The Writing Process:  Longman Reader Chapter 2

Jump to Pre-writing, Generating Evidence, Supporting Evidence, Organizing Evidence,

Writing the First Draft, Body Paragraphs, Connecting the Body, Introductions, Conclusions, Revising

I  Pre-writing

    A. Determine purpose, audience, and tone

    B.  Understand boundaries of assignment

    C.  Limit the subject

    D.  Generate evidence

        1.  free writing

        2.  brainstorming

        3.  mapping

        4.  patterns of development

        5.  research

    E.  Create a scratch outline

II.  Identify the thesis statement (subject + controlling idea)--Do not make an announcement!

III.  Supporting evidence

    A.  Types of evidence

        1.  examples

        2.  reasons

        3.  facts

        4.  details

        5.  statistics

        6.  anecdotes

        7.  quotations from experts

    B.  Characteristics of good evidence

        1.  relevant

        2.  specific

        3.  adequate

        4.  accurate

        5.  representative

        6.  documented

IV.  Organize evidence

    A.  Chronological (in time order)

    B.  Spatial (left to right, top to bottom, front to back, etc)

    C.  Emphatic (least important to most important)

    D.  Simple-complex

V.  Write the first draft

    A.  Body paragraphs

        1.  topic sentences

        2.  supporting details

        3.  summary statement

    B.  Connecting the body

        1.  transitions

        2.  bridging sentences

        3.  repeating words

    C.  Introduction

        1.  brief anecdote

        2.  opposite idea

        3.  series of questions

        4.  quotations

        5.  dramatic fact or statistic

    D.  Conclusion

        1.  summary

        2.  prediction

        3.  quotation

        4.  statistic

        5.  Call for action

    E.  Title

VI.  Revising

    A.  Focus

    B.  Support

    C.  Organization

    D.  Exact Language

VII.  Editing

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