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ACADEMIC WRITING
Writing Process Overview
Do you know what a Slinky@ is?
It's a toy that can serve as a metaphor for the writing process
A Slinky is one piece of material that's coiled in many loops. Writing is a large process that's made up of smaller ones--processes that connect and loop around each other.
A Slinky, after the first nudge, travels down stairs on its own, step by step An experienced writer, after the first nudge of an idea or observation, moves through the writing process step by step, with the option to loop back up the stairs as well as down.
Okay, that's as far as the metaphor stretches (and yes, that's a bad pun). But you get the idea through the visual example. Writing is a process.
Writing is the tangible result of thinking. And learning how to think--how to develop your own ideas and concepts--is the purpose of a college education. Even though the end result of writing is a product, writing itself is a process through which you ask questions; create, develop, hone, and organize ideas; argue a point; search for evidence to support your ideas...and so on. The point here is that writing really involves creative and critical thinking processes. Like any creative process, it often starts in a jumble as you develop, sort, and sift through ideas. But it doesn't need to stay in disarray
doesn't happen all at once. Writing is a process that happens over time. And like any process, there are certain steps or stages.
These are some of the major stages in a strong writing process:
1. Thinking about your assignment 2. Developing ideas_(often called prewriting) 3. Narrowing a topic 4. Gathering information
5. Ordering and drafting 6. Revising and editing
Writing Process Overview
Thinking About Your Assignment
When you receive your writing assignment from your professor, it's important to stop and think about your assignment. What are the requirements? What is the purpose of this assignment? What is your professor asking you write? Who are you writing for?
Before you begin to write any part of an essay you have been assigned, it's important to first carefully consider your assignment. You must think about the requirements and how you plan to meet those requirements. All too often, students make the mistake of jumping into an assignment without stopping to think about it rhetorically
What does it mean to think about an assignment rhetorically?
It means that you're being considerate of the purpose of the assignment, the audience for the assignment, the voice you might want to use when you write, and how you will approach the assignment effectively overall.
Each time you are presented with a writing assignment in college, you're being presented with a particular situation for writing. Learning about rhetoric can help you learn to make good decisions about your writing. Rhetoric can be simply defined as figuring out what you need to do to be effective, no matter the writing situation.
Thinking rhetorically is