The Writing Process

The Writing Process Module Overview: 1- The Writing Process - Introduction to the Writing Process - Pre-writing and its Techniques 2- Pre-Writing - Annotated Note-Taking and How to Do It Effectively - Reading Journal 3- Planning: Writing the Outline - Structure of the Outline 4- Drafting, Revising, Editing and Proofreading - Drafting your Paper - Revising - Tops on Revision - Editing - Proofreading Video 1: The Writing Process Overview In this learning module, we are going to discuss the writing process based on academic readings, how to gather ideas from texts, and how to organize your writing using various techniques. Introduction to the Writing Process Academic writing is a process of creating, organizing, drafting, and polishing your paper. Throughout your academic life, you are most likely to write and respond to an assigned reading with sometimes very specific instructions from your professor. In order to do this well, you may use several techniques that reading experts recommend. Pre-writing and its Techniques The first step in the writing process is called pre-writing. A few of the most beneficial pre-writing exercises are reading journals and taking annotated notes. We will talk about these pre-writing exercises in the next video. Video 2: Step 1. Pre-writing Annotated Note-Taking and How to Do It Effectively Annotated note-taking allows you to record your thoughts and comments about what you have read. You can do this on a separate piece of paper, commenting on the ideas that come to you, as you read the text, or you can do this in the margins of the reading itself. This allows you to capture and record your response to a text that you will soon write about. Let’s take a look at an example and how you could annotate this text. For example, here, I choose to answer the author’s question: Yes, I do love Batman. Or here, this statement is logical. Reading Journal When reading, keep a reading journal. This is writing done in reaction to the text you have read. This kind of writing often leads to deeper ideas and critical thoughts about the reading. It assists you in processing your experience with the text. Sample of Reading Journal This sample demonstrates what a reading journal would look like. The typical elements of a reading journal, such as questions, reflections, opinions, are highlighted. You also see that the sample does not have the typical academic structure, such as thesis statement, topic sentences, clear evidence, etc. In other words, it is not necessarily a formal piece of writing; rather it is a collection of your thoughts, ideas, and questions. Video 3: Planning: Writing the Outline Outlining is one of the most frequent techniques writers use to discover ideas and establish the relationships among them. Outlines clarify, organize ideas, and show the hierarchy of those ideas. An outline simply presents the skeleton of the text, and thus can serve as a map for drafting your paper. The Structure of the Outline The thesis statement is at the top of the outline, followed by main ideas; under those main ideas are the minor ideas. Here is a template of what an outline should look like. The outline will allow you to proceed to the next step of drafting your own paper. Video 4: Drafting, Revising, Editing and Proofreading Drafting your Paper: When you write a first draft, you express your ideas in rough form without worrying too much about what is correct, appropriate or relevant. Your aim at this stage of the writing process is not to produce a perfect draft, but to get down your main ideas and supporting details, realizing that you will revise them later. Use your outline, but if you find you need to add material, go ahead and do so. Sometimes, you will find yourself writing several drafts. Keep in mind that giving yourself a break from your draft may be necessary and helpful at times. Even a few hours may give you a different perspective. After several drafts, you will move on to revising. Revising: Writers revise their work, starting with the global matters first. Begin by addressing the large problems. Revising is when you engage in the ongoing process of rethinking your paper. In doing so, you may focus on your argument as a whole, revisit your purpose, re-work your organization, review your content and evidence, and basically focus on the big changes. This could include rewriting a paragraph or an entire section of the paper. Tips on Revision: When you are revising, you’d want to search for: 1- ideas that do not fit. 2- ideas that are not as specific or complete as they could be. 3- ways to connect ideas so they flow smoothly from one to the next. Editing: Editing is the next step. It involves identifying errors or patterns of errors at the sentence level. This means that each sentence is read and errors in grammar, word choice, punctuation and spelling are corrected. Proofreading: Proofreading is the final stage of writing your paper, when you examine it carefully to find and correct errors related to mechanics.