Writing

Introduction: Writing Process

The whole writing process can be divided into: the prewriting, writing, and
rewriting or revising phases.

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The prewriting phase, you might try to clarify:
• what you want to write about.

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• how you think and feel about your topic.
• how you want to approach your topic.

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• what other materials and notes you might need.
• how to organize these materials.

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• what kind of audience you are writing for.

Scholarly writing:
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Academic writing is the type of writing done by a scholar for scholars. It is the
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kind of writing that you are required to do in college or university. Scholarly
writing is the product of thought and analysis.
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Scholarly writing, also called academic writing, is assigned to teach you the
critical thinking and writing skills needed to communicate in courses and in the
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workplace.

• Scholars write with evidence, and particular types of evidence are more
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acceptable in particular communities and situations.

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• Scholarly writing tends to have a more transparent organizational structure

and to be more explicit than other types of writing.
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• Scholarly communities have conventions, which are more comparable to

etiquette than law.

• Scholarly writing tends to be formal.

• Scholars use reading and writing to think.

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What is the Writing Process?

Writing is a form of communication that allows students to put their feelings and
ideas on paper, to organize their knowledge and beliefs into convincing
arguments, and to convey meaning through well -constructed text.

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The Writing Process is a series of steps to help you write a paper. The writing

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process involves: generating ideas, developing and organizing the ideas, and
revising and editing them.

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Stages of the Writing Process:

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There are four main stages in the writing process: prewriting, planning, writing
and revising drafts, and writing the final copy to hand in.
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1- Prewrite: Plan your writing.
2- Write: Write your first draft.
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3- Revise: Change your writing to make it better.

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4- Edit: Check your writing.

5- Publish: Share your writing.
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Prewriting
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Prewriting is everything you do before you begin to draft the paper. prewriting
strategies to help you to choose and develop a topic:
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• Make lists of ideas on a topic. • Read and take notes on a topic.

• Make a cluster, which is a visual map of ideas and concepts related to your topic.
• Ask questions about a topic.
• Discuss ideas about a topic with others and take notes.
• Make an outline of your paper.

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You may also need to consider your audience before you begin to write.
• How much does my audience know about my topic?
• How do they feel about my topic: enthusiastic, neutral or hostile?

Drafting

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Once you have a significant amount of prewriting, enough to get inspired,

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thinking, and focused on your topic, then drafting can occur. Drafting happens
when you begin creating the text that will eventually become your paper. In the

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draft stage, use your working thesis to plan your paper's organization and
develop your thoughts.

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• Begin to write your story.

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• Include a beginning, middle, and ending.
• Write complete sentences and thoughts down on paper in paragraph form.
• Not worried about conventions at this time.
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Revising
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Revising is the remodeling phase of the writing process. Put yourself in your
reader’s place when trying to decide what content should stay and what should
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go. To revise is simply to:

• Reread it to see if makes sense.
• Are ideas in the correct order?
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• Are clear details present?

• Is there a beginning, middle and end?
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• Are there transitional words to help the writing flow smoothly?

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Editing and
Proofreading
Editing involves looking for clear complete sentences in your draft. You will pay
attention to grammatical structures, punctuation, word use, and sentence
variety. Here is where you check on your spelling and grammar and mechanics.

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Remember to:
• Look for errors in Grammar.

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• Look for errors in punctuation, capitalization, and Spelling.
• Make sure paragraphs are indented.
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Pre -Writing: Getting Ready to Write

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The purpose of prewriting is to generate an abundance of raw material and
notes that will give you some strategies for writing your first draft. It is the way to
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look ahead to drafting and revising, enabling a piece of writing to grow.

Prewriting is a systematic thinking process that helps you probe what you will
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write. Prewriting techniques help you determine the rhetorical approach to take
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and how to plan for implementing it. Prewriting planning enables you to explore
a topic from different perspectives, engage your imagination and creativity,
discover original ideas, and perceive not -so -obvious relationships between and
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among ideas.

In this stage, you need to "THINK AND DECIDE "

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• Make sure you understand your assignment.

• Decide on a topic to write about.
• Narrow your Topic.
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• Consider who will read your work.

• Brainstorm ideas about the subject.

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Understanding Your Assignment:

Your writing task begins when you receive your writing assignment from your
instructor. You should ask and answer the following kinds of questions:
• What type of assignment is this? What is its purpose?

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Narrowing a Topic:
The point is , you must narrow the subject of your paragraph to a specific focus
so that you can write about it clearly and completely. Narrowing topic into:

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General topic, Specific topic, and Very specific topic.

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General topic: Environment, Pollution, Ocean pollution.
Specific topic: Oil spills, Effects on sea.

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Very specific topic: life.

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Prewriting is a term that describes any kind of preliminary work that precedes
the actual paper writing. Prewriting Techniques includes: Brainstorming, Free
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Writing, Clustering and the journalist's questions.

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Brainstorming or Listing:
In this step, you write every idea that pops into your head about your topic.
Some of these ideas will be good, and some will be bad; write them all. The main
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purpose of brainstorming is to write as many ideas as you can think of.

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If one idea looks especially good, you might circle that idea or put a check next
to it. If you write an idea and you know right away that you are not going to use
it, you can cross it out.
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It is a process of generating a lot of information within a short time by building

on the association of previous terms you have mentioned.

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Clustering:

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Is also called mind mapping or idea mapping. It is a strategy that allows you to explore the
relationships between ideas.

Put the subject in the center of a page. Circle or underline it. You will be able to distinguish
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how the ideas fit together, especially where there is an abundance of ideas. Clustering your
ideas lets you see them visually in a different way, so that you can more readily understand
possible directions your paper may take.
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Free writing:
Free -writing is a process of generating a lot of information by writing non -stop.
It allows you to focus on a specific topic, but forces you to write so quickly that
you are unable to edit any of your ideas. Free -write on the assignment or
general topic for several 5 -10 minutes non -stop.

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Force yourself to continue writing even if nothing specific comes to mind.
This free - writing will include many ideas; at this point, generating ideas is what

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is important, not the grammar or the spelling.

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The Journalists' Questions:
Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments,

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5 W's and 1 H: Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, How? You can use these

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questions to explore the topic you are writing about for an assignment.

• Who?: Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary
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actors? Who are the secondary actors?

• What?: What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the
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basic problem? What are the issues?

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• Where?: Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue
have its source?
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• When?: When is the issue most apparent? (past? present? future?) When did
the issue or problem develop? When is action needed to address the issue or
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problem?

• Why?: Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or
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problem at all?

• How?: How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How
does it affect the participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved?

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The Structure of a Paragraph

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A paragraph is a group of related statements that a writer develops about a
subject. The first sentence states the specific point, or idea, of the topic. The rest of
the sentences in the paragraph support that point.

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A paragraph is a group often related sentences that discuss one (and usually only

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one) main idea. A paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as ten
sentences. The number of sentences is unimportant; however, the paragraph

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should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly.

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In formal academic English, paragraphs have three principal parts. These three
parts are the topic sentence, body sentences, and the concluding sentence.
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A basic paragraph structure usually consists of five sentences: the topic sentence,
three supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.
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Unity in a paragraph Begins with the topic sentence. Every paragraph has one
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single, controlling idea that is expressed in its topic sentence, which is typically the
first sentence of the paragraph. A paragraph is unified around this main idea,
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with the supporting sentences providing detail and discussion.

2. Element #2: Order.

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Order refers to the way you organize your supporting sentences. Whether you
choose chronological order, order of importance, or another logical presentation
of detail, a solid paragraph always has a definite organization

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3. Element #3: Coherence.

Coherence is the quality that makes your writing understandable. Sentences
within a paragraph need to connect to each other and work together as a
whole. One of the best ways to achieve coherency is to use transition words. These
words create bridges from one sentence to the next.

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4. Element #4: Completeness.
Completeness means a paragraph is well-developed. If all sentences clearly and

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sufficiently support the main idea, then your paragraph is complete. If there are
not enough sentences or enough information to prove your thesis, then the

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paragraph is incomplete.

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Basic Paragraph Format:

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A paragraph discusses one idea in detail and aids the development of an overall
topic for the essay.
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Parts of a Paragraph:
The basic paragraph consists of three parts: a topic sentence (introduction),
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supporting details (body), and a concluding sentence (conclusion).

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Topic Sentence:
The main idea of each paragraph is stated in a topic sentence that shows how
the idea relates to the thesis or overall focus of the paper. Generally, the topic
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sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph.

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Supporting Details:
Supporting details elaborate upon and prove the topic sentence. Supporting
details should be drawn from a variety of sources including research and
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experiences, depending on the assignment, and include the writer’s own analysis.

Concluding Sentence:
Each paragraph should end with a final statement that ties together the ideas
brought up in the paragraph and emphasizes the main idea one last time.

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 Writing

Outline:
An outline is a helpful way to plan a paper or to analyze it. An outline shows at
a glance the point of a paper (topic sentence) and a numbered list of the items
that support it.

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How to develop your paragraph?
The topic sentence is followed by information that expands upon the main idea.

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A paragraph contains facts, statements, examples-specifics which guide us to a
full understanding of the main idea. They clarify, illuminate, explain, describe,
expand and illustrate the main idea and are supporting details.

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Use transition words or phrases between sentences:

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• To show addition: again, and, also, besides, equally important, first (second,

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etc.), further, furthermore, in addition, in the first place, moreover, next, too.
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• To give examples: for example, for instance, in fact, specifically, that is, to
illustrate.
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• To compare: although, and yet, at the same time, but, despite, even though,
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however, in contrast, in spite of, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand,
still, though, yet.
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• To summarize or conclude: all in all, in conclusion, in other words, in short, in

summary, on the whole, that is, therefore, to sum up
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• To show time: after, afterward, as long as, as soon as, at last, before, during,
earlier, finally, formerly, immediately, later, meanwhile, next, since, shortly,
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subsequently, then, thereafter, until, when, while

• To show place or direction: above, below, beyond, close, elsewhere, farther

on, here, nearby, opposite, to the left (north, etc.)

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• To indicate logical relationship: accordingly, as a result, because,

consequently, for this reason, hence, if, otherwise, since, so, then, therefore, thus.
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Exercises

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Circle the topic of the words below:

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1. Mercury Venus Planets Saturn Mars
2. German Italian English Languages Spanish

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3. Wheel tire car door seat
4. apple banana grape strawberry fruit

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5. Fan basketball coach scoreboard player

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My Favorite Place
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……………… is my favorite place. One reason is that…………………………
……………………..Another reason is that …………………………………………………………
……………………. is also my favorite place because …………………………………………There is
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no place as wonderful as ……………………………………..

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My Best Friend
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……………….. is my best friend for a number of reasons. First of all, …………………..is my

best friend because…………………………………. Also ……………… is ……………………………. In
addition, ……………… is my best friend because ………………………………………….. I am so
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lucky to have …………………. as a friend.

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