The Writing Process

Course Teacher: Muhammad Ali Khan

Note 7, Fall, Batch 2017/18,
Course title: Functional English (HS-104)
 Stages of the writing process
Compiled by: Sir Muhammad Ali Khan

17-Jan-18 Mechanical mistakes are those of orthography (spelling and A typographical error (often shortened to typo) is a mistake made
2 in
capitalization) and punctuation. the typing process (such as a spelling mistake) of printed material.
 Cont…
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• Although the writing process is usually presented as a series of neatly

defined steps, that model does not reflect the way people actually
write.
• Because the writing process is so erratic, its stages overlap. Most
writers engage in invention, arrangement, drafting and revision, and
editing simultaneously — finding ideas, considering possible methods
of organization, looking for the right words, and correcting grammar
and punctuation all at the same time.

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 Cont….
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• But regardless of writers’ different approaches, one thing is certain:

the more you write, the better acquainted you will become with your
personal writing process and the better you will learn how to modify
it to suit various writing tasks.

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 Invention, or prewriting
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Invention, or prewriting, is an important (and, frequently, the most

neglected) part of the writing process. At this stage, you discover what
interests you about your subject and consider what ideas to develop in
your essay.

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 Pre-Writing Strategies
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• One of the strategy for moving from subject to topic is free writing.
You can use free writing at any stage of the writing process — for
example, to generate supporting information or to find a thesis.
However, free writing is a particularly useful way to narrow a general
subject or assignment.

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 Brain storming
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• Brainstorming is a way of discovering ideas about your topic. You can

brainstorm in a group, exchanging ideas with several students in your
composition class and noting the most useful ideas. You can also
brainstorm on your own, quickly recording every fact, idea, or detail
you can think of that relates to your topic. Your notes might include
words, phrases, statements, questions, or even drawings or
diagrams.

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 Making an Informal Outline
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• You can organize your notes from brainstorming or other invention

techniques into an informal outline. Informal outlines do not include
all the major divisions and subdivisions of your paper the way formal
outlines do; they simply suggest the shape of your emerging essay.
Quite often an informal outline is just a list of your major points
presented in a tentative order. Sometimes, however, an informal
outline will include supporting details or suggest a pattern of
development.

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 Example
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• The following informal outline shows how Laura Bobnak grouped her ideas.
• During test
• Found test hard
• Saw Jeff cheating
• After test
• Got angry
• Wanted to tell
• Dismissed idea
• In college
• Understand implications of cheating
• Understand goals of education

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 Constructing a Formal Outline
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• Before you begin to write, you may decide to construct a formal

outline to guide you. Whereas informal outlines are preliminary lists
that simply remind you which points to make, formal outlines are
detailed, multilevel constructions that indicate the exact order in
which you will present your key points and supporting details. The
complexity of your assignment determines which type of outline you
need. For a short paper, an informal outline is usually sufficient. For a
longer, more complex essay, however, you may need a formal outline.

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 Compiled by: Sir Muhammad Ali Khan

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 Cont….
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• The topic outline Laura Bobnak constructed follows the guidelines

discussed above. Notice that her outline focuses on the body of her
paper and does not include the introduction or conclusion: these are
usually developed after the body has been drafted.

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 Compiled by: Sir Muhammad Ali Khan

• This outline enabled Laura to arrange her points so that they

supported her thesis. As she went on to draft her essay, the outline
reminded her to emphasize the contrast between her former and
present attitudes toward cheating.

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 Arrangement
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• Sometimes arranging your ideas will be easy because your assignment

specifies a particular pattern of development. This may be the case in a
composition class, where the instructor may assign a descriptive or a
narrative essay. Also, certain assignments or exam questions suggest how
your material should be structured. For example, an instructor might ask
you to tell about how something works, or an exam question might ask you
to trace the circumstances leading up to an event. If you are perceptive,
you will realize that your instructor is asking for a process essay whereas
the exam question is asking for either a narrative or a cause-and-effect
response. The important thing is to recognize the clues such assignments
give (or those you find in your topic or thesis statement) and to structure
your essay accordingly.

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 Cont…..
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• Understanding Your Assignment

• Before beginning to write, you need to understand what your
assignment is asking you to do. If the assignment is written as a
question, read it carefully several times, and underline its key words.
If the assignment is read aloud by your instructor, be sure to copy it
accurately. (A mistaken word — analyze for compare, for example —
can make quite a difference.) If you are confused about anything, ask
your instructor for clarification. Remember that no matter how well
written an essay is, it will fall short if it does not address the
assignment.

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 Setting Limits Once you Understand
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• Once you understand the assignment, you should consider its

1. Length
2. Purpose
3. Audience
4. Occasion
5. Your own knowledge about the subject
• Each of these factors helps you determine what you will say about
your subject.

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 Length
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• Often, your instructor will specify the length of a paper, and this word
or page limit has a direct bearing on your paper’s focus. For example,
you would need a narrower topic for a two-page essay than for a ten-
page one. Similarly, you could not discuss a question as thoroughly
during an hour long exam as you might in a paper written over several
days.
• Length
Has your instructor specified a length?
Does the nature of your assignment suggest a length?

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 Cont.
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• If your instructor sets no page limit, consider how the nature of the
assignment suggests a paper’s length. A summary of a chapter or an
article, for instance, should be much shorter than the original,
whereas an analysis of a poem will most likely be longer than the
poem itself. If you are uncertain about the appropriate length for
your paper, consult your instructor.

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 Purpose
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• Your purpose also limits what you say and how you say it. For example, if
you were writing a job application letter, you would not emphasize the
same elements of college or university life as you would in an email to a
friend. In the first case, you would want to persuade the reader to hire you,
so you might include your grade-point average, a list of the relevant
courses you took, and perhaps the work you did for a service-learning
course. However in the second case, you would want to inform and
perhaps entertain, so you might share anecdotes about dorm life or
describe one of your favorite instructors. In each case, your purpose would
help you determine what information to include to evoke a particular
response in a specific audience.
• In general, you can classify your purposes for writing according to your
relationship to the audience.
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 Cont…..
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• Is your general purpose to express personal feelings? To inform? To

persuade?
• In addition to your general purpose, do you have any more specific
purposes?
• Does your assignment provide any guidelines about purpose?

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 Audience
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• To be effective, your essay should be written with a particular audience in

mind. An audience can be an individual (your instructor, for example), or it
can be a group (like your classmates or coworkers). Your essay can address
a specialized audience (such as a group of medical doctors or economists)
or a general or universal audience whose members have little in common
(such as the readers of a newspaper or magazine).
• Is your audience a group or an individual?
• Are you going to address a specialized or a general audience?
• Should you take into consideration the audience’s age, gender, education,
biases, or political or social values?
• Should you cast your audience in a particular role?
• How much can you assume your audience knows about your subject?

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 Occasion
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• In general, occasion refers to the situation/setting that leads

someone to write about a topic.
• Are you writing in class or at home?
• Are you addressing a situation outside the academic setting?
• What special approaches does your occasion for writing require?

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 Knowledge
Compiled by: Sir Muhammad Ali Khan

• What you know (and do not know) about a subject determines what
you can say about it.
• Before writing about any subject, ask yourself what you know about
the subject and what you need to find out.
• Note: Build effective research and literature review skills to gather authentic
and relevant data about your topic from Google or any other search engine.

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 Understanding the Parts of the Essay
Compiled by: Sir Muhammad Ali Khan

• No matter what pattern of development you use, your essay should

have a beginning, a middle, and an end — that is, an introduction, a
body/middle section, and a conclusion.

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 Introduction
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1. You can begin with background information. This approach works

well when you know the audience is already interested in your topic
and you can come directly to the point. This strategy is especially
useful for exams, where there is no need (or time) for subtlety. Ex:

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 Cont…
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• 2. You can introduce an essay with your own original definition of a

relevant term or concept. This technique is especially useful for
research papers or exams, where the meaning of a specific term is
crucial.

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 Cont…
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• 3. You can begin your essay with an anecdote or story that lead
readers to your thesis.

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 Cont…
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• 4. You can begin with a question.

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• 5. You can begin with a quotation. If it arouses interest, it can

encourage your audience to read further.

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• 6. You can begin with a surprising statement. An unexpected

statement catches readers’ attention and makes them want to read
more.

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• 7. You can begin with a contradiction. You can open your essay with
an idea that most people believe is true and then get readers’
attention by showing that it is inaccurate or ill advised.

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 Cont….
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• 8. You can begin with a fact or statistic.

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 Cont…
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• No matter which strategy you select, your introduction should be

consistent in tone with the rest of your essay. If it is not, it can
misrepresent your intentions and even damage your credibility. (For
this reason, it is a good idea not to write your introduction until after
you have finished your rough draft.)

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 Don'ts in an Introduction
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 The body paragraphs
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• The middle section, or body, of your essay develops your thesis. The
body paragraphs present the support that convinces your audience
your thesis is reasonable. To do so, each body paragraph should be
unified, coherent, and well developed. It should also follow a
particular pattern of development and should clearly support your
thesis.

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 Cont….
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• Each body paragraph should be unified. A paragraph is unified when

each sentence relates directly to the main idea of the paragraph.
Frequently, the main idea of a paragraph is stated in a topic sentence.
Like a thesis statement, a topic sentence acts as a guidepost, making
it easy for readers to follow the paragraph’s discussion. Although the
placement of a topic sentence depends on a writer’s purpose and
subject, beginning writers often make it the first sentence of a
paragraph.

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 Cont…
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• Sometimes the main idea of a paragraph is not stated but implied by

the sentences in the paragraph. Professional writers often use this
technique because they believe that in some situations — especially
narratives and descriptions — a topic sentence can seem forced or
awkward. As a beginning writer, however, you will find it helpful to
use topic sentences to keep your paragraphs focused.
• Whether or not you include a topic sentence, remember that each
sentence in a paragraph should develop the paragraph’s main idea. If
the sentences in a paragraph do not support the main idea, the
paragraph will lack unity.

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 Example
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• In the following excerpt from a student essay, notice how the topic
sentence (underlined) unifies the paragraph by summarizing its main
idea:

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 Cont…
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• Each body paragraph should be coherent. A paragraph is coherent if

its sentences are smoothly and logically connected to one another.
Coherence can be strengthened in three ways. First, you can repeat
key words to carry concepts from one sentence to another and to
echo important terms. Second, you can use pronouns to refer to key
nouns in previous sentences. Finally, you can use transitions, words
or expressions that show chronological sequence, cause and effect,
and so on (see the list of transitions on slide 43). These three
strategies for connecting sentences — which you can also use to
connect paragraphs within an essay — indicate for your readers the
exact relationships among your ideas.
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 Example
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• The following paragraph, from George Orwell’s “Shooting an

Elephant”, uses repeated key words, pronouns, and transitions to
achieve coherence.

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 Cont….
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• Orwell keeps his narrative coherent by using transitional expressions

(already, finally, when the shots hit him) to signal the passing of time.
He uses pronouns (he, his) in nearly every sentence to refer back to
the elephant, the topic of his paragraph. Finally, he repeats key words
like shots and die (and its variants dead and dying) to link the whole
paragraph’s sentences together.

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 Transitions
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 Cont….
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• Each body paragraph should be well developed. A paragraph is well

developed if it contains the support — examples, reasons, and so on
— readers need to understand its main idea. If a paragraph is not
adequately developed, readers will feel they have been given only a
partial picture of the subject.

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 Example
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• The following student paragraph uses two examples to support its

topic sentence.

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 Cont….
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• Each body paragraph should clearly support the thesis statement. No

matter how many body paragraphs your essay has — three, four, five,
or even more — each paragraph should introduce and develop an
idea that supports the essay’s thesis. Each paragraph’s topic sentence
should express one of these supporting points. The diagram on next
slide illustrates this thesis-and-support structure.

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 The Conclusion
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• Since readers remember best what they read last, your conclusion is
very important. Always end your essay in a way that reinforces your
thesis and your purpose. Like your introduction, your conclusion is
rarely longer than a paragraph. Regardless of its length, however, your
conclusion should be consistent with the rest of your essay — that is,
it should not introduce points you have not discussed earlier.
Frequently, a conclusion will restate your essay’s main idea or
review your key points.

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 Cont…
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• Here are several strategies you can use to conclude an essay:

• 1. You can conclude your essay by reviewing your key points or
restating your thesis.

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 Cont….
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• 2. You can end a discussion of a problem with a recommendation of a

course of action.

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 Cont…
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• 3. You can conclude with a prediction. Be sure, however, that your

prediction follows logically from the points you have made in the
essay. Your conclusion is no place to make new points or to change
direction.

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 Cont…
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• 4. You can end with a relevant quotation.

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 Don’ts in Conclusion
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 Compiled by: Sir Muhammad Ali Khan

Reference
It is an excellent companion for academic
writing. The entire presentation is made
from this book.

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