CHAPTER 1

ELEMENTS OF PROCESS WRITING

The topics covered in this chapter are:1. The Writing Process.2. Process Writing.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Obtain an overview of the course.2. Identify the elements of process writing.

1.1 THE WRITING PROCESS

It has always been a challenge to produce a good piece of writing that serves the intended purpose. More often, the writer is more concerned with putting his or her ideas on paper with little concern on the reader’s reaction towards the written piece. It is important to remember that at the end of the day, what matter is how the reader will react to the writing and not what the writer has submitted.

Without a good plan or map to direct your writing task, there is a danger that you might wander off topic. Thus, it is important that before you start the writing, spend time to produce a working plan or map. With all the ideas already written on a piece of paper, it also helps to identify your strengths and weaknesses (knowledge) regarding the topic you wish to write about. This planning will help you achieve consistency and achieve your objective effectively.

1.2 PROCESS WRITING

Often, the writer has many interesting ideas to

1

convey and these can also be quite complex. However, the writing that explains them need not be complex. To fulfill readers’ understanding of his or her ideas, there are steps that a writer must follow. The following chart illustrates the six basic steps of writing:

Step 1: Explore ideas

The first step involves discovering your ideas. Before you write an essay, you should focus your exploration more systematically. As in speaking, you must have something to say, a reason for saying it, and someone to say it to. So, ask yourself three questions:• What is my subject?• What is my purpose?• What is my audience? a) Subject

If you are given a specific essay question in an examination, then, of course, what you can write about is limited. On the other hand, when you are given a

2

free choice of topics and can write about something you are interested in, then you must narrow the topic to a particular aspect of that general subject. The subject that is most interesting to your audience is usually those that you find most interesting. Choose a subject that you care about and know about (or can find out about). Then you will have something interesting to say, and will say it more clearly and confidently.

Ask yourself: - What is my subject?- Is the topic/ title catchy and interesting?- What do I know about the topic?- What do I need to write about?

Suppose your interest is in the mass media. It would be impossible to cover such a big topic in a paragraph. You would have to narrow the topic to perhaps television, if that is your interest. Television, however is still too broad for a topic, so you might even narrow the topic further to types of movie genres such as horror movies. Finally, you might make this topic narrower by writing only about the effects of horror movies on kids. The point is you must narrow the subject of your paragraph to a specific focus so that you can write about it clearly and complete.

The diagram below illustrates the process of narrowing a general topic to a specific one.

General topic

Specific topic

Very specific topic

3

M A S S M E D I A

T E L E VI S I O N

TYPES OF MOVIE GENRES

HORROR MOVIES

EFFECTS ON KIDS

b) Purpose Communicating always has a purpose: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain, or maybe to do all three. You could inform your university lecturers about the effects of smoking on students in the college. You could also persuade your university lecturers to take action on students when they smoke in the college. Or you could simply entertain your university lecturers with examples of odd incidents you have experienced at while seeing the students smoking in the college. Now ask yourself: - What is my purpose?- Is it to inform, persuade or entertain?

c) Reader Any good writer knows about the impact that reading can have on his/her writing, so one should know who will be the most appropriate audience for an essay. Before you start writing, ask yourself:- Who is my reader (audience)? - Do they have any background knowledge of my

topic?

Subject: The benefits of dietsAudience: a. Overweight adults

b. Athletesc. Modelsd. Actors and actresses

Step 2: Prewrite

After you have chosen a narrowed topic, purpose and audience, the next step is to prewrite. This step involves writing your thoughts down on paper or computer by using one or more of these three techniques. It is the time to get you started writing more quickly and save you time in later stages of the writing process. Three useful techniques are: brainstorming, clustering and free writing. Learn how to do each of them and decide which is the most productive for you.

4

a) Brainstorming Brainstorming is a listing technique in which you think about your topic and quickly make a list of whatever words or phrases come into your mind. Your purpose is to produce as many ideas as possible in a short time. So, ask yourself:

- What ideas should I list?- Which ideas best suit the topic? (Usually 3 or 4

main points for the whole essay).

Here is an example of the listing thoughts on the topic of the experiences faced by the students when they use English language.

Experiences faced by students when use English Language

New languageLack of vocabularyLack of confidenceClassroom environmentFamily lifeUse different slang and

accentFamilies seldom speak in

EnglishUse incomplete sentencesFriends ask lots of

questionsFamily speaks in their own

mother tongue

International friendsFriends show unclear expressionsDifficult to understandPoor pronunciationFeel shySpeak slowly Communication problemsFriends laugh Poor verbal skills

Now rewrite your list and group similar ideas together under the central focus (communication problems, classroom environment or family life). Then, choose one list to be the basis for a paragraph.

Experiences faced by students when use English Language

Group A(Communication

problems)

Group B(Classroom

environment)

Group C(Family life)

5

New languageLack of

vocabularyLack of

confidenceDifficult to

understandPoor

pronunciationFeel shySpeak slowly Poor verbal skillsUse incomplete

sentences

International friends

Friends laugh Friends ask lots

of questionsUse different

slang and accent

Friends show unclear expressions

Families seldom speak in English

Family speaks in their own mother tongue

b) Clustering

This is the second technique that you can use to generate ideas. Here’s how to use this technique: In the center of your paper, write your subject and then circle around it. Then, write whatever ideas come to you around the subject circle. Think about each of these ideas and make circle around them. For example, suppose you had to describe a person who is close to you in some way. A completed clustering chart might look like this:

6

c) Freewriting

The third technique to get started is by freewriting, in which you write freely about a topic. Don’t worry about your grammar, correct word choice, spelling, or punctuation, because you will probably change your mind and your wording later. Remember, the more you freewrite, the more ideas you will have. Don’t be discouraged if your mind seems to “run dry”. Just keep your pencil moving. Following is an example of how a freewriting might begin:

Problems at Cendekiawan Library

What is the biggest problem at the library? Well, I

7

Likes to cook

Stay home

Very religious

Attends weekly Morning Prayer in mosque

Special dish

Workaholic

No Vacatio

n Read books

Cell phone

Boring life

Stays late at office

Till 10 pm

Wear T-shirt

Works six days a week

Breakfast

Saturday

night

Sit in front laptop

Always give

charity

A close person:

MY MOTHER

really don’t know. In fact, I can’t think of one particular problem although I know there are many problems. For one thing, the library is too small and always crowded with students. At the beginning of this semester, a few of the seats and desks were broken. So, not all students really study in the library. Some students were only borrowed the books and returned them once they finish reading. Besides, the library is poorly maintained. In several places, there are litters on the floor. Students even leave their dirty cups and other garbage on the desks. Moreover, sometimes they talk a lot and this is really quite distracting to me and other serious students who want a quiet place to study. We really have a problem. Therefore, I think the present library should be expanded or a new library should be built. Oh yes, I think another problem is parking. Students have to park their car far away from the library.

Your freewriting may be disorganized and there might be some mistakes on grammar, punctuation or spelling, but that’s all right. It’s just a way to put ideas into words that you can look at, expand on, change or omit. You can do this freewriting activity several times until you satisfied with what you have written.

Step 3: Organize

After you have put your ideas into words, you can begin to organize them. This process involves selecting, subtracting and adding ideas and then outlining them.

a) Select

Select the ideas that are necessary, delete the ideas that you do not need and add some new ideas in your essay. Ask yourself again:What do I want to say? Which point do I want to use?Which points do I want to develop?

8

Do I need to research some information in completing the essay?

Return to any of your prewriting and do the following: Underline or highlight the best ideas in your

prewrite technique. You should cross out any items that don’t belong or that aren’t useable. You can also add to the list as more ideas occur to you.

Then, rewrite the list, putting related ideas together.

Finally, write a topic sentence. The topic sentence is the most general sentence in a paragraph and it expresses the central focus of the paragraph.

b) Outline

An outline is a formal plan for a paragraph. In an outline, you write down the main points and subpoints in which you plan to write about them. With an outline, it should be relatively easy to write a paragraph about communication problems among local students in Malaysia and International students. There is a topic sentence, two main points and two supporting points for the first main point and four supporting points for the second main point. The outline of the topic “communication problems” would look something like this:

Communication problems

Topic sentence

Main point Supporting point Supporting point

Main point

Local students in Malaysia face communication problems with International students.

1. Local students have poor verbal skillsa) Lack vocabularyb) Have poor pronunciation

2. International students are difficult to understand

9

Supporting point Supporting point Supporting point Supporting point

a) Use incomplete sentencesb) Use unclear expressionsc) Talk too fastd) Use slang and idioms

Step 4: Write a first Draft

This step is to write your rough draft based on your outline. It is the time to put your thoughts together in sentences and paragraphs. Remember that no piece of writing is ever perfect the first time. Each time you write a new draft, you will refine and improve your writing. As always, ask yourself:- Are my thoughts well organised? - Am I making more points than planned?

This is how to proceed: Write down the topic sentence and start

focusing on the topic. Write your paragraph, following your outline as

closely as possible. Try writing steadily. Don’t hesitate to add ideas that aren’t in your outline if you are certain they are relevant to the topic.

At this point, don’t worry about being “perfect”. In fact, it won’t be because your main goal is to write down as much information as you can, following the points in your outline.

While you are writing about one major point, you might come up with an idea for another major point. Write it down in the margin of your paper near where it belongs or click your mouse at the spot where you want to insert it.

Above all, remember that writing is a continuous process of discovery. Therefore, as you are writing, you will think of new ideas that may be not on your prewrite list or in your outline. The important thing is just be sure that

10

any new ideas are relevant to the topic.

Step 5: Revise the draft

After you write the first draft, the next step is to revise it. When you revise, you change what you have written in order to improve it. You check it over for content and organization, including unity, coherence and logic. You can change, rearrange, add or delete, all for the goal of communicating your thoughts more clearly and in an interesting way. While you are writing, always ask yourself:- Are my details clear? (Correct terms,

facts or numbers, reasons, anecdotes and examples)?

- Should I add or take out parts? - Is the writing in sensible and logical

order? - Read it aloud - Should I read it aloud?

Here is how to proceed: After completing your first draft, put it away for

awhile. It’s hard to think about changing and correcting your work immediately after you finish a draft.

Read over your paragraph carefully and check to see whether you have achieved your purpose.

Check for unity. Cross out any sentences that do not support your topic sentence.

Study its organization, word choice and details. You’ll probably find things to omit and think of some things to add. Be certain that each paragraph gives readers enough information to understand the main idea. If the main point lacks sufficient information, make notes in the margin such as “add more details” or “add an example”.

Then, make a clean copy before going any further. Don’t stop revising until you are satisfied with (or even proud of) what you’ve produced.

Step 6: Produce the final copy

11

Now you are ready to write the final copy to hand in. Prepare it according to your instructor’s guidelines. Before you’ve finished, however, you need to pay attention to details you’ve ignored while getting ideas on paper and shaping them to fit your purpose and audiences. You want people to judge your ideas, not your mistakes. So, be sure that you make all the corrections that you noted before.

a) Editing

Now that you have revised your work, you can edit it. It is a process of selecting and preparing a complete work through the processes of correction. You can edit your writing by referring to these questions: - Are the sentences complete (Subject (S) + Verb

(Vb) + Object (Obj)?)- Are my language conventions correct?

(Spelling, capitalization, punctuation etc.)- Am I using correct grammar and time zone

(present tense, past and future)?

This is how to proceed: Check and focus on grammar, word choice, verb

forms, punctuation and spelling as it is the real challenges for people writing in second language. Use dictionary or other references material you need.

Read the paper more than once. After rereading, don’t be surprised if you decide to make a few minor or even changes.

Copy it over or print it out again with all your corrections. This draft should be neat. Your instructor will expect it to be written neatly and legibly in ink or typed.

b) Proofreading

The next step is to proofread your paper meaning to carefully examining the final copy. As for the final questions, ask yourself: - Are they accurate?- Is the final print neat and meets the

12

requirements (length, APA referencing etc.)

This is how to proceed: Read through the paper slowly. Place a ruler

under each line to focus your eyes. Check over each sentence for correctness and

completeness: no fragments and no run-on sentences.

Check over each sentence for a subject and a verb, subject-verb agreement, correct tenses and also the mechanics (typing errors, capitalization, spelling and punctuation).

Change vocabulary word as necessary. Now you are ready to write the final copy to

hand in.

13