The Writing Process
Everyone has a writing
process.
What is yours?
Show Me
Create a
visual of
your
process.
•A sketch
•A flow chart
•A collage
Label some of the phases or parts
of your process.
Here’s how I see my process:
Discovery
Brainstorm
Free Write
Thinking
Drafting
Looping
Focus
Focus Free
Write
Sometimes I go
back into discovery
Sharing
Talking
Thinking
Shaping
Drafting
Limiting
Developin
g
Drafting
Revising
Shaping
Revising
Writing
Thinking
Editing
Polishing
Sharing
Reflecting
Which of these are part of your process?
Discovery and Invention
Collection
Shaping and Limiting
Organizing
Drafting
Revising
Polishing
What else do you call the parts of your process?
Look over your writing process
visual.
Circle the parts that give you the
most difficulty.*
Now you can add anything you
might have forgotten.
Use a different color pen
or font to make the changes.
*Keep in mind that throughout the semester there will be other
workshops that can help you in specific areas.
Discovery
Brainstorm
Free Write
Thinking
Drafting
Insert
Looping
Focus
Focus Free
Write
Sometimes I go
back into discovery
Shaping
Revising
Writing
Thinking
Add:
Organizing
Add:
Starting Over
image
Add
Research
Editing
Polishing
Sharing
Sharing
Talking
Thinking
Shaping
Drafting
Limiting
Developin
g
Drafting
Revising
Add: Cutting
and
Pasting
Reflecting
Someone Else’s Process Might Look
Like This:
Ordering
Shaping
Limiting
Seeing
what you
have
Focusing
Thesis
Drafting
Topic
Audience
Purpose
Gathering
Information
Discovery
&
Invention
Research
Field
Online
Library
Peer
Sharing
Revising
Audience
PERMISSION TO BE MESSY…OR
NOT
Whatever your process, remember that you have
permission to move about.
To
To
To
To
To
be messy…or neat.
start over…or not.
go back to collecting data during revision.
cut and paste…to reorder
put back the order.
Why do we study our writing
process?
Make a list of reasons you think it is
important to studying the writing
process.
1. ________________________________
2. ________________________________
3. ________________________________
4. ________________________________
Here are some of my reasons:
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To help me see what I think.
To help me uncover and discover ideas.
To help me think critically about the world.
To help me exercise my creativity.
To help me organize and give shape to my ideas.
To help me understand how purpose and
audience influence my writing.
To create a shared vocabulary for discussing
writing.
To help me avoid procrastination and frustration.
To help me use my time effectively and efficiently.
Our writing process helps us understand our
relationship to ourselves, to our writing,
and to each other.
Writer
Writing Process
Product
Audience
Understanding our writing
processes EMPOWERS us.
Each of JCC’s Composition
workshops is designed to
help you gain a greater
appreciation for your
writing process while
engaging in particular
aspects of writing.
Today’s workshop
is :
This Workshop is Worth
3 Hours Credit
You may want to work through these
activities over 2-3 weeks.
For this credit you must:
 Complete the entire slide presentation.
 Comprehensively complete all ten activities in
writing.
 Print the final slide (select “Current Slide”) and
attach that print out to your ten completed
activities.
 Submit your activities and the printed slide to
your instructor for credit.
Discovery & Language
We are born with a gift of language. As
children we play with words and learn not
only that they sound and feel differently,
but that they have power. We learn that
words give us access, protect us, fulfill
needs, bring us joy, and that words can
hurt.
Long before we learn an alphabet, we
express our feelings with symbols—we
mark on paper, sidewalks, chalkboards,
foggy bathroom mirrors, on our own
bodies, and sometimes, to our parents’
chagrin, on walls, windows, and cars.
For years, as children, we delight in
language—we love rhyming, singing,
whispering, yelling, and we begin to make
our marks on the world with images and
symbols.
When we do come to writing we learn the
power of combining symbols
k r i s t y
the letters come together as “Kristy”
HEY! That’s me! There am I, a voice on a
page!
A voice different from Calvin, Amber,
Jacob, and Shanandra.
ACTIVITY 1
Think about when you first discovered the power
of language. When discovered a voice you could
speak or write, and you used your voice to say
“I AM!”
Take a few minutes to write an initial paragraph
describing a time when writing gave you power
or helped you clarify something for yourself.
People scrawl words on walls, floors,
ceilings, sometimes in their own blood to
exercise power, to exercise voice.
Activity 2
Write about a time when you felt that you
could not express yourself, what was
wrong? Who or what silenced you?
Or…Write about when you felt that you
could not write (right), what was wrong?
Who or what silenced you?
Write for 10 minutes.
Write without stopping.
Activity 2
continued
Now, read what you wrote. What
more would you like to add?
Make some notes.
List power verbs that scroll inside
your head, that you wish you could
use when you have lost your voice.
Sometimes it is a person or several persons
who may get in the way of our voices being
heard.
Other times, people -- our friends,
colleagues, & family -- listen and affirm.
In writing, these groups are called audience.
Think of audience as those who hear and
read your voice.
Think more about how audience shapes
your attitude toward writing.
The relationship of writer--writing--audience
Discovering Ideas
Discovering Voice
There are things and worlds worth exploring,
worth discovering, worth sharing with others.
Writing is a way to do that.
We are here to help you rediscover your voice—
singing, moaning, questioning, whispering,
shouting, talking, ranting, praising, praying,
meditating—we want you to try all of these on
paper throughout the semester.
Discovery Techniques
Include:
Freewriting
Looping
Brainstorming
Clustering
Observing and Recording Details (Journalist
Questions)
Dramatization
Freewriting
We know that you know that sometimes
words don’t flow, in fact they are hard to
get past our tongues, let out of our hands
and onto the page, so we have an
exercise where
anything goes!
Activity 3
There is no topic.
The only thing you have to do is keep writing. You
have 10 minutes.
Don’t worry about making sense, about grammar or
spelling, just keep writing. Invite risks, remember, no
one else will see your discoveries unless you choose to
reveal. When nothing comes to you, write: I CAN
WRITE over and over and over until something else
comes to you, or as Peter Elbow advises, write swear
words, more will come.
Shake Out Your Hand
So, what did you think, how did it go? Try
reading over what you have written. Find
a line, a thought, a word you like—
something that you think is more good
than bad.
Activity 4
Looping
Take that word or phrase from the
previous free write and begin a new free
write for 10 minutes. Write on the ideas
connected to your chosen word or phrase.
T his is called Looping, it is a way to focus
your writing on an idea that interests you.
Focused Free Writing
Focused free writing is another wonderful
tool for starting personal or public writing.
Like free writing, you don’t have to worry
about anything except getting your ideas
onto paper. Focusing on one topic makes
this a bit different than just plain old free
writing.
Details, Images, Insights:
The Offspring of Free Writing
Focused free writing can be useful for
starting a draft on any subject. It is
very helpful in personal experience
narrative writing.
Free writing helps bring back rich
details and images.
Brainstorming
The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing describes
brainstorming as a listing activity.
Like Free Writing, anything goes when
brainstorming.
Listing or brain-storming can be a great help in
deciding upon a topic or subject for a paper and
also for sketching out the ideas, details, and
examples for a paper itself.
Here are four simple things to
keep in mind about
brainstorming:
Withhold your judgment of
ideas.
Do not pass judgment on ideas until the completion
of the brainstorming session. Do not suggest that
an idea won't work or that it has negative sideeffects. All ideas are potentially good so don't
judge them until afterwards.
X
Encourage wild and
exaggerated ideas.
The 'wilder' the idea the
better. Shout out
bizarre and
unworkable ideas.
See what they spark off. No idea is too wild.
Quantity counts at this stage,
not quality.
Go for quantity of ideas
at this point; narrow
down the list later. All
activities should be
geared towards
extracting as many
ideas as possible in a
given period.
Let it flow!
Keep each idea short, do not
describe it in detail - just
capture its essence.
Here’s an example of a brainstorming that I
did. The assignment was to recall events
and experiences in my childhood.
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dying of rabies
grandmother’s porch swing
river bottoms
spitting crackers at trains
king of the mountain--levee
Flooding
G. Washington and the cherry fiasco
hula hooops/lipstick/VW
bug/nightmare
Doc Herrman’s camp--sawing off my
elbow
Angel wings—I thought I could fly
scissors and the pinafore
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Mrs. Hummer--fifth grade kicking her
St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubio
salmanders, newts, worms--terror
catfish fishing
Janet
Mary
Stealing my neighbor’s baseball
uniform
Christmas caroling
sharing presents
Uncle Alf and his spittoon--a bookie?
falling into grease pit
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List by Martha Petry
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Activity 5
Try a brainstorming of your own that
captures the events and experiences of a
certain period in your life. Title your
brainstorming with that period. For
example:
Childhood
Rebellious Teen
Courageous Adult
Feel free to make up your own.
Now you can reflect about these
events and decide which would
make an exciting narrative.
Which do you remember with detail?
Which of your stories has suspense and action?
Consider which of these events has significance in
shaping the person you are.
Use brainstorming again and again for ideas to write
about.
More Brainstorming
(again…and again)
Once you select an item that is most
compelling and surprising for you, that you
find yourself replaying in your mind’s eye,
you can do another brainstorming which
will call up the details and incidents of this
experience. Make that item the title of
your brainstorming, and then as quickly as
possible list all that you can remember.
Don’t worry about chronological order, just
roam and explore all that you can.
My Example of a Focused
Brainstorming : Doc Herrman’s camp--
sawing off my elbow
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Musty smell of men
Green lush banks
Humidity and heat
Cool cinderblock and smoke
Fishing nets and weaving
The baseball game out front
Cousins’ competition
Boys against girls
Catfish flapping on the riverbank
Guts in buckets
Assembly line skinning
My incredible hit!
Its soar into trees
The rusty rain barrow –first base
Mary reading, worrying
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Grandpa and his Bible
The oversized rowboat
Father and fishing buddies
Sweat lined seed caps
The Knife
Honed cold in ice
My elbow
Fleeing among the mounted heads of deer, possum
Glass eyes
Crying and complaining
Standing still
Waiting for pain
The Paw- Paw shaped lump
A cancer
Heat against my neck
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List by Martha Petry
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Mapping
Mapping is another way to get ideas quickly on paper.
Mapping often appeals to those of us who are visual
learners. Like brainstorming, mapping is done quickly—a
way to record key words and phrases, ideas, facts, and
even questions.
However, mapping also includes a way to organize or
cluster the flow of these ideas.
A good map will give shape to your thoughts,
reveal connections, and make associations.
Mapping works like this:
Put the topic or subject that you are
thinking about in the center of the page,
and then start drawing out lines from it
when an idea occurs to you.
Mr. Vasco Luchi
These lines will branch off, capturing the
fragments of information that you already
have in memory or those you think
important to consider.
Map by Martha Petry
An initial mapping only takes about ten minutes.
Activity 6
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Try a mapping of your own.
Select a person who you know well.
Put their name in the center of your page.
Create a map that shows your
remembered experiences, observations,
descriptions, interactions with this person.
We can wander back and forth over a map and
begin to capture the texture and the weight,
the heft and shape of what we find significant
in a character analysis, an argument. This
discovery/invention technique is also useful in
research writing. The following essay was
developed from these illustrated strategies of
brainstorming and mapping:
Sample from my essay that grew from
the map:
Portrait of Vasco Luchi
Mr. Vasco Luchi sauntered into the classroom, his tattered chemistry
text tucked between his left arm and gelatinous belly roll. He
fumbled for the class roster, called attendance, then decided to
arrange us in alphabetical order. We all stood against the room's
periphery, leaning our shoulders against the pea green concrete
walls, waiting for our assigned seats. I questioned this militaristic,
enforced maneuver, but thought, then, this first day of class, that
there might be some reason for his madness. There were only
sixty-three of us Juniors and not all of us were in the college-track.
And, in fact, there was another section of chemistry, first period.
My identical twin Mary was in it.
To read the full text of this essay by Martha Petry go to:
https://classes.jccmi.edu/educator/temp/youngellens/lla101/SampleEssays/
PortraitofVascoLuchi.doc
From Early to Later Discovery
Free writing, focused free writing, looping,
brainstorming, mapping are all early
discovery strategies.
Discovery can also be used later in your
writing process to further explore topics
that you have already drafted.
Observing and Recording Details
Use your powers of observation and
inquiry to dig below the surface of
your topic. Use them to probe for
details
Try asking questions such as:
The Poet William Blake called our
senses the doors of perception…
Great Questions for Exploring Ideas
for Informative and Narrative
Essays.
Asking Who? What? When? Where? Why? and
How? can help you probe for more information.
Combined, these are discovery questions that all
writers need as part of their skill set.
Each journalist question, once answered, can be
broken down into topical questions that help you
further explore your topic.
For instance, the question ‘who silenced
you?’ may illicit a first response of “my
second grade teacher” or “my older
brother, Joe.” The next step is to dig
beneath the surface of your first response.
This requires a little mental sweat, but
exploring some topical questions will often
reveal new information that will add
dimension and power to your writing.
The chart on the following slide offers
some examples of the type of subtopics
you may want to explore when you ask
who? You can create your own areas to
explore as well as using these
suggestions. When you make the
exploration your own, you are beginning
to understand what it means to ask who?
Appearance
Actions
Events
Personality
Traits
Describe: hair,
face, work down
to feet
Show them
eating, talking,
playing sports,
driving
Personal history:
family, religion,
health, military,
environment,
work, ethnicity
Show how he/she
expresses humor,
generosity,
disappointment
Weight, height,
build.
Compare their to
something
Compare the way
he/she moves to
other things
Focus on what
was said, who
was there, how
he/she sounds
Describe how
he/she shows
leadership or
responds to
adversity
A trait that
creates a
dominant
impression
Mannerisms and
gestures. How do
they move? How
do they act?
What dominant
impression is
created by what
happened?
How do his/her
possessions
mirror
personality?
Coordination,
body language,
style
Reconstruct
conversations.
Focus on tone
and feelings
evoked.
Like who, what is an open ended question that
encourages our imaginations. It also helps us
gain focus. An entire essay may evolve from
asking what? The following chart offers
examples of topical questions you may explore
as you ask ‘what?’ As with ‘who,’ you can
brainstorm the subtopics presented, separate
them out, or create your own areas to explore.
When you make the exploration your own, you
are in full pursuit of what?
Sensory
Experience
Meaning
Categories
Analysis
What do you
see? Look at
color, shape,
size…
What does it mean?
What class of
things does it
belong to?
What are its
causes and
effects?
What do you
feel? Texture,
weight, mass.
What is its purpose?
What similarities
does it have?
What can you
compare or
contrast it with?
What is its
taste?
What does it reveal?
What makes it
different?
What is its
duration?
What is its
sound?
What is its formal
definition?
What are its costs
and/or rewards?
What are its
parts and
processes?
What is its
odor?
What is its value?
What are its
limits?
Asking the what? question is
particularly valuable in definition,
informative, cause and effect, and
argumentative papers.
While who and what can be highly openended questions, asking ‘when ?’ means
that we are curious about time. It also
means we are interested in the space a
certain time engenders. Like the other
questions, ‘when?’ can be divided into
subtopics including, but not limited to, the
following:
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When and how often did it happen?
Will it happen again?
What happened before, during, and after?
When are conditions right for it to happen?
What are those conditions?
How long did it last?
When was it first noticed? Last observed?
What were the characteristics at the time?
Notice that ‘when?’ questions encourage us to
discover relationships by ordering actions in
time, for example,
“After opening the heavy freezer lid, I pushed my
face into the cold dark space hoping to freeze
the beads of sweat multiplying on my upper lip.
I wanted them to be as solid as the frozen peas
and corn nibblets.”
Activity 7
Brainstorm a list of a daily rituals that are
important to you. Think of things that you do
every day. For example, driving your car, picking
up kids from school, waking up in the morning,
the order in which you put on your clothes, etc.
Select one you would like to explore using the
What/When questions. Be as specific as possible
in answering those questions. Don’t forget your
senses.
Activity 7
continued
Now, look over the ideas you generated
and craft three polished paragraphs about
your ritual.
Combining who, what, and when with ‘where’ can
help you show action as it takes place in space
over time. Use where to orient your readers, not
only to the location but to the experience of the
place and its significance.
For instance, notice how I use space in the
following excerpt from my narrative “Pass It On.”
Joseph and I pulled up to the party store tucked between
Sbarro’s and Carrousel Shoes. It was one of those late
August days when the air hovered--stagnant and
shimmering--above the melting blacktop. Stepping from
the air-conditioned mini-van, it took only a few seconds
before I tasted the salt of my sweat as it traced my upper
lip, slipped round its edges, and trickled toward the cliff of
my chin.
The party store’s air conditioner was broken. The only
source of air exchange, a smudged glass door, was
propped open with a broken brick. The store’s dark aisles
smelled damp. I opened a refrigerated cooler and chilled
air teased my face and upper torso as I lifted out a sixpack of Michelob Light. Walking past displays of Fritos,
Little Debbies, and Trojan Condoms, I placed the beer on
the counter, dug in the pocket of my denim shorts for the
few wadded bills I’d stuffed there earlier.
“Six and seventy-three.” Her voice was hard, like whiskey
and cigarettes. It raised my eyes. ..(from essay by kris shirk)
During your exploration of ‘where?’,
consider the following questions:
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Where did the event take place? What
psychological or emotional associations does this
place have?
Consider place from a physical or historical
perspective. What other perceptions are there of
the place?
Explore the shape, size, space of this place.
What are the dominant sights, smells, sounds,
and associations of this place?
What experiences are most resonant for you in
this place?
Activity 8
Carefully read the example on the next
slide and identify the ways the writer uses
‘where? ‘to create an experience that
yields significance. Record your findings
for this activity.
Doc Herrmann's Camp didn't lay nestled anywhere. Rather it
sat squarely, a cinderblock structure, the first camp at the
end of a rutted road that ran through corn bottoms and
mail pouch tobacco sheds. There were five other camps
that meandered out along this lane: some wood, some
asbestos shingled, some well kept, others not.
Twelve miles south of Portsmouth, past South Portsmouth,
Friendship, Turkey Creek, Ottway and Sugar Grove, my
family drove on Sunday afternoons in summer to this
place where my dad and other men fished and hunted
every Thursday night, come winter or fall and the seasons
in-between. The camp smelled like men: cool and dark
with wood smoke and gutted fish and tobacco. Summers
were always hot in southern Ohio as I remember them--a
glaze of sun that squinted your eyes and mud cracks so
wide along the river bank that you could put your legs
knee deep into the lines, split open like fruit that had burst
its skin.
Doc Herrmann's camp was cool. Overhung by willows and
cottonwoods, oak and ash, it just sat there, a place that
calls up the words: gritty and backwoods and green.
While who, what, when, and where help us
discover details and relationships, how directs us
toward an examination of procedures, methods,
and processes. It helps us think about how stuff
gets done, how it is arranged, and how it best to
do it.
As with ‘who,’ you can explore the topical
questions presented on the next slide, separate
them out, or create your own areas to explore.
When you make the exploration your own, you
are in full pursuit of what?
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How does it get done? Record the processes,
the goals of processes, the pitfalls of the
processes.
How is it done? Record steps & procedures.
How important is order? Is there a level of
difficulty associated with it?
How is success measured?
How would you describe the process? Is it
primarily natural, mechanical, mental, or
physical?
What does this process resemble?
As you explore topical questions with
‘how?’ as well as with the other journalist
questions, keep your reader’s needs in
mind. What do your readers need or want
to know? What does having or not having
information do to the impact of your
message?
When children are young, ‘why?’ is one of their
common questions. Kids are smart, they hone in
on the question that asks for explanations,
reasons, and the thought behind the statement.
Asking and then answering ‘why? questions are
what creates meaning and significance in your
paper. Another way to think about why is to
consider a reader’s asking “So What?”
‘Why questions ask us to analyze and explain
actions or processes. They ask for reasons and
conclusions. They help us to be specific and to
show more than tell.
Use the topical questions presented on the next
slide to explore the ‘why’ of your topics. You
may separate them out, or create your own
areas to explore. When you make the
exploration your own, you are in full pursuit of
‘why?’
For more information about this essential question, please see the
Workshop “Making Meaning.”
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Why did it happen?
How can we recognize the cause?
Is there more than one cause? Which cause is
more important?
What motives are behind it? Which are easy to
see, which are hidden?
What are the results? Where they intentional or
accidental?
Why didn’t something else happen?
A Word of Caution:
Be judicious when exploring your topic
with the journalist questions. The depth of
your explorations will depend on your
audience’s needs and interests as well as
your purpose for writing. Consider how
much you want your reader to know and
how the information you offer will
successfully fulfill the purpose and add
significance to your writing.
Activity 9
Examine the paper you are currently
working on. Write a reflective statement
that captures the paper’s significance for
both yourself and your audience. In other
words, What? do you want your readers to
understand? Why? is the topic important
to you? How? have you used journalistic
questions to develop a better understanding of your topic?
You may have noticed by now that using
who, what, when, where, why, and how
lead to discoveries that lend detail, focus,
and shape to your writing.
Throughout the semester, we encourage
you to play with the journalist questions
and to always keep open the doors of your
perception.
With Dramatization
Sometimes all of us face the terror of the blank
page, when written words just do not come. It’s
like knowing you are going to hit a wall.
Whether you’re accelerating or putting on the
brakes so that the crash isn’t fatal, you still have
that feeling that you can do nothing, say
nothing, write nothing to prevent the wall’s
impact. This is writer’s block.
Whenever you feel stuck
--at any stage of your process,-You can…
With Dramatization
Dramatization is a method of discovery and invention
that can help overcome writing inertia.
Dramatization. simply means telling our stories aloud.
sharing our portraits of people, explaining our subjects
of investigation, and making our arguments. And doing
it out loud.
Implicit, is the fact that you tell your story to
someone willing to listen. This is akin to having
a reader for your paper. The listener, however,
can AND SHOULD interrupt.
The listener’s questions can help you as a writer
to know;
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Where you need more information
If your story makes sense
Where you can provide sensory description, facts,
examples, suspense, or reasons
Where you need to clarify meaning
If you have had an impact on your audience
Free Your Mind:
Choose Discovery
Discovery
Brainstorm
Free Write
Thinking
Drafting
Looping
Focus
Focus Free
Write
Sometimes I go back
into discovery
Shaping
Revising
Writing
Thinking
Editing
Polishing
Sharing
Sharing
Talking
Thinking
Shaping
Drafting
Limiting
Developing
Drafting
Revising
Reflecting
And use it often. Remember, in our
recursive writing processes, invention
and discovery occur in all stages.
Activity 10
Now that you have spent some time in this
workshop, answer the following questions:
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What new ideas were presented?
What was reinforced for you?
Which strategies did you find most helpful and why?
What do you want to learn next? Where do you go from
here?
Discovery and Invention Workshop Designed by: Martha
Petry and Kris Shirk of JCC’s composition faculty.
To Receive 3 Hours Credit for This
Workshop
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Complete the entire slide presentation.
Comprehensively complete all ten
activities in writing.
Print this final slide (select “Current Slide”)
and attach that print out to your ten
completed activities.
Submit to your instructor for credit.