Mastering the Writing Process
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Mohammed issaMastering the Writing Process
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Mohammed issaCHAPTER 2(BOOKLET)
THE WRITING PROCESS
College Writing Skills, 6E and College Writing Skills with Readings, 6E
John Langan
1
OUTLINE
Prewriting
Writing a First Draft
Revising
Editing
2
PREWRITING TECHNIQUES
Freewriting
Questioning
Making a List
Diagramming
Preparing a Scratch Outline
3
FREE WRITING
Write nonstop for ten minutes and
jot down in rough sentences or
phrases everything that comes to
mind about a possible topic.
4
FREE WRITING
When you free write, you do not worry about
grammar, spelling, punctuation, or writing in
complete sentences. You just think about your
ideas. You do not worry if they are good or bad
ideas.
E.g.: 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. 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.
E.g.:
• Traffic is bad between my house and theatre
• Noisy patrons
• Don’t want to run into Jeremy
• Hard to be on a diet
Do not worry about the order of the
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list.
DIAGRAMMING (AKA “CLUSTERING”
OR “MAPPING”)
• Write your subject in the center of a blank
sheet of paper.
• Jot down ideas and details around the
subject.
• Use lines, boxes, arrows and circles to
show relationships among ideas and
details. 8
DIAGRAMMING
Traffic
getting to
theater
Too
Temptations many
people
Moviegoing
Noisy Might see
old
people boyfriend
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 the paper with
plenty of specific details.
Don’t worry yet about spelling,
grammar and punctuation.
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
THE THREE STAGES OF THE REVISING
PROCESS
• Revising content
• Revising sentences
• Editing
13
REVISING CONTENT
Unity
• Thesis must be clearly stated in
introductory paragraph.
• Supporting paragraphs must back up
thesis.
14
REVISING CONTENT
Support
• At least three 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
To revise sentences you should:
• use parallelism to balance words and ideas.
• have a consistent point of view.
• use specific words
• use active verbs
• use words effectively by avoiding
slang, clichés, pretentious language,
and wordiness
• vary your sentences 17
EDITING
Check for and correct errors in
• grammar
• punctuation
• spelling
• sentence structure
18