Unit 2: The Writing Process

The "writing process" refers to the various steps and stages you experience as you create a piece of writing, beginning with the generation and selection of ideas to the editing of a final copy of the letter, essay, memorandum, or report.

Generally, all writers go through a series of stages: creating ideas, narrowing and selecting ideas for exploration, drafting a text, revising the text, and editing it for "correctness."

This exercise will take you through each of these stages as you follow your own efforts in composing a short essay.  Steps in the process are organized sequentially in a series of seventeen activities.  While many writers will find such an "outline approach" to composition somewhat stilted and counter-intuitive, others will find the process outline very helpful.  Nevertheless, please tolerate the "outline" for the purposes of this exercise; you will find, at the end of it, that you have experienced each of the stages of your own writing process.

A special note: feel free to change your topic at any point as inspiration leads you.  You probably would never have come to the new ideas if you hadn't been moving through the process outline.

Instructional Materials
Read the handout, "The Writing Process."

Readings in The Longman Writer
Read "Part 2: The Writing Process," pages 16-148.

Assignment
Complete the Exercise 1: "The Writing Process." 

What You Will Submit
You will submit only the final essay that you develop through the seventeen steps.

Due Dates for Submission
Submit "Exercise 1: The Writing Process" during Week 3.

Student Learning Outcomes
The following Student Learning Outcomes are addressed in this exercise:

1. Students will demonstrate an ability to select and restrict a topic
2. Students will identify the purpose of writing while considering an appropriate tone, language and audience
3. Students will compose a thesis that states the topic and expresses the writers attitude toward that topic
4. Students will organize materials for writing from personal experience observation, interviews, and/or reading using an appropriate pattern of organization
5. Students will produce an effective essay that demonstrates critical thinking
6. Students will apply the rules of standard English grammar

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