The Writing Process

1. Chapter Two The Writing Process College Writing Skills, 5E and College Writing Skills with Readings, 5EJohn Langan

2. Prewriting Techniques • Freewriting • Questioning • Making a List • Diagramming • Preparing a Scratch Outline

3. 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….

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

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

6. Making a List (aka “brainstorming”) • Collect 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

7. Diagramming (aka “clustering” or “mapping”) • Writeyour subject in the center of a blank sheet of paper. • Jot down ideas and detailsaround the subject. • Use lines, boxes, arrows and circles to showrelationships among ideas and details.

8. 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 Showing off

9. 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

10. Writing a First Draft Your Goals: • State your thesis clearly. • Develop the content of paper with plenty of specific details.

11. 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.

12. 3 Stages to the Revising Process • Revising content • Revising sentences • Editing 3

13. Revising Content Unity • Thesismust be clearly stated in introductory paragraph. • Supportingparagraphs must back up thesis.

14. Revising Content Support • At leastthree separate points must support the thesis. • Plenty of specific evidence must be provided for each supporting point. Must have support...

15. Revising Content Make sure you have: • an interesting introduction • a solid conclusion • an accurate title • a clear method of organization • transitions and connecting words

16. Revising Sentences Use to balance words and ideas: lelis paral m Correct: The mugger jumped out and scared her. Incorrect: The mugger jumped out and scares her.

17. Revising Sentences Keep voice and tense consistent. • Jean puncheddown the risen yeast dough in the bowl. Then you dump it onto the floured work table and knead it into a smooth, shiny ball. WRONG Jean punched down the risen yeast dough in the bowl. Then she dumped it onto the flouredwork table and kneaded it into a smooth shiny ball. RIGHT

18. Revising Sentences • Avoid slang, clichés, pretentious language, and wordiness.

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

20. Revising Sentences YOUR VARY 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. Sentences. The brown speeding truck startled the young police officer as it skidded on some ice and almost hit him.

21. Editing Check for and correct errors in • grammar • punctuation • spelling