Wk 5 Lecture The Writing Process Pre Writing

Writing Academic Essays:

The Writing Process English Skills for Academic Studies John Langan (pp 130-156)

The Process: 4 Steps in a Nutshell 1. Discover a clearly stated point or thesis. thesis 2. Provide logical, detailed support for your thesis. 3. Organize and connect your supporting material. 4. Revise and edit so that your sentences are effective and error-free.

The Writing Process: Prewriting Techniques

Freewriting  Jot down whatever comes to

mind about a topic  Focus on discovering what you want to say about a topic  Don’t worry about mistakes

The Writing Process: Prewriting Techniques

Questioning

 Generate ideas by asking

questions about a topic  Use question words Why? When? Where? How? Who?  Ask as many questions as you can think of

The Writing Process: Prewriting Techniques

Making a List (Brainstorming)

 Collect ideas and details about a

topic.  Make a list of everything about the subject that occurs to you  Don’t worry about sorting them

The Writing Process: Prewriting Techniques

Clustering

(Diagramming/Mapping)

• Put ideas and details that occur to you in

boxes and circles.  Use lines and arrows to show the relationship among ideas and details  For people who think visually

The Writing Process: Prewriting Techniques

Preparing a Scratch Outline  Think about the order you will arrange your ideas  Put your ideas into a plan that help you achieve a unified, supported, wellorganized essay

The Writing Process: Prewriting •Get down as many ideas and details as possible about your subject.

• Delete ideas you don’t want in your paper and add new ideas that occur to you. • Shuffle supporting ideas around to find the best order.