The Writing Process Defined
The writing process consists of a set of strategies that will help you proceed from idea or purpose to the final statement of a paragraph or an essay. As presented here, the different strategies move from
Stage One: Exploring/ Experiment/ Gathering Information
to
Stage Two: Writing the Controlling Idea/ Organizing and Developing Support
to
Stage Three: Writing/ Revising/ Editing
The process of writing is recursive, which means "going back and forth." In this respect, writing is like reading. If you do not understand what you have read, you back up and read it again. After you reread the entire passage, you may still go back and reread selectively. The same can be said of your writing. If, for example, you have reached stage Two and you are working with an outline only to discover that your subject is too broad, you may want to back up and narrow your topic sentence or thesis and then adjust your outline. You may even return to an early cluster of ideas to see how you can use a smaller grouping of them. Revision, in Stage Three, is usually the most recursive park of all. You will go over your material again and again until you are satisfied that you have expressed yourself the best you can.
The Writing Process Worksheet
The blank Writing Process Worksheet on page 6, with brief directions for the three stages of the writing process, is designed to be duplicated and completed with each major writing assignment. It gives you clear, consistent guidance and provides your instructor with an easy format for finding and checking information. Customarily this worksheet is stapled to the front of your rough and final drafts.
The Assignment
Particulars of the assignment, frequently the most neglected parts of a writing project, are often the most important. If you do not know, or later cannot recall, specifically what you are supposed to do, you cannot do satisfactory work. An otherwise excellent composition on a misunderstood assignment may get you a failing grade, a sad situation for both you and your instructor.
As an aid to recalling just what you should write about, the writing process worksheet provides space and guidance for you to note these details: information about the topic, audience, pattern of writing, length of the paper, whether to include a rough draft or revised drafts, whether your paper must be typed, and the date the assignment is due.
At the time your instructor gives that information, it will probably be clear; a few days later, it may not. By putting your notes on the assignment portion of the worksheet, you remind yourself of what you should do and also indicate to your instructor what you have done.
Your Audience
More so than most points on the assignment portion of the worksheet, the matter of audience requires special consideration. At the outset of your writing project, you should consider your readers. Their needs, interests, and abilities should determine the focus of your subject, the extent of your explanation, your overall style, and your word choice. We usually make those adjustments automatically when we are speaking; it is easy to forget to do so when we are writing.
Stage One Strategies
Certain strategies commonly grouped under the heading prewriting can help you get started and develop your ideas. These strategies - freewriting, brainstorming, clustering, and gathering information - are very much a part of writing. The understandable desire to skip to the finished statement is what causes the most common student-writer grief: that of not filling the blank sheet or of filling it but not significantly improving on the blankness. The prewriting strategies described in this section will help you attack the blank sheet constructively with imaginative thought, analysis, and experimentation. They can lead to clear, effective communication.
Freewriting
Freewriting is an exercise that its originator, Peter Elbow, has called "babbling in print." When you freewrite, you write without stopping, letting your ideas tumble forth. You do not concern yourself unduly with the fundamentals of writing, such as punctuation and spelling. Freewriting is an adventure into your memory and imagination. It is concerned with discovery, invention, and exploration. If you are at a loss for words on your subject, write in a comment such as "I do not know what is coming next" or "blah, blah, blah," and continue when relevant words come. It is important to keep writing. Freewriting immediately eliminates the blank page and thereby helps you break through in that idea kit will include some you can use. You can then underline or circle those words and even add notes on the side so that the freewriting continues to grow even after its initial spontaneous expression.
The way in which you proceed depends on the type of assignment: working with a topic of your choice, working from a restricted list of topics, or working with a prescribed topic.
The topic of your choice affords you the greatest freedom of exploration. You would probably select a subject that interests you and freewrite about it, allowing your mind to wander among its many parts, perhaps mixing fact and fantasy, direct experience, and hearsay. A freewriting about music might uncover areas of special interest and knowledge, such as jazz or folk rock, that you would want to pursue further in freewriting or other prewriting strategies.
Working from a restricted list requires a more focused freewriting. With the list, you can, of cause, experiment with several topics to discover what is more suitable for you. If, for example, "career choice," "career preparation," "career guidance," and "career prospects" are on the restricted list, you would probably select on and freewrite about it. If it works well for you, you would probably proceed with the next step of your prewriting. If you are not satisfied with what you uncover in freewriting, you would explore another item from the restricted list.
When working with a prescribed topic, you focus on a particular topic and try to restrict your freewriting to its boundaries. If your topic specifies a division of a subject area such as "political involvement of your generation," then you would tie those key words to your own information, critical thinking, and imaginative responses. If the topic asks for, let's say, your reaction to a specific poem, then that poem would give you the framework for your free associations with your own experiences, creation, and opinions.
You should learn to use freewriting because it will often serve you well, but you need not use it every time you write. Some very short writing assignments do not call for freewriting. An in-class assignment may not allow time for freewriting.
Nevertheless, freewriting if often a useful strategy in your toolbox of techniques. It can help you get words on paper, break emotional barriers, generate topics, develop new insights, and explore ideas.
Freewriting can lead to other stages of prewriting and writing, and it can also provide content as you develop you topic.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming features important words is to ask the big six questions about your subject: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Then let your mind run free as you jot down answers in single entries or lists. Some of the big six questions may not fit, and some may be more important than others, depending on the purposes of your writing. For example, if you were writing about the cause of a situation, the why? question could be more important than others; if you were concerned with how to do something, the How? question would predominate. If you were writing in response to a reading selection, you would confine your thinking to questions appropriately related to the content of that reading selection.
Listing
Simple making a list of words and phrases related to your topic is another effective way to brainstorm, especial if you have a define topic and a storehouse of information. This strategy is favored by many writers.
Even if you do not have a focused topic, you may find a somewhat random listing useful, merely writing phases as they occur to you. This exploratory activity is similar to freewriting. After you have established such list, you can sort our and group the phrases as you generate your topic and fine its natural divisions. Feel free to accept, reject, or insert phases.
Clustering
In clustering, double – bubble your topic – that is, write it down in the middle of the page and draw a double circle around it – and then respond to the question “What comes to mind?” Draw a single bubble around other ideas on spokes radiating from the hub that contains the topic, any bubble can lead to another bubble or to numerous bubbles in the same way. This strategy is something used instead of, or before, making an outline to organize and develop ideas.
Gathering Information
For reading – related writing – especially the kind that requires a close examination of the selection – you will gather information by reading print or electronic source, such as the internet; make notes; perhaps outline or summarize. Of course, you may also want to make notes for other topics to write about as they occur to you. This kind of note taking can be combined with other strategies such as brainstorming and clustering. It can even take place of them. It can also be sued in conjunction with strategies such as outline.
Source: Brandon, L. & Brandon, K. (2008). Paragraphs & Essays with Integrated Readings. Houghton Mifflin Company.
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