The Writing Process

The Writing Process

Even though this is a Technical Writing course, I am expecting students to show that they can follow the standard, structural guidelines currently in use in the writing community.  We will be learning how to structure specific Technical documents: such as letters, emails, memos, proposal, and so on. However, when we are making comments to our classmates in the Discussion Board, or when you are asked to reflect on the readings, you are not necessarily crafting a Technical document.  You are writing in a more open format of paragraphs, and these paragraphs should follow Academic Writing Standards.

If you are registered for this class, you have mastered some of the basics for essay writing, and so the concept of a well-written paragraph--or even a well-written essay--should not be foreign to you. While I will not necessarily expect a full essay for participation, reflections, and so on, you do still need to review the assignment, plan out your ideas, and structure your content into at least an introduction paragraph, body paragraph(s), and then end with a conclusion paragraph to wrap it all up and close off the writing.

There is a pre-set, rigid format established in all ENC1101 (or 101) courses.  However, if you are unsure about your writing and want to review the process--which includes the steps to take for constructing your paragraphs--you should review the items below.  These documents will help mature your writing in ways that you never could have imagined.  When writing academic essays (or participation posts), it is always BEST to stick to these established conventions mentioned below.

When writing a Technical Document, let's say a memo, you will still break your content into at least those three parts (introduction, body, and closing).  While the internal content of the memo will seem very different from the content of an academic essay, the paragraph set up and transitioning is the same.

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The Writing Process
In this section of the classroom, you will find links to postings about the writing process.

This page can be used in 2 ways

• as you are writing and encounter issues with placement of items in your essay, or 
• after your assignment is scored and you see feedback alerting you to structural issues in your writing.

Most of you will use this site in the 2nd way, and I encourage you to review your FEEDBACK on assignments in the classroom and come into this page to see how to improve specific issues you are having with your writing structure.



What is the Writing Process?  Have you ever heard that term before?  The Writing Process is the process of writing...easy, right?

Once you learn the steps to the Writing Process and follow this with the steps in constructing your essay, you will find essay writing to be quite logical and methodical to the point where you will wonder why it every made you nervous.

The Writing Process

When starting the Writing Process, you need to begin with carefully understanding the writing prompt.  What is being asked of you to write?  How long?  How many sources?  Be sure to take the time to fully read the writing assignment directions before beginning to gather your ideas.

The visual below jumps right into the Gathering Ideas phase; however, if you do not know what is expected, you will not be able to easily progress through the Writing Process by moving around the circle in a clock-wise motion.

Stages of the Writing Process

Planning 
Prewriting
Drafting: Specifics about Drafting
Revise

Edit
Checklist
Publish



Depending on how your mind works, you may enjoy the 3X3 Writing Process.  It still uses all of the previously mentioned steps, but it labels them as three steps with three objectives for each step.  Take a look here.