THE WRITING PROCESS

The Assignment or “Rhetorical Situation”:

It outlines requirements and base goals, offers suggestions for completion, defines audience, and delineates due dates.

Invention/Brainstorming:

What we’ll do together in class:

            Quizzes to gauge reading comprehension

            Discuss readings from texts and practice reading films

            Group work on specific text elements/strategies for composing and ways of reading films and texts

            Skills-based seminars for each essay on the following writing skills:

Lead-ins

Claims (theses)

Transitions

Conclusions

Paragraphing (The MEAL Plan and other strategies)

MLA Documentation and evidence

Analysis versus Summary (what versus how/why)

What you’ll do out of class:

            Explore the topic using the following brainstorming methods

                        Freewriting

                        Jot lists

                        Clustering, webbing

                        Web searches

                        Journaling

                        Talking with others

                        Notes

                        Reading (annotation, analysis, summary, synthesis

                        Outlining

Drafting:

Narrow your topic and choose one from your bank of brainstorming

Create a specific, non-formulaic thesis/claim for drafting, one that will help to prove your main points

Decide which main points you wish to explore in your essay by creating an outline or jot list

Develop the points in your thesis in paragraph form

Incubation:

At this point, you may choose to take a breather; during your time away from the ideas you’ve begun to accumulate, you should gain some perspective.  When you come back to your brainstorming and planning, you will have a fresh outlook and can then review and make any necessary changes before you begin drafting.

Return to the draft:

You’ll continue to create the first draft, the “discovery draft,” using the plan you’ve carefully honed.

Peer Review:

You will bring a draft to class for take-home Peer Review. You will also have an opportunity to meet with me in conference or go to the writing center for advice during this phase. 

Revision:

You will use all of the specific comments you received during the Peer Review stage to revise your own draft.  After revising this draft, you may choose to turn the essay in for a final grade. You may also get more advice from me in conference or at the writing center before the final draft is due.

Edit/Proofread:

In this last phase, you will polish the essay.  NOTE:  this final step is where “fixing the grammar” occurs.

Final Draft Due:

Each final essay packet will include several documents. See your syllabus for specific documents due in each final essay packet.