through grammar and spelling errors while reading?
This slide can be complimented with the handouts
Proofreading Strategies
Proofreading Your Paper
Steps in Editing Your Papers
Proofreading for Commas

15. Proofreading strategies
Revising
Spellcheck / Grammar check
Read your paper aloud
Talk to your instructor
Go to the writing lab
Proofreading strategies
This slide presents several efficient proofreading strategies.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes:
Start with running grammar and spell check. They will point to basic errors. If treated with caution, checkers are a great help to writers. It is important though, to caution students against an overreliance upon computer checkers. The technology can not think, it will not recognize “Good smelling (instead of spelling) is important in college” as an error! Also, many grammar checks function on computer-programmed patterns of words. Often, they cannot process long or complicated sentences. Just because sentences are long or complicated does not mean they are wrong. Having an understanding of grammar yourself is the best way to check over your work.
Read your paper out loud. Reading aloud forces the writer to engage each word verbally. Often typos, spelling errors, and sentence structure problems can be caught this way.
If spelling is a big problem, checking through the paper backwards can also help writers to correct errors. Again, checking backwards will help writers to engage every word.
Exchanging papers with a friend can also be a good way to check for errors. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes helps. However, writers need to remember that the paper belongs to them and they are responsible for their work. If a friend corrects something that you don’t think is incorrect, double check with a grammar book, the OWL web site, or the Writing Lab Grammar Hotline.
Note: Spellchecks and grammar checks do not identify all the errors in a paper.

16. Recap: How Do We Write? Invent Compose Revise We…
The presentation starts with showing three major elements of the writing process, each of which is further discussed in terms of What is…? (i.e. its main stages) and How to..? (i.e. its strategies). E.g., the slide Inventing. How to invent? is followed by 1/the slide presenting major steps of invention and 2/the slide Inventing Strategies. The graphics presenting the writing process, i.e. the grey oval including invent-compose-revise elements, is consistently repeated throughout the presentation to make them memorable.
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click. Transitions inside slides are animated: clicking will lead to skipping the content.
Notes: When we write, we conduct three actions: we invent, compose, and revise. And, we invent again, and then compose, and then revise. Hopefully, we can stop the circle at a certain point when we realize that the piece of writing we are working on is good enough for submission. Or, that we’ve run out of time….As you can see, three main elements of the writing process are invention, composition, and revision. Invention is a starting point of the process, at which writers come up with the game plan and ideas for the writing assignment. Composition focuses on generating the thesis and organizing ideas to support it. Revision consists of reviewing the paper for organization and support and also of proofreading it for mechanics errors. The writing process is “a circle in a circle” in a sense that the three actions take place at every stage. When writers brainstorm ideas, they jot them down and assess them critically: that is, writers compose and revise when they invent! When revision happens, writers work with ideas by cutting and rearranging them, or by adding new ones: that is, writers invent and compose when they revise!

17. Where to Go for More Help Purdue University Writing Lab, Heavilon 226
Check our web site:
brief questions to OWL Mail:
Notes:
The Writing Lab is located on the West Lafayette Campus in room 226 of Heavilon Hall. The lab is open 9:00am-6:00 pm. OWL, Online Writing Lab, is a reach resource of information. Its address is And finally, you can your questions to OWL Mail at and our tutors will get back to you promptly.

18. The End THE WRITING PROCESS Purdue OWL staff
Brought to you in cooperation with the Purdue Online Writing Lab