ENGL 101
English Composition I
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• All college students know how to write
• But they don’t know HOW they write
• We learn by “sink or swim”
• We learn the rules of grammar
• We read sample pieces of writing
• It’s up to us to figure out the connection
• Very few of us have ever thought about what we do when we write
• The writing process explains what we do
The Writing Process
• The Writing Process consists of 5 stages
– Invention
– Organization
– Drafting
– Revision
– Editing
• They are not necessarily chronological
• You often find yourself going back to earlier stages – they are intertwined
Invention
• Often makes the difference between adequate and good/great
• Author needs to know WHAT they are going to write about
• Author needs to have SOMETHING to say
• Knowing what your thesis is
• Knowing who audience is
• Knowing what your purpose is
Organization
• Once you know what you want/need to say, you need to figure out HOW to say it
• Organization is planning, not just outlining
• What are the natural idea breaks?
• What does audience expect to see?
• What are the format requirements?
• Authors who know where they are going can write more effectively
Drafting
• The actual physical act of writing or typing
• Once you know what you want to say, and how you want to say it, writing’s easier
• If you’ve followed the process, the words come out relatively easily
• This version/draft doesn’t have to be perfect
• We are just interested in seeing how the invention/organization looks as an essay
Revision
• Most people’s idea of revision is wrong
• Revision is about the BIG picture
• You rethink – re-vision – rewrite
• You simply ask yourself if your invention and/or organization WORKED
• If it did, you move on
• If it didn’t, then you make changes
• Concerned with audience, thesis, purpose, focus, and organization – nothing below paragraph level
Editing
• THIS is what people think revision is about
• This is the lower level elements – sentence level and below
• Spelling, punctuation, verbs, word choice, sentence construction, etc.
• This is where all that grammar training comes into play
• Most people have only a few weak editing areas
• Last thing to do – a polish to make it shine
• Every writer uses the writing process every time they write a finished work
• Successful writers use this subconsciously
• We bring it to the surface to allow the writer to understand and better control it
• We will be working our way through the writing process step by step on the first essay
• Later essays will be about practicing the process now that you are aware of it