WRITING

Writing is the process of using symbols to

communicate, thoughts and ideas to a readable forms.

The Writing Process

Prewriting
Prewriting is anything you do before you write a draft of your document. It includes thinking,
taking notes, talking to others, brainstorming, outlining, and gathering information (e.g.,
interviewing people, researching in the library, assessing data).
Drafting
1. Drafting occurs when you put your ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Here you
concentrate upon explaining and supporting your ideas fully. Here you also begin to connect
your ideas. Regardless of how much thinking and planning you do, the process of putting
your ideas in words changes them; often the very words you select evoke additional ideas
or implications.
2. Don’t pay attention to such things as spelling at this stage.
3. This draft tends to be writer-centered: it is you telling yourself what you know and think
about the topic.
Revising
1. Revision is the key to effective documents. Here you think more deeply about your
readers’ needs and expectations. The document becomes reader-centered. How much
support will each idea need to convince your readers? Which terms should be defined for
these particular readers? Is your organization effective? Do readers need to know X before
they can understand Y?
2. At this stage you also refine your prose, making each sentence as concise and accurate
as possible. Make connections between ideas explicit and clear.
Editing
1. Check for such things as grammar, mechanics, and spelling. The last thing you should do
before printing your document is to spell check it.
2. Don’t edit your writing until the other steps in the writing process are complete.
Three approaches
 – Product writing- refers to a writing procedures with an end product in mind.
– Process writing- focuses on the process a writer goes through before producing a
piece of writing.
 Pre-writing
 Drafting
 Revising
 Editing
Genre Writing- is similar to the product approach in the sense that it also considers writing
from a linguistic standpoint. Genre (e.g. email, formal letters, storytelling, etc.)
A Process approach to Writing
Pre-writing activities prepare learners for a final writing task and activate, review or build
sub-skills that prepare the learner for completing the main writing task. They usually focus
on the audience, the content, and the vocabulary necessary for the task. These are typically
word and phrase level activities.
During-writing activities engage learners in recursive writing, self-editing and revisions. As
the students are guided through writing and re-writing, the teacher should guide them
through other areas such as syntax.
Post-writing activities help learners reflect on and revise their writing based on feedback
from an audience, such as peers and/or an instructor.
THERE are four main types of writing: expository, persuasive, narrative, and descriptive.
Expository – Writing in which author’s purpose is to inform or explain the subject to the
reader.
Persuasive – Writing that states the opinion of the writer and attempts to influence the
reader.
Narrative – Writing in which the author tells a story. The story could be fact or fiction.
Descriptive – A type of expository writing that uses the five senses to paint a picture for the
reader. This writing incorporates imagery and specific details.
The Characteristics of Good Writing
Clarity and focus: In good writing, everything makes sense and readers don’t get lost or
have to reread passages to figure out what’s going on. Focused writing sticks with the plot
or core idea without running off on too many tangents.
Organization: A well-organized piece of writing is not only clear, it’s presented in a way that
is logical and aesthetically pleasing. You can tell non-linear stories or place your thesis at
the end of an essay and get away with it as long as your scenes or ideas are well ordered.
Voice: This is what sets you apart from all other writers. It’s your unique way of stringing
words together, formulating ideas, and relating scenes or images to the reader. In any piece
of writing, the voice should be consistent and identifiable.
Language (word choice): We writers can never underestimate or fail to appreciate our most
valuable tools: words. Good writing includes precise and accurate word choices and well-
crafted sentences.
Grammar and style: Many writers would wish this one away, but for a piece of writing to be
considered good (let alone great), it has to follow the rules of grammar (and break those
rules only when there’s a good reason). Style is also important in ensuring that a piece of
writing is clear and consistent. Make sure you keep a grammar book and style guide handy.
Credibility or believability: Nothing says bad writing like getting the facts wrong or
misrepresenting oneself. In fiction, the story must be believable (even if it’s impossible), and
in nonfiction, accurate research can make or break a writer.
Thought-provoking or emotionally inspiring: Perhaps the most important quality of good
writing is how the reader responds to it. Does she come away with a fresh perspective and
new ideas? Does he close the cover with tears in his eyes or a sense of victory? How
readers react to your work will fully determine your success as a writer.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing
 Avoid writing in an overly formal tone
While this advice might sound counterintuitive, often students mistake formal for academic.
You don’t need to make your papers sound like Shakespeare or the most esteemed
professor wrote it! When you adopt an overly formal tone in your writing, the result is most
often that you sound like you don’t know what you are talking about. Make sure that you use
words whose meaning you understand, and sentence structure that makes sense—even if it
appears simple.
For example, in a paper on climate change, an overly formal sentence might read:
“The staggering volume of synthetic organic compounds accumulating in large bodies of
saline water has engendered a colossal moral quandary for behemoth manufacturers—
should they continue the course, or innovate new methods?”
You don’t want to sound like this!
Instead, in clear and direct language, the following sentence means the same thing, but in a
more readable way.
“The large volume of plastic waste that has accumulated in the Earth’s oceans has created
a moral question for companies that produce large amounts of plastic materials—should
they continue to produce plastic? Or phase into producing products that will degrade over
time?”
As you can tell, the second sentence is in much plainer English, and sounds far more
academic in tone than the first!
 Avoid colloquialisms
Although it is important to avoid using too formal of a tone in your writing, you also want to
be sure that you don’t use colloquialisms—informal words or phrases that are common in
spoken English—in your writing. It is easy to avoid slang words, but students often struggle
to rid less obvious colloquialisms from their writing.
Most often, these colloquialisms are words or phrases that we use in everyday language
when we speak out loud or in informal text conversations. In spoken English and informal
text conversations, these phrases are perfectly acceptable. But, you want to avoid them in
your writing, because often they are placeholder words and phrases, that merely help to
bridge together ideas that draw upon the context of the conversation.
For example, you might text a friend:
“I got tickets to that concert Friday night. You in?”
Here, the word “got” and “you in” are colloquialisms. They make sense in context, but in
writing—where you must assume the reader will take what you say literally—it is not clear
what you mean by this.
For example, how did you get the tickets? Did you buy them? Did someone give them to
you?
While it might sound formal for a text conversation, in an academic tone this sentence would
read “I bought tickets to attend that concert Friday night. I can give you a ticket if you want
to attend with me.”
To avoid colloquialisms, it is usually a best practice to try to be as specific and direct about
what you mean as possible.
 Don’t use exaggeration or hyperbole
Sometimes when students intend to create emphasis or articulate the importance of a piece
of evidence or point in an argument, they rely on exaggeration or hyperbole to try to
convince the reader to agree with them. Don’t do this! Most often, hyperbolic phrases make
your writing sound corny, and most importantly you must assume that your reader is taking
everything you say literally and needs proof of every statement you make.
You might write in your paper on climate change:
“Plastic waste is now clogging the oceans, choking the life out of sea-creatures and
threatening to end all ocean-life as we know it!”
This phrase is hyperbolic, and doesn’t actually point to any evidence to support the claim. A
better phrased sentence might read:
“According to the Plastic Oceans Foundation, humans have dumped more than 8 million
tons of plastic into ocean water each year for several years in a row. This plastic waste does
not degrade, and clumps together—which creates large blocks in the ocean that hurt ocean-
life.”
As you can see, in this sentence the cited facts do the work to emphasize the points, rather
than hyperbole.
 Avoid making generalizations
Another bad habit that students often have a hard time dropping is making generalizations
in their essays. Usually, these generalizations come as a way to introduce material, or make
an emotional appeal to the reader. It is important to avoid using generalizations in your
essays because like hyperbolic phrases they sound corny, they are hard to prove, and often
they don’t even really relate to your argument.
For example, in an essay that argues that the passage of the 19th amendment failed to
promote equality for all women, because racist Jim Crow laws prevented black women from
also voting, you might say:
“On July 4th, 1776 the United States of America was born with the undertaking that all
Americans should be created equal. Since then the U.S. has been working hard to achieve
this promise and it moved one step closer after it passed the 19th amendment, but not close
enough.”
This introduction to the idea of equality reads as corny, and isn’t necessarily specific to the
exact topic of the paper.
A better sentence might read:
“Although the passage of the 19th amendment was a significant step for women’s rights in
the US, at the time of its passage it did not actually achieve total voting equality for women,
as black women were still largely prevented from voting.”
As you can see, this introduction is much more direct, and specific to the topic.
In order to avoid making generalizations in your paper, try to be as specific as possible, and
avoid moving too far away from the topic at hand when you lead into your essay.
 Don’t use personal pronouns or invoke the reader
In academic writing, it is important to maintain an academic distance from your essay. You
want to avoid using personal pronouns because it makes your tone sound too personal, and
less factual. You also want to avoid using phrases that will invoke the reader, because you
cannot be sure of who your reader is.
For example, a professor of Economics might write a paper on how government spending
after the 2008 Financial Crisis helped the economy to recover and publish it in a major
Economics academic journal, and write:
“In the wake of the 2008 Financial collapse, our nation experienced a crisis which our
government addressed first through a stimulus package.”
In this sentence, the phrases “our nation” and “our government” appeal to the reader as
being the same as the writer. This is a problem because you cannot assume who your
reader will be. In this example, economists from other countries might read this paper.
A better sentence would just replace “our” with “the United States,” to be more specific and
more detached from the information.
Many students find it difficult to strike the right tone in their writing. However, that is no
reason to fear writing your papers! As you can see from these suggestions, it is easy to cut
out simple bad habits and write in an academic tone.