Research
Essays
Using Writing
Mrs. Nereim
ENC 1101
Writing
All textual information is
taken from the class text:
Write Now by Karin Russell
Critical Reading
How is writing used?
Warm Up Activity
• List all the ways you use writing.
• Now, get with a partner share ideas
and come up with new ones
• Share your ideas with your group
• Make a chart of the top ten ways to
use writing.
• Share with the class.
Finding the Perfect Writing
Place
Cafe
Where do you Write?
Office
Creating a Writing Environment
•
•
•
•
•
•
Find a good place to write
Plan your time to write
Select your materials
Establish a method for saving your work
Create an inviting atmosphere
Minimize distractions
Assignment
• In your assigned groups, create a
PowerPoint presentation of the ideal
writing place.
• Be creative
• Use graphics.
• A slide for each member showing the ideal
writing space
• A combined place that shows everyone’s
idea.
Facts about Sentences
• A complete sentence contains a subject, a
verb, and a complete thought.
• A fragment is lacking either a subject,
verb, or complete thought.
• A run on (fused) sentence is one sentence
that goes into the other without
punctuation.
• A comma splice is two sentences joined
together with a comma.
Fixing Run on Sentences
• Fix a run on sentence using a comma and
a conjunction. See the fanboys, page 397.
• A semicolon between the two sentences
will fix a run on.
• Create two new sentences.
• See page 396.
Fixing Comma Splices
• Place one of the FANBOYS after the
comma.
• Turn the comma into a semicolon.
• Create two new sentences.
• See page 398
Mixed Constructions
• A mixed construction happens when a
sentence does not make sense. This
means the first part does not fit with the
second part of the sentence.
• Let’s practice with page 399
• Here is a great website for extra
information:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
/confusion.htm
NOW BACK TO THE ASSIGNMENT
The rhetorical Star
Subject
• You need to determine what topic to cover. What
is the specific message that you want to convey
to your readers?
• Choose an appropriate subject that fits within the
parameters of your assignment.
• Make sure your topic is narrow enough that you
can adequately cover it in your document.
Audience
• Consider your readers.
• Are you writing for a particular discourse
community (a group of people who share
common interests, knowledge, and values
related to a particular subject)?
• Each of us belongs to a number of discourse
communities such as school clubs, social or
religious groups, and professional organizations.
• Each group has its own vocabulary and
conventions of communication, called jargon.
Purpose
• Determine your reason for writing.
• Why are you writing? What are you hoping to
accomplish? What effect do you wish to have on
your audience?
• Write to inform
• Write to interpret
• Write to persuade
• Write to Entertain
• Write to express feelings
• Combination
Strategy
• You’ll need to choose an approach that
best serves your purpose and audience.
• In this textbook you will learn about eight
major writing strategies: narrating,
describing, explaining a process,
comparing or contrasting, explaining
causes or effects, persuading, solving a
problem, and evaluating.
Design
• Think about how you are going to design
your document.
• Consider the design expectations of your
instructor or boss and the discourse
community for which you are writing.
Determine the genre, format, length,
appearance, and visual aids that are
appropriate for your document.
Design
• Genre: What type of document do you
need to write?
• Format: How should you structure your
writing? Some instructors may allow you to
turn in handwritten informal assignments,
but others will require that you use a
computer to write all assignments.
Design
• Length: How long should your document be? Is
there a word or page minimum(or limit)? If your
instructor does not specify a length, then let the
topic guide you. Be sure to fully develop each
point that you want to make.
• Appearance: How should your document look?
Find out if you need to single-space or doublespace your papers. Typically, if you single-space
a paper, you will begin each paragraph at the
left margin. However, if you double-space a
paper, you will need to indent each paragraph.
Design
• Visual aids: Would adding visual aids
enhance your paper? Often pictures,
diagrams, charts, or graphs will help get
your ideas across to your audience.
See Page 10 in the textbook
The Writing Process
Chapter 2
The Writing Process
Step 1: Discovering
• During this step you will explore your
subject. You have several options for
going about the discovery process.
• Your goal is to come up with a topic and
generate ideas about it.
Brainstorming
• Write whatever comes to mind about your
topic
• This can be written all over the page
• Do not worry about grammar or spelling
• Use arrows, boxes, question marks,
boxes, circles, doodles, or whatever you
can think of to explore ideas
Example of Brainstorming
Listing
• List all the ideas that you can think of that relate
to your subject.
• Listing is different from brainstorming because
it's focused on a specific topic.
• There are no wrong ideas at this point. Keep
writing for about 10 minutes.
• Then review your list to see which ideas you like
and which you want to eliminate.
• Put an “X” next to items you think won't be
useful, but don't cross them out because you
may change your mind.
Example of Listing
Here's a sample list on the subject of having a career rather
than just a job:
•
•
•
•
•
greater financial reward
better attitude
higher interest level
greater self-esteem
better potential for
development
• learning experience
• more required skills and
training
• more advancement
opportunities
• long term instead of short
term
• larger contribution to the
community
• greater sense of
satisfaction
• using talents to do
something well
• professionalism
necessary
• higher education required
• status symbol
Freewritng
• Take 10 or 15 minutes to write everything
that comes to mind about your topic. This
discovery method is like brainstorming and
listing except that you use complete
sentences when you freewrite.
• See the example on page 17 in your
text.
Questioning
• Consider the journalist's questions as you try to
discover ideas about your subject: Who? What?
When? Where? Why? How? Write everything
you can think of for each question.
• Afterward, you can decide which ideas seem
relevant and you would like to investigate
further.
• Use your answers as a starting point for your
essay. This technique works especially well for
informative pieces, narrative writing
(storytelling), and problem solving
Other Ideas
• Journaling: Begin keeping a daily writer's journal
(paper or electronic) where you jot down ideas
that pop into your head.
• Sketching: Even if you don't have an artistic
side, you may find that doodling or drawing will
help you generate ideas about your topic,
especially if you are a visual person
• Talking: You may find it useful to bounce your
ideas off classmates, friends, co-workers, or
family members.
More…
• Talking: You may find it useful to bounce your
ideas off classmates, friends, co-workers, or
family members.
• Reading: Sometimes you may find it helpful to
read what others have written about your topic.
• Viewing: Often you'll find that looking at a
photograph, painting, advertisement, television
show, film, or Web site will stir your emotions
and inspire you to write.
Step 2: Planning
• After you have your topic and some
supporting ideas, you are ready to plan
your essay. Having a plan will help you
have a better finished product.
• The following slides will help plan your
essay.
Planning Ideas
• Narrowing Your Focus: Often the ideas
that writers generate during the discovery
stage of the writing process are too broad
to fully develop in a short paper.
• Determining Main Points: After your focus
is clear, decide what main points you want
to cover in your essay. You will need
enough main points to fully support your
thesis.
Clustering
• Write your topic in the center of the page
and draw a circle around it. Draw several
lines out from your topic. At the end of
each line, write a main idea and circle it.
Then draw lines radiating out from each
main idea. At the end of each line, write
supporting ideas that relate to the circled
word it connects to and so on
Graphic Organizers
• Developing graphic organizers can help
you plan and organize your essays. They
can enable you to see the relationships
among your ideas so that you can put
them into a logical order before composing
your first draft.
More Planning
• Ordering Ideas: After you've completed a cluster
or rough graphic organizer, you'll need to decide
how to arrange your main points logically in your
paper. Some writers find that simply listing the
main points works best for them.
• Outlining: One purpose for creating an outline is
to help you organize your writing. To develop an
informal outline, note each main point that you
plan to cover in your essay, and then list the
ideas that you want to include with each point.
See page 22 in the text.
Step 3: Composing
• After the topic is planned and organized, you
are ready to begin composing your essay.
• The first time you write, just get your ideas down
on the paper. Do not aim for perfection.
• Write the easiest part first.
• In a short essay, write a paragraph about each
main point.
• Take breaks
Step 4: Getting Feedback
• Conferences: One technique that you can use
to get feedback on your assignment is to have a
conference with your instructor, if possible. You
could also get feedback from the writing studio.
• Peer Review: Participating in a peer review
exercise is a great way to improve your writing.
Your instructor may give you an opportunity to
complete a peer review activity in class. Usually
this means that you pair up with another student
(or a group of students) and provide each other
with constructive criticism (ideas for
improvement) about each other's drafts. See
page 26.
Step 5: Revising
• Many writers are tempted to take that first
draft, correct the “mistakes,” and then turn
it in. If you do that, you will be skipping
one of the most important steps. Good
writers typically spend more time revising
than working on any other step of the
writing process.
Revising
•
•
•
•
Adding and deleting ideas ( see page 27)
Developing
Arranging
As you are revising your paper, move
sentences and paragraphs around to see
what flows better and makes more sense.
If you are revising on a computer, the
cutting and pasting features in your word
processing program will simplify this
procedure
Step 6: Editing
• Edit the paper for
– Subjects and verbs
– End Marks
– Commas
– Quotation Marks
– Colons and Semicolons
– Commonly Confused Words
– Abbreviations
– Numbers
Also Edit for
•
•
•
•
•
•
Word Choice
Sentence Structure
Grammar
Punctuation
Spelling
Mechanics
Proofreading
• After you have finished revising and editing, be sure to
proofread your final paper. As you read your paper this
time, you are looking for the really nitpicky details, such
as repeated words and typographical errors, that you
may have overlooked previously.
• After you have proofread for the last time, be sure to
submit your essay in the correct format. Is your paper
supposed to be double-spaced? Are you expected to
turn in a hard copy, an electronic version, or both? Have
you followed all of the directions for the assignment?
Following your instructor's guidelines is an important part
of the assignment