1. From idea to finished product
The Writing Process
From idea to finished product

2. The Writing Process Think Prewrite Identify your thesis
Support the thesis with evidence
Organize the evidence
Write the paragraphs of the first draft
Revise meaning, structure, and paragraph development
Revise sentences and words
Edit and proofread

3. The Writing Process
“Most of us tend to be creatures of habit; we feel secure and comfortable doing things the way we always have. You’ve probably approached writing in much the same way for many years. At first, you may be reluctant to try the techniques we describe here and in the following chapters. That’s understandable. But we urge you to experiment with the strategies we present” (The Longman Writer, 18).

4. Prewriting
Prewriting refers to strategies you can use to generate ideas before starting the first draft of the paper.
During prewriting, you deliberately ignore your internal critic. Your purpose is simply to get ideas down on paper without evaluating their effectiveness.

5. Understand the Boundaries of the Assignment
Clarify the kind of paper you need to write.
Summary, essay, brainstorm, research paper, etc.
How long should the paper be?

6. Determine Your Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Point of View
What do you want the essay to accomplish?
Some common goals are: inform, explain, convince, persuade, entertain, etc.
Audience
Someone will be reading your paper, who?

7. Determine Your Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Point of View
Emotional state.
Enthusiasm, anger, informative, instructional, etc.
This effects sentence structure and word choice.
Point of View
First person, second person, third person

8. Discover Your Essay’s Limited Subject
Example:
Subject = English IV
Limited Subject = The three main reasons I love English IV
Subject = Education
Limited Subject = The quality of instruction offered by student teachers at Lakeview High School

9. Generate Raw Material About Your Limited Subject
Freewriting, brainstorming, and mapping.
Freewriting means jotting down in rough sentences or phrases everything that comes to mind.
Brainstorming is more of a list of sentences and ideas.
Mapping is a more visual approach.
Also, conducting research may be necessary to generate raw material about your limited subject.

10. Spider Map

11. Planning Chart

12. Persuasion Map

13. Cluster/Word Web

14. Organize Your Raw Material
This includes possibly starting an outline, editing your freewriting, or arranging your mapping in some way. This is the step where you take the useful parts from your freewriting and prepare them for your rough draft.

15. Lets Give It A Try