(almost) Everything you wanted to know about writing (but were afraid to ask)

1. (almost) Everything you wanted to know about writing(but were afraid to ask)

2. What is writing? Student Responses:

3. What is writing? • Personal expression • Creative expression • Communication of ideas • Participation in a dialogue • Means of influence • Leaving a legacy • Standard for fact or truth • Binding contract

4. Why do we write? Student Responses:

5. Why do we write? • Creative Outlet • Personal Catharsis • Exploration and processing of ideas • Engage in the academic dialogue • To influence and persuade • To leave a legacy or history

6. What does writing do? Student Responses:

7. What does writing do? Discourse Model Writer Reader Worldview Ideas TEXT Worldview Ideas

8. How to Write Writing Process: • Prewriting • Drafting • Revising • Editing • Presenting

9. How to Write Prewriting: • Exploration of ideas and possibilities • Research • Note-taking • Outlining • Deciding what to say and how to say it

10. How to Write Drafting: • The Extremely Rough Draft: • Get the ideas onto paper • Don’t worry about structure or mechanics • Rescue & Recovery: • Find the ideas and sentences worth saving • Leave behind the lost causes

11. How to Write Drafting: • Abstract Summary: What are you really trying to say?

12. How to Write Revising (overview): • Goal: Ideas = Words • Use salvaged material from The Extremely Rough Draft • Add structure and organization • Get feedback from others Does what they read = what you are saying?

13. How to Write Revising (Thesis Statement): • Must be a persuasive statement • Hard Thesis • Soft Thesis • Complex Split

14. How to Write Revising (Supporting Points): • Use appeals to Logos, Ethos, and Pathos • Use Rhetorical Devices • Avoid Fallacies • BE SPECIFIC

15. How to Write Revising (Introduction): • Start strong – first verb must be active voice • Be clever and sophisticated • Don’t be cute or gimmicky • See handout for ideas

16. How to Write Revising (Introduction): “Did you know that probing the seamy underbelly of US lexicography reveals ideological strife and controversy and intrigue and nastiness and fervor on a near-Lewinskian scale?... Did you know that US lexicography even had a seamy underbelly?”

17. How to Write Revising (Introduction): “Synecdoche. In true Midwest fashion, people in Bloomington aren’t unfriendly but tend to be reserved. A stranger will smile at you, but there normally won’t be any of that strangerly chitchat in waiting areas or checkout lines. But now, thanks to the Horror, there’s something to talk about that overrides all inhibitions, as if we were somehow all standing right there and just saw the same traffic accident.”

18. How to Write Revising (Introduction): “Because I am a long-time rabid fan of tennis in general and Tracey Austin in particular, I’ve rarely looked forward to reading a sports memoir the way I looked forward to Ms. Austin’s Beyond Center Court: My Story… This is the type of mass-market book… that I seem to have bought and read an awful lot of… I think that Austin’s memoir has maybe finally broken my jones for the genre, though.”

19. How to Write Revising (Conclusion): • Link, Restated Thesis, Twist • Answer the question: “So What?” • Never introduce new information.

20. How to Write Revising: • Write and rewrite until you get it right. • Goal: Ideas = Words on the page

21. How to Write Editing: • Apply the finishing touches • Clean up silly mistakes • Refer to style manuals for help • Be sure that spelling and mechanics do not distract from your content. • Take out unnecessary “fluff”

22. How to Write Presenting: • Submit a work of which you are proud