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© 2003 Prentice Hallwpro1

The Writing Process




WRITING AS PROCESS: AN OVERVIEW

Think of writing as a process: a set of activities

you go through to produce a finished product.This process has three distinct stages:Planning and Shaping, Drafting, and Revising/

Editing.




PLANNING AND SHAPING

Find a focus that fits your purpose and audiencebefore you start.

Gather ideas: ± Keep a journal. ± Brainstorm or jot down lists of ideas. ± Free writing - let your mind go.

± Mind mapping / idea trees. ± 5 Ws - (Who, What, When, Where, and Why) ± Outlining




WRITING OR DRAFTING

Getting your ideas into visible form:

± Prioritize your ideas.

± Write complete sentences.

± Divide text into paragraphs.

± Organize paragraphs into Introduction, Bodyand Close.




EDITING: EVALUATING YOUR DRAFTCRITICALLY AND MAKING CHANGES

Large-scale changes: adding text, cutting,replacing words/phrases, rearranging parts.

Editing: checking the correctness of grammar,spelling, punctuation and mechanics.

Proofreading: are there any typos?




WRITING AS PROCESS: LET¶S COMPAREMETHODS

Think of the most unusual or eccentric person you haveever met.

In 20 minutes, write a paragraph describing this personto your classmates. Concentrate on getting eachsentence right as you go.

Do not rewrite your paragraph.




PLANNING AND SHAPING: PART I

About your person, answer these questions:When/where did you meet?What does he or she look/sound like? Face/clothing/ hair/ body/ language/ accent?What are his or her tastes in movies/ books/music/ food/ cars?How did he or she surprise/ teach/ inspireyou?Why should your classmates be interested inhim or her?




PLANNING AND SHAPING: PART II

Close your eyes and imagine ³X´ doingsomething he or she typically does. Imagineevery detail.

Freewrite for 5 minutes about your image.

± Write quickly.

± Don¶t edit as you go - just put down the wordsas fast as you can.

± If you get stuck, just write ³I¶m stuck, I¶mstuck«´ until you think of something.




DRAFTING

FOCUSING: ± Look at your free

writing paragraph. ± Take a new page

and write down inone sentence ³X´¶s

single moststriking/ unusualfeature.

DRAFTING: ± Write a paragraph

developing the ideayou just wrotedown.

± Use any relevant

details from your list or free writing.




REVISING & EDITING

REVISING: Your classmates are the audience.Will you need additional detail for them to

visualize what you mean? Make those additionsnow.

EDITING: Check your paragraph for correctnessof sentence structure, grammar, spelling and

punctuation and correct errors now.




COMPARISON

Reread the paragraphyou wrote without

going through theprocess and compareit to the ³processed´one.

How do they differ?Which one is better?

If the ³processed´paragraph is better,

which phase of theprocess helped youmost?How will you use thisinformation when youwrite?




GRANT WOOD¶S AMERICAN GOTHIC




AMERICAN GOTHIC: WRITING AS PROCESSEXERCISE

Look carefully at thepicture provided of

American Gothic, thefamous painting byartist Grant Wood(1892-1942). Noticethe details and moodof the composition.

Prepare to use thefour process steps towrite about thepainting: ± Planning and

Shaping

± Drafting ± Revising ± Editing




PLANNING AND SHAPING

Use single words or phrases to describethe following aspectsof the painting: ± Background/ sky/ house/

shed ± People/ facial expressions/

hair/ eyes/ pitchfork/ hand ± How are the people

similar? Different? What istheir relationship to eachother?

Review your list of details.Answer this questionin a single completesentence: ± What central

impression do thedetails seem toconvey?




DRAFTING

Write your sentence out at the top of a newsheet of paper.

Write a draft of a paragraph supporting your sentence.

Include as many details from your list as youcan.




REVISING

DETAIL: How have the details you mentionedhelp create the central impression of the

painting?ORGANIZATION: Is your paragraph organized?Coherent? Does it support your core sentence?

WORD CHOICE: Are your words precise?Replace any fuzzy words with more preciseones.




EDITING

Review your paragraph for correctness of sentence structure, grammar, spelling andpunctuation.

Make any necessary changes.

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