Academic

Wri+ng Process
Module 1-2
 1. Understanding the +tle
•  The first stage of the wri/ng process is to understand the
/tle.
•  This is a key stage. Know what you need to write
•  By taking the /me to understand the /tle, you can be more
confident that the content of your essay or report will be
relevant, which will earn you a higher grade.
•  It will also ensure that your background reading, if it is
a researched assignment with references, will be more
focused.
•  The most important aspects of understanding the ques/on
are iden/fying the key words and the command words in the
/tle.
 EXAMPLE
QUESTION:
•  Discuss the factors that contribute to childhood obesity in The
United States. You should use at least 5 academic sources to
support your response.
Checklist
 2. Brainstorming
•  AGer you have understood the /tle, the next step of
the wri/ng process is to generate ideas.
•  The best way to do this is by a process called 'brainstorming'.
•  Brainstorming is a technique, which is used to get as many
ideas as you can, as quickly as you can.
•  The words 'many' and quickly' are important.
•  A common mistake students make when brainstorming is to
stop aGer wri/ng down only a few ideas.
•  This is not 'brainstorming'.
•  As the word 'storm' suggests, it is something, which should
have much energy and power, leading to a flood of ideas.
 2. Brainstorming
•  Although brainstorming may take some /me, it will save you
/me in the long run.
•  There is nothing worse than racing confidently into an essay
then geKng stuck for ideas halfway through.

•  Useful brainstorming techniques are:
a.  Clustering.
b.  Lis/ng.
c.  Freewri/ng.
 Clustering
•  Clustering, also called mind-mapping, is a visual
brainstorming technique.
•  It is especially useful for visual learners.
•  The advantage of this technique is that ideas are organised on
the page, making it easier to move to the outlining stage of
the process.
•  As a result, it is the most popular brainstorming method with
students.
 Lis6ng
•  Lis/ng, as its name suggests, is a brainstorming technique in
which you make a list of ideas.
•  The advantage of this technique is that it enables ideas to be
generated more quickly than with clustering, as the ideas can
be wriQen in any order.
 Freewri6ng
•  Freewri/ng is a brainstorming ac/vity in which the writer
writes anything they can about a topic, in con/nuous prose,
hoping that one idea will lead to another.
•  The advantage of this technique is that it might enable you to
generate ideas when the other methods fail.
•  However, students of academic wri/ng do not generally favor
it.
•  It takes more /me, and the wri/ng you produce will be
disorganised and will need to be discarded at the end.
•  It is more useful when wri/ng crea/ve works such as stories.
Checklist
 3. Researching
•  Finding informa/on to support your wri/ng
•  At university, you should be able to find what you need in the
library or via online bibliographic databases.
•  If you need to look elsewhere, Google scholar can be useful
for online ar/cles.
•  You can broaden your search by looking at the reference
sec/ons of any ar/cles you read and trying to find any /tles
which seem relevant to your own /tle.
•  If you need to use a general internet search engine to find
sources online, remember that any material you use in your
wri/ng needs to be of suitable academic quality.
 3. Researching
•  University websites are reliable sources (look for .ac.uk in the
URL for UK universi/es, or .edu for US and Australian ones).
•  Government websites are also generally considered to be
reliable sources (.gov).
•  The most common websites are commercial .com sites.
•  These may contain reliable informa/on, but you will need to
check the author to see if the informa/on is trustworthy.
•  Wikipedia is generally not considered to be a reliable source,
though it can be a useful place to get a general understanding
and to find more academic ar/cles via the references at the
end.
 Selec6ng and reading sources
•  You will probably need to use a considerable number of
sources in your essay.
•  A very general rule is the 'half percent' rule, which means you
would be expected to refer to five sources for every thousand
words.
•  However, in order to find five good sources, you will probably
need to read two to three /mes that many, in other words up
to fiGeen texts.
•  This is because some of the texts you read will not be useful
for your essay - but you may not know that un/l you read
them.
 Selec6ng and reading sources
•  In order to cope with this volume, you will need to use
some reading skills.
1.  It will be useful to survey the texts to get a general
understanding and decide quickly which ones will be most
useful.
2.  You will also need to scan reading texts to find relevant
passages; for book sources, the table of contents at the
beginning, and the index at the end, will also be useful for
finding specific informa/on.
3.  You may also need to skim texts to gain an understanding of
the main ideas and to take notes.
 Selec6ng and reading sources
4.  Journal ar/cles, which may be your main source of
informa/on at university, will usually contain an abstract,
which summarises the purpose, approach and findings, and
is the best place to start.
5.  Most ar/cles have headings, which are also useful in quickly
understanding the main points or loca/ng specific
informa/on.
Checklist
 4. Outlining
•  What is an outline?
•  An outline is a plan for your wri/ng.
•  It will include the main ideas and show how they are
organised and the overall structure.
•  It is oGen used for essays, in which case it will include
elements of the introduc/on such as the thesis statement, an
overview of each paragraph including the topic
sentences and suppor/ng ideas, and elements of the
conclusion, for instance the summary.
•  It can also be used for other types of wri/ng such as reports.
 Why outline?
•  An outline will assist you in your wri/ng for three main
reasons.
1.  First, it will help you to organise your ideas.
2.  Secondly, it will help ensure your wri/ng has unity.
3.  Finally, an outline will aid in the process of wri/ng by
breaking down the task into more manageable components.
 What are the features of a good
outline?
•  In order to be effec/ve, an outline will have the following
three features.
1.  Parallel structure.
Each heading and subheading should have the same form.
In the example above, the three main ideas, labelled 1, 2 and
3, are all verbs ('Organise', 'Create' and 'Aid').
All points labelled i., ii. etc. are also verbs ('keep track', 'put
in' etc.).
 What are the features of a good
outline?
2.  Coordina+on.
Each heading (and subheading) should have equal
significance.
In the example above, points labelled 1, 2 and 3 are all equal
(they are the 'three main reasons').
Those labelled i., ii. etc. are the suppor/ng details, and
therefore equal in significance.
 What are the features of a good
outline?
3.  Subordina+on.
Headings should be more general, while subheadings should
be more specific.
In the example above, the headings are the main ideas, while
the subheadings are the suppor/ng details (and therefore
more specific).

•  A detailed outline will also have the following feature:
ü  Division.
Each heading should be divided into at least two parts.


Checklist
 5. First DraL
•  A draG is a version of your wri/ng in paragraph form.
•  The first dra5 is when you move from the outline stage and
write a complete version of your paper for the first /me.
•  A first draG is oGen called a 'rough draG', and as this suggests,
it will be very 'rough' and far from perfect.
•  The first draG will lead on to a second draG, third draG, fourth
draG and so on as you refine your ideas and perhaps conduct
more research.
•  The paper you submit at the end is oGen called the 'final
draG', and emphasises the fact that wri/ng is a process
without a definite end (as even the final draG will not be
perfect).
 How to write a first draD?
•  When wri+ng a first draL, you should do the following:
1.  try to follow your outline as closely as possible;
2.  add new ideas if they are relevant;
3.  keep your thesis in mind while wri/ng;
4.  begin where you think is best (e.g. main body before
introduc/on);
5.  focus on ideas and content;
6.  do not worry about grammar, punctua/on or spelling;
7.  use double-spacing and wide margins for easier redraGing.
Checklist
 6. Checking
Types of checking
•  There are different types of checking which can take place.
•  The most authorita/ve type, of course, is for your tutor to
check your work and give feedback.
•  However, tutors do not always have the /me to do this.
•  Another resource for checking is your fellow students.
•  These are your 'peers' (meaning 'equals') and this type of
checking is called peer edi7ng.
•  A third and final type of checking is for you (the writer) to
check the work yourself.
•  Of course, if you are checking a short essay during an exam,
only the final type is possible.
 What to check for?
You should consider all of the following.
1.  Format: double spacing, wide margins, etc.
2.  Organisa/on: thesis, topic sentences, logical order,
coherence.
3.  Content: ideas, unity, background, final comment, cita/ons.
 7. RedraLing
•  Producing a final paper is a con/nual process of wri/ng,
edi/ng, geKng feedback and refining your work to make
beQer a version or 'draG'.
•  This process of producing a new draG is called redra5ing.
•  You should be prepared to redraG your work at least once -
more likely several /mes - in response to feedback or as you
discover areas that need more work
 How to redraD?
•  How you redraG will depend in part on whether or not your
work has been checked by a teacher or peer.
•  If it has been checked and you have received feedback, your
first task will be to make sure you understand the feedback.
•  If you do not, you will need to ask the person who gave it to
you for clarifica/on.
•  If you do not understand the feedback, you will not be able to
make improvements.
•  Remember that at this stage of the wri/ng process, you
should be working on the 'bigger' aspects of the task, namely
content and organisa/on.
Checklist
 8. Proofreading
•  Proofreading means to read and make correc/ons to a piece
of wri/ng.
•  By the /me you reach the proofreading stage of the wri/ng
process, your work is almost complete.
•  At this point the submission deadline might be very close, and
you will probably already have spent a long /me on the
'bigger' aspects of the task such as content and structure.
•  Your job now is to focus on the 'smaller' aspects such as
grammar, punctua/on and spelling, in order to eliminate as
many errors from the final draG as possible.
 Proofreading 6ps
1) Take a break before your start.
•  If you have only just finished wri/ng, you will be very familiar
with it and therefore less likely to see any errors.
•  A break of even a few minutes can be useful, though if
possible (if you have /me!) set your wri/ng aside for a day or
two before checking.
•  This will give you some distance from your wri/ng and help
you see it with a fresh eye.
 Proofreading 6ps
2) Use a spellchecker as part of the proofreading process.
•  Even if you have used one on a previous version, it is possible
that new errors were added with any final addi/ons or
changes you made to the previous draG.
•  Most word processing soGware packages (e.g. MicrosoG's
Word) come with a built-in spellchecker.
3) Check for your common mistakes.
•  Everybody has their own individual kind of mistake that they
frequently make.
•  Use feedback on previous wri/ng to help you understand
your common mistakes.
 Proofreading 6ps
4) Make sure you take your +me.
•  Proofreading requires slower reading than normal, because
you will want to check every word rather than skim through.
•  If you read through quickly, you will probably miss many
errors.
5) When checking for spelling, be careful of homophones,
which even proficient users make mistakes with.
•  Also look out for words which are real words but which are
the wrong ones for your meaning.
•  These type of spelling errors will not be no/ced by a
spellchecker.
 Proofreading 6ps
6) If possible, check your work using a hard (printed) copy.
•  You will have typed your assignment on a computer, and
changing the format from soG to hard copy may help you
no/ce more errors.
Checklist
 TIMING
•  You should plan to spend about 40% of your
/me on the pre-wri/ng ac/vi/es -
deconstruc/ng the ques/on (understanding
the /tle), brainstorming, researching, reading,
note taking and crea/ng a plan/outline (Steps
1 to 4) and
•  60% on the wri/ng of the assignment – first
draG and subsequent draGs and proofreading
(Steps 5 to 8).
 References
•  CoQrell, S. (2013) The Study Skills Handbook, 4th ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.