The Writing Process

1. The Writing Process • Invention • Planning and Drafting • Feedback • Revision • Editing • Reflecting

2. The Writing Process • Invention • fast-writing • clustering • brainstorming • ignore the editor in your brain at this point in the process; get ideas on paper as quickly as possible • focus on one issue at a time

3. Natalie Goldberg’s Rules for Invention • Keep your hand moving • Don’t cross out • Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar • Lose control • Don’t think. Don’t get logical. • Go for the jugular.

4. Planning and Drafting • At this stage, you take your invention work and write the first full draft. • A “draft” is a full paper with a beginning, middle, and end. It is not one or two paragraphs that is only a beginning. • As with invention work, try to write the first draft as quickly as possible, trying to get your ideas on paper with little interference from the editor.

5. Suggestions for Drafting • Choose a time and place where you can complete a full draft in a single sitting. • Use a computer to make revision easy or write on one side skipping lines. • Be satisfied with less than perfection • Experiment • Follow Digressions • Guess at Words, Spelling, Facts

6. Feedback • From peers • From Learning Center • From teacher

7. How to Give Critical Feedback • Read the entire piece first • Start with the positive • Start with big questions; move to small • Offer advice, but don’t rewrite • Your role is to read carefully, to point out what you think is or is not working, to make suggestions and ask questions. • Leave the revising to the writer.

8. Why do we do Peer-Revision? • When you read someone else’s writing critically, you learn more about the decisions writers make, how a thoughtful reader reads, and the constraints of particular kinds of writing. • In other words, you will become a better critic of your own work. • You embody for the writer the abstraction called audience. By sharing your reaction and analysis with the writer, you complete the circuit of communication.

9. Revision • Revise=to see again • Try to view the draft objectively. • This means that you must do much more than simply correct errors; you must see the paper again from a new perspective and be willing to make big changes, including cutting sections, adding sections, or moving sections around.

10. How to revise your work • Start by looking at the piece of writing as a whole. • Fix big problems first • Does the essay achieve its purpose? • Are the paragraphs in a logical order? • Look at each section • Is the beginning effective? • Are all paragraphs unified and coherent?

11. Editing • At this point, you correct all errors in grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. • Nonstandard language distracts and lessens your credibility as a writer. • You need to read your paper slowly and carefully at this point. • It is wise to have someone else whom you trust proofread for you; someone else will see errors that you cannot see because you know the work too well.

12. Some Editing Strategies • Read aloud to yourself. If your writing doesn’t sound good aloud, it probably won’t read well either. • Check each sentence, one-at-a-time, beginning at the last sentence. • This will allow you to read for grammar, punctuation, and mechanics, and not for meaning.

13. The Process is Recursive • The writing process is not linear. • At any stage in the process, you may need to return to the Invention or Drafting stages. • Invention doesn’t stop when drafting begins; it continues throughout the process.

14. The Last Step: Reflection • After you have submitted your final draft, you should reflect on the process: • What have I learned from writing this paper? • What worked well for me this time? • What didn’t work for me? • What should I have done differently? • What are my goals for my next piece of writing? • What would I like to try that I haven’t tried yet?