What’s the first thing you do before getting started on writing a text? Is it turn on music, get yourself alone in a room, turn on the TV? Whatever it is, everyone has their own writing process. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs state, “…it would seem that if you want to become a more versatile, capable, powerful writer, you need to be pretty aware of which activities, behaviors, habits, and approaches lead to your strongest writing-and which don’t”(170). The writing process has a major effect on the effectiveness of the paper it’s got to do with what it takes you to get the best on paper. My writing process consists of all paperwork, which is related to the writing and music that’ll help me focus. Keith Hjortshoj, the director of Writing at Cornell University, wrote a book called, The Transition to College Writing in which he discusses the writing process in five sections. “Patterns of Discontent” a section that briefly explains how the grading policy has to change due to that the best paper is given an A but really doesn’t meet an A in the rubric. Section two “Process and Product”, which is the most important section, explains how students don’t follow the steps into writing a paper. Prewriting, Composing, Revising, Editing, Release all steps in writing a paper and students only tend to follow composing and releasing. Very few students edit which is the problem Hjortshoj discusses and it’s probably because they don’t know the difference between revising and editing.
Everybody has their own methods for writing; however, I believe there is always room for improvement. Chapter 3 in Everyone’s an Author has shown me that writing involves processes that need to be mastered through constant practice. It also revealed helpful tips on how to develop writing processes that can help write effective papers.
Reading the two articles, Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and Donald M. Murray’s “Write Before Writing” numerous times made me realize a connection with their writing process that I can relate to. Lamott believes that every good writer, or every writer should write shitty first drafts because the writer will produce better second drafts. In her article, she gives examples of her writing struggles and gives her point of view of the writing process. In order to have a good piece of writing, one must write all of their ideas onto paper. Murray’s article gives some instructions on how to create and start a better writing. He expressed that writers should give time to what they’re going to write about, so that they can understand and make it easy on themselves. After reading the articles, I realized some of the complications I suffer within my writing process, but one strategy that I found helpful is Lamott’s drafting development strategies.
Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”
What is the Writing process?The writing process is what you will need to go by when writing for essays and future classes.I have included a few tips throughout this template to help you get started. • You will need to identify the components of a basic sentence.• You will need to be able to identify the four most serious writing errors.• Define subject-verb agreement.• Identify common errors in subject-verb agreement.• Recognize regular and irregular verbs• Use regular and irregular verbs correctly in basic sentences.
Teachers, parents, and friends often tell students exactly what the writing process should entail and how long it should take. However, the older I get, the more I realize that the writing process varies not only from person to person, but also from one writing project to the next. Throughout my years of life, I have written countless papers, ranging from a persuasive speech to an extensive research paper, and each project requires an altered version of my personal writing process. While each individual has his own writing process, there can be many similarities between different writing processes. Finding one’s individual writing process takes trial, error, and repetition. When an individual finally uncovers his unique writing process, better thought, work, and writing is produced.
Finding your own writing process is crucial for a writer in order to write a successful paper. Everyone is unique and everyone’s writing process is going to be unique as well. A writer’s notebook is a perfect way for people to record random thoughts, dialogue you hear, and any other ideas you might hear. Brainstorming is a key technique to get started when composing a paper. Brainstorming allows you to think of different topics that would fulfill the requirements needed on your topic assigned. Freewriting, clustering, listing and outlining, and collaborating are also some other techniques that when practiced could come very useful when writing a paper. Having the ability to use either of these five techniques would help tremendously when composing a paper.
I always start my writing process by reading the directions. I read the directions three or four times to fully analyze what is required and what is being asked. For instance, in most assignments are not simply questions. There are usually more than one factor in the question. After understanding the directions, I start following the five steps of the writing process. First, I pre-write/ draft a outline to get my ideas into answering all the parts of the question and to establish. Next, I start writing to establish flow of my paper. Then, I submit it to paperrater.com to check for grammar, punctuation, and spell check. Then, I edit my paper from the suggestions paperrater.com suggested. Lastly, I submit my work for a grade.
One of the tips that has really helped me the when writing and improving my writing is, write your thoughts before organizing them. My mind flows when I am writing a paper or thinking about the topic and I sometimes forget to write everything down, so before I write a paper I sit down and really think about my topic, then I just write words and phrases that come to mind so that when I start my paper I have a general idea about what I want to write.
Concerning my assignments, I always take hand written notes before writing up either a first draft or segments of one. This allows myself to clearly organise my thoughts to properly delve into the task at hand. Afterwards, I re-organise my first draft in a typed format and begin developing my voice; which happens along the progress of my written piece, creating a stronger and more advanced piece of writing.
People have many ways that they write. Some do a process of doing drafts so they can look through, edit and make the paper better. Others will just write a paper and turn it in. My process consist of starting with making a thesis. Then from the thesis I create the topic sentences for the topic at hand. The best way to write the essay in a good format and have good detail in the writing I would write a paragraph a day. By doing that process it allows me to get what is needed out on the paper so none of the paragraphs are mixing content and making the paragraphs less structured. This process not only makes writing essays less stressful while also getting the paper done quickly.
My writing process in the past has never been concrete. It was even very rare that I had a process or even realized that I had a process going on. All I did was write without revision. For example, one time I had a research paper due the next day. I made the decision to take all of the examples I had, write it out, explain it, then give my take on the example, 30 minutes before it was due. Although it was littered with grammar mistakes, I got a passing grade. However, this anxious direction of writing held me back from creating great writing assignments and projects.Because I was being told constantly that I had "great ideas but terrible form" made writing extremely hard and close to depressing.
I would think about what I wanted to write, but it took a very long time to develop my thoughts and then put those thoughts on paper. In our first week of WRTG 101 we covered this in Section 8.1 of Writing for Success (2013); I found that using experiences and observations or freewriting is a great way for me to begin the writing process (The Saylor Foundation). This allows me to get my ideas on the paper, which is normally one of my greatest issues. Once I have the ideas, I can begin to focus and organize my paper. Section 8.2 of Writing for Success (2013) covers how to construct an outline for a paper (The Saylor Foundation). This was particularly important for me while writing my research paper. Listing my main points in order of importance allowed me to focus on one at a time before proceeding to the next.
There are two approaches I take in regards to writing. If a prompt is presented, I begin a free writing method by writing anything that comes to mind. Most individuals prefer to organize a brainstorming map to organize their thoughts and ideas, but my ideal approach is to print any thought that reaches the surface during the writing process. Once my brainstorming approach has been exhausted, I reflect upon the ideas that were written and shape an organized piece of writing. In addition, I also attempt to incorporate various styles of writing into the work that is being created. Styles such as dialogue, imagery, and various types of literary devices give me the opportunity to bring creativity into my writing. For this particular type of writing,
For starters I can start brainstorming my ideas and see which one I can write with more quality and length. I want to be sure I have enough ideas to talk about the subject I choose. Tree-charts would be helpful to narrow my topic down into one idea. Free-writing is the most enjoyable to me. I like to just write and see where it goes. More ideas generate for me when writing as much as possible in a short amount of time without worrying about format or editing. Outlining is also a great technique then I know what is expected and what format, or order
The first important point is to stop procrastinating, idly tapping your computer mouse as you wait for perfection to arrive. Write down whatever you first thought of writing and just keep writing. Ignore the grammar, style and word choices as you write and save that work for later editing. Flow the creativity through your pen or fingertips, into your writing, and don't keep it solely in your head. Learning to be a good writer takes practice, as with any other discipline. Attempting to be perfect without practice is simply dreaming.