Slide 1

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
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•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 2

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 3

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing

Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 4

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

Sharing

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing

Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 5

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 6

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 7

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Revising

Editing

Publishing

Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 8

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Editing

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
Main Page

Experience

Prewriting /
Rehearsing

Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 9

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 10

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 11

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 12

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 13

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Sharing

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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 14

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 15

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 16

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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Publishing

DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 17

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

Sharing

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Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
Rehearsing

Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 18

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
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Drafting
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Editing
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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 19

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 20

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 21

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

Sharing

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 22

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
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Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 23

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 24

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing

Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 25

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Revising

Editing

Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 26

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
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•
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•
•
•
•

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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
Click Back to Main Page
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 27

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Prewriting /
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 28

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 29

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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Prewriting /
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Drafting

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Revising

Editing

Publishing

The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 30

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing

Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 31

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 32

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 33

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 34

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Editing

Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 35

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
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Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Revising

Editing

Publishing

Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 36

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Editing

Publishing

Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 37

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 38

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

Sharing

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Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing

Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
Rehearsing

Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 39

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 40

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 41

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Editing

Publishing

Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 42

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

Sharing

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Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

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Slide 43

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
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Experience
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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 44

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 45

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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Publishing

DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing

Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 46

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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Drafting

How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

Sharing

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

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Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 47

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
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Drafting
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Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
Click Back to Main Page
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 48

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 49

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 50

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

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More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Drafting

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Revising

Editing

Publishing

Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 51

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Editing

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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Prewriting /
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 52

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 53

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 54

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 55

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Editing

Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Sharing

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
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Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 56

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
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Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 57

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revising

Editing

Publishing

Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 58

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 59

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Publishing

Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
Rehearsing

Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 60

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
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Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 61

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
Click Back to Main Page
step).
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
Click Back to Main Page
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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Slide 62

The Writing Process
Essay #1: To be a Slave by Julius Lester

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Open the Writing Process Notes Assignment Worksheet
in Microsoft Word.
Save this document in your student file under the title:
Example: WallsWritingProcessNotetakingSheet
Fill in each section of the notes as you watch the
Writing Process PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the document each time you add more
information, so you do not loose your work.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email to me: [email protected]

Student Objectives
Students will:
• Define the elements of the writing process
• Write following the writing process
• Learn to pre-write
• Learn to draft
• Learn to share for the purpose of revision
• Learn to revise and edit your paper
• Learn to publish a professional paper

The Writing Process

Annie
Dillard

At the start of her career, author Annie Dillard thought that all you really
needed was “paper, pen, and a lap” to write something. But before too
long, she discovered that “in order to write so much as a sonnet [a 14 line
poem], I needed a warehouse.” Of course, the author is exaggerating, but
only to make a point. Dillard soon learned that she had to spend a lot of
time—and write numerous drafts—to produce effective finished products.
You may know from experience what Dillard is talking about.
Think of your best essays, reports, and stories. You probably put forth a
great deal of effort (enough to fill a warehouse?) to produce each one,
changing some parts many times from draft to draft. You may also know
that writing really becomes satisfying when it reflects your best efforts. If
you work hard at your writing, you—and your readers—will almost
always be pleased with the results
Sebranek, Patrick, Dave Kemper, and Verne Meyer. Writers Inc.: A Student Guide for Writing and Learning.
(Wilmington, Massachusetts: Write Source, 2001), 3.

The Writing Process
Writing and Past Misconceptions:
Traditionally, the teaching of writing assumed a one-draft
only mentality. The object was to get it done, have the
required number of pages, and move along. Students were
forced into instant writing with one-shot drafts being
published in a single sitting. The emphasis has shifted from
analyzing finished products to looking at what students think
and do as they write. Writing is now viewed as a multistage
process. However, it is misleading to think of these stages as
occurring in a sequential and linear fashion. The stages are
interactive and frequently occur simultaneously. The writing
process consists of experience, prewriting / rehearsing,
drafting, sharing, revising, editing, and publishing.

Research Paper Topic
Remember: As you go through this PowerPoint presentation, you will
be dealing with the following research & literature response
essay topic.
Essay Topic: Is it possible for African Americans to experience
equality in a country that enslaved them for more than 400
years? Have African Americans and America recovered from
the enslavement period or are we still living with and through
the residuals and consequences of this troubled period in
history?
The Paper Requirements:
• 550 words (Not counting your cover page and references.)
• 12 font size, double spaced, normal 1 inch margins
• Times New Roman font
• Cover Sheet
• References or Works Cited Page
• What you consider your best writing – final publishable paper.
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What you will learn. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Experience
Prewriting / Rehearsing
Drafting
Sharing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Assessment
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Experience
Definition: Each of your experiences becomes part of

what you know, what you think, and what you
have to say in your writing. Writing is the
process of capturing those thoughts and
experiences on paper. (Writers Inc. page 4)
The first two pre-writing tools may help incorporate
your experiences in your writing.
1. Journal Writing
2. Free-Writing

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Experience
Quotes:
"Sometimes people give titles to me, and sometimes I see them on
billboards."
Robert Penn Warren
“Television has raised writing to a new low.”
Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
“It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves
one having to bother anyone else with them.”
Isabel Colegate
Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”
Minna Antrim
“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or
endeavoring something for the public good.”
Thomas a Kempis
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of
empty pages.”
Elaine Liner
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.”
Delmore Schwartz
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more
places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss, Author
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a
carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a
library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

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Journal Writing
Definition: Write in a journal on a regular basis. Explore your personal feelings,
develop your thoughts, and record events and happenings of each day. Underline
ideas in your journal writing that you would like to explore at a later time. (See
Writers INC. page 43)
Why write in a journal?
When you write regularly in your personal journal, you will begin to discover
meaning in your writing. You will begin to enter the world of you inner thoughts.
You will be able to recognize the value of your experiences, and how they deeply
affect your writing. Recognizing and remembering the experiences from your life
will make all of your writing much more vivid, alive, and full of your personality
and voice.
The Process:
1.
Write as often as you can in your journal.
2.
We are constantly having thoughts and experiences so it is good to have a
notebook on hand.
3.
Writing regularly is the key.
(See Writers INC. page 144-146 for more ideas.)

We will NOT be doing a journal assignment for this paper, but it is something to
think about for future assignments.
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Free-Writing
Definition: Free-writing is writing nonstop for 5-10 minutes to discover possible
writing ideas. Begin with a particular focus in mind that is somehow related to
your assignment. (See Writers INC. page 43)

Why Free-write?
When you start to write your paper, often times your voice is lost after you start to
plug in all of the great facts and details that you found in your research.
Remember, voice is your personal fingerprint on the paper. Voice is your
personality, life experiences, and creativity shining through your paper.
•

•

Pros: Free-writing is a terrific memory stimulator. This activity reminds you
of what we already know and helps you to make connections you might not
otherwise make. It helps you to get past the sterile, static, surface responses
so that you can burn through to the insightful and fresh "meat" of what you
really want to say.
Cons: Free-writing is a time-consuming activity and does not guarantee
brilliant results. It is possible to achieve only a clear idea of what you don't
want to write.

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DO NOW:Free-Writing Assignment
The Process:
1.
Write at least 10 minutes without stopping.
2.
Don’t stop to fix or edit what you have written. This is only exploratory
writing.
3.
Keep writing! Even if you are drawing a blank, keep writing about
something.
4.
When you are done, underline ideas you like and may include in your
assignment
(See Writers INC. page 45)
DO THIS NOW: Create a Free-Write Draft
Open your writing_process_notes_assignments and complete the free-writing
assignment. Your essay topic is: Are African Americans truly free and equal
given our history of slavery and are we over slavery in this country?
Before you start adding all of the details from your research, & reading, take 1015 minutes and simply create a free-write draft of your paper. This will
allow your personality and voice to shine through. DO NOT use any of
your research information yet, just write what comes to mind. When you
are done, remember to save your work in your student file.
When you are done free-writing, underline the ideas that you might include in
your PAPER 1 assignment.

Click Back to Main Page
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Definition: Prewriting is the stage when writers are getting
ready to write.
In preparing for writing, writers have to decide on a
topic, identify an audience and purpose for writing,
determine the appropriate form for the piece, and
gather ideas and data.
By many educators prewriting is now considered the most
crucial of the stages in the writing process, although it was
previously the most neglected. Just as athletes
need to warm up before a game or an
athletic event, writers also need to
warm up and get ready.
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Writer’s Block and Prewriting
Writer’s Block: "I believe 'writer's block' is the normal state of writing; that is,
you rarely have anything just flow easily from your brain to the keyboard. And if
it does, it's usually pretty bad. Good writing is almost always hard, and what
I think sometimes happens is that writers forget how hard it is, or don't
want to do the work any more, and they call this 'writer's block.'" Dave Barry
Why Prewrite?
Prewriting—even for 5 to 20 minutes—helps me to work past initial, and
often unoriginal, responses to my topic. It prevents me from committing to
superficial and boring answers. Prewriting helps me to find strong,
thoughtful, and clear answers to questions posed. It enables me to
discover—concretely—what I already know and to unearth areas of
personal interest within the writing task: prewriting enables me to discover
myself within the context of my topic. Prewriting also helps me to nail
down responses—to move ideas from short-term memory into long-term
or written memory—so that I can get to the work of writing rather than
trying to remember what I want to say. I think better when I write.
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
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Prewriting / Rehearsing
Quotes:
“That everybody is allowed to learn to read spoileth in the long run not only
writing but thinking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Don't agonize. Organize.
Florynce Kennedy
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.
Mark Caine
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)
When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I
don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written.
Edward Albee

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Prewriting / Rehearsing in Action
Steps to Choosing a Subject and Gathering Details:
1.

2.
3.

4.

5.

Search for a meaningful writing idea—one that truly interests you
and meets the requirements of the assignment. A few places to
begin: Equality in America; Freedom for African Americans;
Slavery in America; Jim Crow laws; Civil Rights in America
Use a selecting strategy (listing, clustering, free-writing, etc.) to
identify possible subjects.
Learn as much as you can about the subject you choose. Conduct a
broad google or youtube search. The videos and links on your
website are good starting point too for this paper.
Decide on an interesting or important part of the subject—your
focus—to develop. Express your focus in a thesis statement/claim,
a statement that helps map out your writing and/or that states a
strong opinion or line of thinking.
Think about an overall plan or design for organizing your writing.
This plan can be anything from a brief list to a detailed outline.

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DO NOW: Broad Search and Notes
Learning about your topic:
The first major step of prewriting is learning about your topic.
Broad Search –Start your broad research.





Starting point – I’m just learning about the subject.
Very general information
A lot of information
Use textbooks, Internet, encyclopedias, and other tertiary reference material that can
give you a good general summary of the topic.

Notes – Recall the lessons on taking Cornell Notes. You need to begin gathering
specifics and details for your paper. Take Cornell Style notes as you gather
information. You must have at least a total of four different sources,
including three different electronic sources, and one traditional source (your
literature book is okay for this).
Remember to use a variety of details and specifics to keep your paper interesting.

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Types of Prewriting: Organizers
Organizing your information:
The second major step of prewriting is organizing your information and ideas. The
following is a list of graphic organizer methods. There are two categories of
graphic organizer activities: generative / associative activities and more linear
organizing activities. They are not mutually exclusive, meaning they do not work
independently of each other. Often times it is more effective to use a
generative organizer and then a more linear organizer like an outline.

Generative / Associative Organizers

Linear Organizers

Journal Writing (Already Covered)

Listing

Free Writing (Already Covered)

Matrixing

Clustering

Outlining

Cubing

5 Paragraph Essay Outline

Dialoging
Dramatizing

Topical Invention
Brainstorming
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Clustering
Begin a cluster with a nucleus word related to your writing topic or
assignment. Then cluster ideas around the nucleus word. Circle each idea
you write and draw a line connecting it to the closest related idea.

Feedback:
•

•

Pros: Clustering is a generative tool (i.e. makes use of the
unconscious in retrieving information) that helps us to connect
thoughts, feelings, and ideas not connected before. It allows us to
loosely structure ideas as they occur in a shape that allows for the
further generation of ideas. It taps our associative powers in a selforganizing process, encouraging us to create personally meaningful
patterns.
Cons: Clustering can frustrate more linear thinkers, those who need
neatness and order to think clearly.

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Cubing
Cubing asks you to probe your topic from six different perspectives. First,
select a topic (issue, person, idea, event, problem, person, object, scene)
and write it at the top of your page to help you keep it firmly in mind.
Then give yourself three to five minutes to write from each of the
perspectives listed below.
Describing: Physically describe your topic. What does it look like? What color, shape, texture, size is it? Identify its parts
Comparing: How is your topic similar to other topics/things? How is it different?
Associating: What other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? Can you compare it to anything else in your experience? Don't be afraid to
be creative here: include everything that comes to mind.
Analyzing: Look at your topic's components. How are these parts related? How is it put together? Where did it come from? Where is it going?
Applying: What can you do with your topic? What uses does it have?
Arguing: What arguments can you make for or against your topic?

•

•

Pros: Cubing is an excellent tool for rapidly exploring a topic. It reveals quickly
what you know and what you don't know, and it may alert you to decide to narrow
or expand your topic.
Cons: Cubing asks us to examine a topic in an unusual way and this may prove
frustrating to some writers. It may at first feel awkward at first to describe
something like abortion and this may cause a writer to abandon this technique or,
worse, the topic itself.
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Dialoging
Dialoging asks that you interact on a personal level with your topic. Just
as dialogue captures a conversation between two people, dialogues
involve conversing with your topic. First you need two characters. You
may imagine two particular people or two sides of an issue, or you may
choose to speak as yourself to your topic or aspect of your topic. You may
want to label the speakers "1" and "2," or give them names, to help you
keep track of who's speaking as you write. Try to keep the dialogue
moving fast: don't get bogged down in rehearsing or planning responses.
If you get stuck, have one of the speakers ask the other a question.
•
Pros: A dialogue can be especially practical in the invention stage of
a narrative or a persuasive essay. You might also find it useful when
searching for topics, looking for focus, exploring an idea, or
considering opposing viewpoints.
•
Cons: When using dialogues, it is easy to get caught up in
characterization, to become tied to the way you're producing
information rather than the information produced. Dialogues,
especially in conjunction with an expository essay, may also
engender a too narrative or too conversational tone when a more
objective or reserved tone is appropriate.
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Dramatizing
Dramatizing has a limited but powerful scope. Many writers find it
invaluable when writing personal narrative (to learn more about
themselves or other significant people), when writing about literature, or
when writing to inform or persuade (to analyze the intended audience).
We first need to define a few key terms:
Actor

Who?

Action

What happened?

Setting

Where and When?

Motive

Why?

Method

How

To use dramatizing, write answers to as many of the following as possible.
What is the actor doing?
How did the actor come to be involved in this situation?
Why does the actor do what he/she does?
What else might the actor do?
What is the actor trying to accomplish?
What do the actor's actions reveal about her/him?

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How do other actors influence the main actor?
What does the actor's language reveal about him/her?
How does the event's setting influence the actor's actions?
How does the time influence what the actor does?
Where did this actor come from?
What might the actor become?

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Brainstorming
The same idea as listing. Just write down all the ideas that come to mind. This is not a time
for judging the ideas, just get them down. There are no bad ideas, because all ideas can lead
to some other idea you may not have thought about. Besides, really great original writing
often comes from some pretty off-the-wall brainstorming. This definitely works better as a
group activity, because you can “piggy-back” off of the ideas of someone else.

Here is a
simple
brainstorm
about
WAR.

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Listing
Begin with a thought or a key word related to your assignment and simply
start listing words and ideas. Listing ideas with a group of friends or
classmates (brainstorming) is also an effective way to search for writing
ideas.
•

•

Pros: List making is, for many, a natural activity and makes concrete
or tangible ideas that might otherwise remain "slippery" in shortterm memory. Lists allow you to focus initially on your ideas rather
than the shape, form, or organization of those ideas.
Cons: Lists are linear and rarely allow for associative activity. Too
often we feel restricted, when confronted by our list, to remain true
to the order of our initial thinking.

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Outlining
The outline is perhaps the most common organizing tool. It provides a
shorthand version of the text yet to be generated based upon ideas already
formed. Outlines are best used following, and building upon, a
more generative and associative prewriting activity (free-writing, listing,
clustering, etc.).
•

•

Pros: An outline provides a clear and easy to follow representation
of the shape and texture of the text. Linear thinkers are particularly
fond of this organizational technique, and less-disciplined writers
benefit from the clarity it engenders.
Cons: Rigidly followed outlines tend to produce stale, static, and
brief texts. Too often, followers of outlines tend to generate one stiff
and short paragraph per entry, fail to make smooth connections, and
produce stilted texts fraught with rough transitions.

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Outlining
Inspiration Software – This visual organizing software allows you to make
many different types of organizers and is available on our desktop
computer, or you can try a free 30-day trial download on the Mac at the
following website.
http://www.inspiration.com/

Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
The great thing about Inspiration Software is that you can create a cluster
or any other type of graphic organizer and it will then convert your
organizer into a Roman numeral outline.

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Diagram (Cluster) View

By pushing
the outline
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take your
cluster or web
graphic
organizer and
convert it to a
Roman
numeral
outline.
(See the next
slide)
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Outline View

By pushing
the diagram
view button,
Inspiration
software will
take you back
to your cluster
or web
graphic
organizer.
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DO: Generative Organizer Assignment
In order to maintain your voice and personality, you should have completed the free writing
assignment. Now, to practice the generative organizers, you will create a generative graphic
organizer using the style that works best for you and the type of paper you are writing. You
should start to include the great details and specifics you have found during your research.
Generative Organizer Assignment
You may use the Inspiration software available on our desktop PC, or found at
http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration will help you create many of the different types of
organizers. (You make create a generative outline and save it to create your post-draft
outline. Pushing the Outline View command will convert your organizer to an outline).
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide
You may use :
Clustering or Web-Diagram.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the middle circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Line Diagram or Branching.
Your paper topic (thesis statement) goes in the top circle.
Then, branch out to your three or four main points.
Finally, add your details.

Cubing
E-mail your completed Generative
Dialoguing
Organizer Assignment to me at:
Dramatizing
Topical Invention
[email protected]
Brainstorming
See page 48-49 in Writers INC for more Graphic Organizer ideas.
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Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
In order to maintain voice and personality, many writers experience success with a post-draft
outline: an outline composed following a drafting session. One post-draft outlining method
involves using the just-completed draft as a memory jogger, a way to reveal what the writer
has been thinking. The post-draft outline, then, simply organizes and/or rearranges those
recently revealed thoughts and starts to include the details and information found during
research. Another method involves creating an outline that maps the just-produced draft,
that uncovers the draft's organization.
Post-Draft Outlining Assignment
You will be creating a post-draft outline, because you should have already completed some free-writing,
and one other generative organizer. Now you should take those great ideas and organize and rearrange
them by using a linear outline.
You must use the 5 Paragraph Essay Roman numeral type organizer (from our face-to-face lecture)
You may use the Inspiration software available on our PC, or found at http://www.inspiration.com/ (You
may take your saved generative outline and push the Outline View command to convert your organizer to
an outline)
Inspiration Software Helpful Job Aide and Guide

E-mail your completed Post-Draft
Outlining Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Drafting
Definition: Getting your ideas down without letting concern
about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in
the way of composing.
During the drafting stage, some students will have difficulty
getting started while others will plunge right in. Some will
draw pictures and make doodles on their paper; while others
will write continuously and seemingly without effort. It is
important that during this stage students are not hampered
with the mechanics of writing. A "free flow" of ideas is
encouraged. Students need to be aware that first drafts are not
finished products and that any piece of writing
can be improved. Revisions will take place
during the next stage in the writing process.
For now, students should sit back and let
their creativity flow forth.
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Drafting
Quotes:
"Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I am never certain of
precisely what I will find."
Gabriel Fielding
“The first draft of anything is #@!%”
Ernest Hemingway
“I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.”
Joseph Heller
“The work was like peeling an onion. The outer skin came off with difficulty... but
in no time you'd be down to its innards, tears streaming from your eyes as more
and more beautiful reductions became possible.”
Edward Blishen
“My wife took a look at the first version of something I was writing not long ago
and said, "Dammit, man, that's high school stuff." I have to tell her to wait until
the seventh draft, it'll work out all right. I don't know why that should be so, that
the first or second draft of everything I write reads that way.
James Thurber
“There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my
statement or proposition in a wrong or awkward form.”
Charles Darwin
“All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They’re
not supposed to be.
Patricia T. O’Conner
“The only true creative aspect of writing is the first draft. That’s when it’s coming
straight from your head and your heart.”
Evan Hunter

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Drafting in Action
Steps to Writing the First Draft and Connecting
Ideas:
1.
2.
3.

4.

Write the first draft while your prewriting is still fresh in your mind.
Set the right tone by giving your opening paragraph special
attention.
Refer to your plan for the main part of your writing, but be flexible.
A more interesting route may unfold as you write.
Don’t worry about getting everything right at this point; just
concentrate on developing your ideas. (If you’re working on a
computer, save a paper copy of each draft.)

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1st Draft Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to write your first draft once you. . . .

Completed your free write assignment to help maintain your voice.

Know enough about your subject by completing your notes
assignment (Cornell Notes ~ full of details and specifics).

Established a thesis.

Completed the Generative Organizer and Post-Draft Organizer
Assignment.
Remember the Big Picture: When writing a first draft, give special
attention to these traits of effective writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas - Develop all the worthwhile thoughts and ideas you have collected,
and consider new ideas or directions as they come to mind.
Organization - Use your prewriting and planning as a general guide when you
write. Try to work logically through your draft from the opening to the
closing paragraph.
Voice – Speak honestly and naturally so the real you comes through in your
writing.
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1st Draft Assignment Continued
Assignment:
_____ Remember the topic and focus of your paper
Essay Topic (modified – see full topic on slide 2):
Are African Americans truly free and equal and has America moved
beyond it’s history of slavery in this country?
_____ Write your first draft on the computer. Save the computer version
under your name and first_draft. Example: wallspaper1firstdraft.
_____ Be sure to include the following in your first draft assignment:
 Hook

 Thesis statement

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusion

 Topic Sentences

 Transition Statements

 Zinger

 Use a variety of details

 Maintain your voice and personality throughout the paper.

E-mail your completed First Draft
Assignment to me at:
[email protected]
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Bibliography Assignment – 1st Draft
Complete the references or works cited page for your paper.
This is something that may change as you do additional
drafts or add more information.
Remember: You need to have specifics and details from at
least (4) different sources – including (1) traditional
source and (3) electronic sources.
You may use the printable style guides:
APA or MLA
Or any websites from the sources PowerPoint.
• The Citation Machine (Great – Generates your citation in MLA or APA style)
http://citationmachine.net/index.php
• http://emulibrary.com/emulib_cite.html
• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

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Sharing
Definition: Authors share their writing by reading aloud to
themselves, reading in pairs, in writing circles, during
peer reviews, and during a conference with the teacher.
Listeners respond to the writer by noting what they liked
about the piece, asking questions about the author's intent or
any confusing parts, and providing suggestions for
improvement. The author always has the option of
incorporating the suggestions or ignoring them. Ownership is
a must! Students should have control of the responsibility for
their own writing.

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Sharing
“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with
others.”
William Arthur Ward
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him
his own.”
Benjamin Drisaeli
“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will
continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”
Jim Rohn
“The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest.”
Buddha

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DO: Reading Aloud Assignment
Read your paper aloud to at least one other person.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of any
rough or confusing areas.
_____ As you read, make notes on your paper of
particularly effective areas.
_____ Summarize any comments and suggestions
and your notes in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
_____ Decide which comments and suggestions you
might want to take into account.
_____ Save this information for later.
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Revising
Definition: The purpose of revision is to clarify and shape the
meaning and to organize and polish the writing.
"Writing, like a potter's clay, only becomes a thing of
usefulness or beauty through repeated smoothing and
shaping" (Walshe, 1981, 40). It is at this stage that the author
rethinks what has been written. Revision involves adding,
substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as
writers rework and polish their pieces.

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Revising
Quotes:
"As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen
before."
Robert Hayden
“Words and sentences are subject to revision; paragraphs and whole compositions are
subjects of prevision.”
Barrett Wendell
“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
John Irving
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike say ,
a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping
smile.”
Robert Cormier
“The great thing about revision is that it’s your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”
Will Shetterly
“Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest
things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hadn’t quite done it.” Michael Crichton
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in-shock-proof #@!*-detector.”
Ernest Hemingway
“My sense of a poem - my notion of how you revise - is: you get yourself into a state where
what you are intensely conscious of is not why you wrote it or how you wrote it, but what
you wrote.”
Philip Levine
“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right
phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter — chipping away at the raw
material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it”.
Harriet Doerr

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Revising
Leave time in your writing schedule for revising your paper. Before writing your final draft,
put your paper aside for a day or two (another reason to leave time) and then reread it. This
way, you will gain a fresh perspective and may detect weaknesses that you hadn’t noticed
before.
A rough draft always needs smoothing out. As you reread your paper, ask these questions:
(1) Does the paper have thematic unity, and do its parts clearly follow one another?
(2) Is there adequate support for the major claims and interpretations?
(3) Are the points made clearly and convincingly?
While you examine the overall structure of the paper for defects, you also need to look
closely at the language itself. If you have repeated yourself, eliminate the repetition; if you
have included material that is unrelated, discard it. Check the connections between
paragraphs to see if the reader can follow your argument. Make sure that you accomplish
what you set out to do in your introduction and that your conclusion makes it clear that you
have done so. Go over the footnotes or endnotes [citations] and the bibliography to check
style and accuracy.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

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Revising in Action
Steps to Improving Your Writing:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Review your first draft, checking the ideas, organization, and voice
of your writing.
Ask me or Dad to read and react to your work—do a peer review.
Add, cut, reword, or rearrange ideas as necessary. ( You may have
to change some parts several times before they say what you want
them to say.)
Carefully assess the effectiveness of your opening and closing
paragraphs.
Look for special opportunities to make your writing as meaningful
and interesting as possible.
DO NOT worry about conventions at this point. That will come
later during the editing process.

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DO NOW: Revision Assignment
Starting Point: You are ready to revise once you. . . .

Completed your first draft.

Set it aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When revising, pay special attention to these
traits of good writing: ideas, organization, and voice.
Ideas – Make sure that you have included sufficient information to support or
develop your thesis. Always keep your readers in mind when you
evaluate the effectiveness of your ideas. Have you answered their
pressing questions about your subject?
Organization – Check the overall design of your writing, making sure that it
moves smoothly and logically from one main point to the next. Also
check the effectiveness of each main part—the introduction, body, and
conclusion—in your writing.
Voice – Does your writing sound like you are genuinely interested in your
subject? Does the tone or your writing match your purpose (polite,
serious, lighthearted)?
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Revision Assignment Continued
Revision Self-Evaluation Checklist
1. Print out your draft and reread your paper with a
red pen in hand
2. Use the previous slide to revise your work and
mark it with red pen to show changes.
Peer Review Assignment
1. Now give your paper to Mom or Dad
2. Have them read your paper and do the same,
using the ideas from the previous slide. They
should mark you paper with a purple pen (so
bring it to them when you are ready for this
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Editing
Definition: Editing is the process of getting the piece ready
for the audience. The writer is expected to attend to the
surface features of writing -- mechanics, grammar, and
spelling.
Students must recognize that in order to communicate
effectively with an audience, writing must be free of errors
that can interfere with the understanding of the message or
can distract from the writing itself.

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Editing
Quotes:
"Pause when you come across a well put sentence or idea in your reading.
Study it and learn from it."
-Anonymous
“Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so
they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.”
Randy K. Milholland
“Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a
collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should
say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?'' and avoid ''How
can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?”
James Thurber
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly”
C.J. Cherryh
“[Books are] never finished, only abandoned.”
Paraphrased from Leonardo da Vinci
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And
we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Arthur Polotnik
“The Review's labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does
to broccoli”
David Marqolick

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Editing in Action
Steps to Checking for Style and Accuracy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Edit your revised writing for sentence smoothness and word choice.
Then check for errors in usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling,
and grammar.
Have a dictionary, and a thesaurus, close at hand as you work.
Ask a reliable editor—a friend, a classmate, a parent, or a teacher—
to check your writing for errors you may have missed.
Prepare a neat final copy of your writing.
Proofread the final draft for errors before submitting it.

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Editing
Starting Point: You are ready to edit once you. . . .
 Completed your major revisions—adding, cutting, rewriting, or
rearranging, the ideas in your writing.
 Make a clean copy of your revised writing.
 Set your writing aside for a day or two (if possible).
Remember the Big Picture: When you edit and proofread, pay attention to
the following three traits of effective wiring: sentence fluency, word
choice, and conventions.
Sentence Fluency – Rewrite any sentences that disrupt the fluency or
flow of your writing. Vary sentence beginnings and lengths.
Word Choice – Replace any words or phrases that get in the way of
your message or set the wrong tone. Also replace any overused
words, words that are not specific enough, and so on.
Conventions – Make sure that your writing follows the basic
standards of spelling, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and
usage.
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DO NOW: Editing Assignment
Finally, examine your writing for errors in spelling and grammar. Proofread carefully and
slowly. At a normal reading speed your eyes can go right by major errors. You are so
familiar with your paper that you may not see what is on the page. Reading your paper
aloud will help you catch unclear phrases. Showing it to a friend will let you know where
your readers might have problems.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. Seventh Edition. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 103.

Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist Assignment
1. Print the Editing Self-Evaluation Checklist
Worksheet From the website.
2. Complete the worksheet as you read your paper.
Remember to have a reliable editor check your work as well – student,
parent, teacher. (You could do another peer review.)
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Publishing
Definition: This stage of the writing process occurs when a
completed text is reworked and edited to the satisfaction
of the author. This includes “white space”, formatting,
and neatness.
Although many young authors will want to publish
everything they write, not all pieces will reach the publishing
stage. A high standard should be set for overall correctness
and presentation for the pieces that are to be published.

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Editing

Publishing

Publishing
Quotes:
“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible
people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few
exceptions, would never get published today.”
Mark Crispin Miller

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Experience

Prewriting /
Rehearsing

Drafting

Sharing

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Publishing in Action
Steps to Sharing Your Final Work:
1.
2.
3.

Share the finished product with your teacher, writing peers, friends,
and family members.
Post it on your personal or class Website or publish it on-line.
Consider submitting your work to a school, a local, or a national
publication. (Ask your teacher for recommendation for places to
publish.) Make sure to follow the requirements for submitting
manuscripts.

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How to do a cover page.
For your final paper, you should include a cover pager. You
can find how to do this by going to your MLA, APA, or
Turabian style examples in any writing resource book from
your high school days (if you still have them), or there is
an example of the minimum expectation at:

•
•

http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/
HANDOUTS/writing/MLA/cover.htm
http://www.slh.k12.nj.us/School/Technology/Tit
le%20Page%20MLA%20.htm

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Publishing

DO NOW: Publishing Assignment
1. Make sure your paper is revised, edited,
and spell/grammar checked.
2. Your paper should be ready to share with me or
any other audience.
3. If you want to send it to publishers, there are
links to a few on the next slide.
4. Ultimately: you will send it to me but keep
reading to the end of the powerpoint.

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Publishing

Publishing Your Paper
Some links for publishing your paper:
A young writer’s magazine
http://www.merlynspen.org/

A magazine published by teens
http://www.positiveteensmag.com/ptonline/ptonline.htm

A magazine written by teens
http://www.teenink.com/

A teen forum for writing
http://cyberteens.com/cr/

Publishing for teens
http://www.teenlit.com/#

African-American themed writing
http://www.timbooktu.com/

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Publishing Your Paper

Click Back to Main Page

More links for publishing your paper:
An anthology for teens
http://teenlink.nypl.org/WordSmiths-Current.cfm

Produced by writing students
http://www.susqu.edu/writers/apprentice.htm

Club for amateur young writers
http://www.geocities.com/writestuffclub/

Non-fiction submissions
http://www.the-squid.com/guidelines/guidelines.htm

Created for the young writer
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/forum/index.php

The Writers Voice
The World's Favorite Literary Website

Teen writings
http://www.writers-voice.com/Teen.htm

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Assessment
Definition: At the end of every writing experience, you
should ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”
Writing is a continuous process. Written works are never
done, writers just stop working on them. Each writing
experience should make you a better writer.

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Publishing

Assessment
Reflection Assignment
_____ Answer the reflection questions in your
writing_process_notes_assignments_worksheet.
Keep this in mind as you reflect:
“The only way to raise the quality of writing in
school is to create, share, and celebrate the specific
criteria for that quality with everybody on a regular
basis.”
Barry Lane
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Publishing

The Writing Process and Six Traits
How do they work together? 8 steps
Start

1. Experience
Prewriting

1.Ideas

Notice that step 5 (Revision) is
where you use five of the six traits

8. Assessment
= Six Traits

2. Ideas

2. Rehearsing

7. Conventions

Organization

Pre-writing

Presentation
8. All Traits 7.Publishing

3. Organization

3. Drafting

Structure

How can you
do even better
next time?

6. Editing

= Writing Process

6. Conventions

4. Sharing
5. Revision

4. Voice

5. Ideas

Organization

Notice that step 8 – Assessment – connects you back to
step 6 – Revision – This is so you can assess how well
you did on your paper and plan for how you can do
even better on your next paper.
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Experience

Prewriting /
Rehearsing

Drafting

Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency

Sharing

Sharing

Editing

Publishing

Writing Process Notes and Assignment Worksheet

Directions:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Open and make sure you have finished your saved
Writing Process Notes and Assignments Worksheet in
Microsoft Word.
Save the final document as instructed earlier.
When you are completely done, attach the notes to an email
When you are completely done, e-mail the notes to me
[email protected]

THE END
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Credits and a Big - Thank You •

•

•

•

Sebranek, P., Kemper, D., and Meyer, V., (2001). Writers Inc: A student
handbook for writing and learning. Write Source, Great Source Education
Group. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Benjamin, Jules R. A Student’s Guide to History. 8th ed. Bedford: St.
Martins, 2001.
The book can be found at:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&idproduct=112400193&
compType=TOC
Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website at Humboldt State University
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Etdd2/Prewriting.htm
Microsoft Clipart

Suggestions and Comments
•

Any final comments of suggestions for improvement? E-mail me.

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