The Writing Process

Or… Zen and the Art of Essay

Craft
 Getting Started
First and foremost…

DON’T PANIC!
 GETTING STARTED II
Habits That Will Result in a Poor Habits That Will Result in a
Paper Successful Paper

 Procrastinating  Prewriting
 One-draft writing  Developing
 Massive self-criticism  Revising
 Thesaurus abuse  Tweaking
 Marriage to first draft  Writing Center
 Conferencing

Habits That Guarantee Failure

}No Process
}No Paper
}Plagiarism
Understand Your Assignment
(Then Forget About it For Awhile)

 Thoroughly read your

assignment prompt.

 What, specifically, is your topic?

 Who is your audience?
 How long should your essay
be?
 Are there special requirements?
 Ask questions if you don’t
understand.
 Getting Ideas
 After figuring out your assignment - you
need to generate ideas before you begin
drafting.
 Forget about the end product for a bit and
just get creative.
 Try listing, mapping, free-writing, journalist
questions, cubing, or any other method that
works for you.
 Listing
 Listing is a good way  Topic: Essay About An
to quickly gather many Important Place
 List:
ideas on paper.  Bed, my comfy chair, the
 Simply make a list of mountains, the ocean, my office,
as many ideas as the garden, anywhere with a
book, Starbucks, home, the
come to you as quickly shower, the right state of mind…
as possible.
 Mapping
 Mapping is a form of Favorite Place
free association that Aesthetics
Energy
creates a visual image
of ideas and their
Tastes
connections. Using Comfort
Smell
mapping can give you
Starbucks
not only ideas for an
Hanging out
essay - but connecting with friends
ideas that may turn Books

into paragraphs.
Writing Studying
 Freewriting
 Write, write, write and don’t
stop. Freewriting means taking
an idea and running with it
wherever it leads. Don’t think
about it - just keep writing.
When you free yourself and just
allow the ideas to come, you
might end up with a great essay
topic that you wouldn’t have
thought of otherwise.
Starbucks
Coffee calls from shelves and
walls. I can’t not stop in. Who
will be waiting for me today?
Chatting till I have to run to
class, my latte sloshing with
each step. I don’t even mind
when it splashes on my fingers:
my sugar-free, non-fat liquid
gold. Keeping me sane. The
barista knows my name. Here I
sip the taste of home.
 Journalist Questions
 Use the standard questions The Taste of Home
every journalist must answer.
Who: Either alone or with friends.
 Who What: Coffee, coffee, coffee!
 What When: Day, night, when studying,
 When when socializing, when thinking,
 Where when chilling…
 Why Where: Starbucks, Coffee Haus,
 How my office, home, pretty much
anywhere
Why: Energy, inspiration, comfort,
 Thinking of different ways to mental and emotional health
answer those questions might
How: With all the senses engaged.
lead to a fresh perspective on
your topic.
 Cubing
 Similar to Journalist Questions,
cubing involves considering your
topic from six different angles.
 Describe it (colors, shapes, sizes,
etc.)
 Compare it (What is it similar to?)
 Associate it (What does it make
you think of?)
 Analyze it (Tell how it's made)
 Apply it (What can you do with it?
How can it be used?)
 Argue for or against it
Describe it: Engage the senses - how does
it look and taste and feel - what do you
hear and smell?
Compare it: Like finding my muse.
Associate it: A luxurious bubble bath;
slipping into silk pajamas.
Analyze it: It gives me a moment to breathe
in my surroundings, to organize my
thoughts. When drinking a cup of coffee
with friends, I am sharing my real self.
Apply it: Coffee can be an effective and
relatively safe energizer. It can help get
through massive amounts of graduate
school readings.
Argue for or against it: Strangely, I think of
home and comfort when I drink a cup of
coffee during the day, despite the fact
that no one in my home is terribly fond of
coffee. When I make coffee at home, it
never seems to be as comforting as
coffee I share with friends at work.
 The VRD
(Very Rough Draft)

 The VRD is rough - very rough.

 Take your idea and start writing about it.
 Don’t worry too much about spelling, punctuation,
organization or grammar. Just make sure it’s marginally
readable.
 It’s like freewriting - but attempts to stick to the topic and
gets typed.
 It CAN be nutty, horrible, abysmal, disorganized, slangy and
even silly.
 The idea is to just get started.
 “Polaroids”
 Anne Lamott, in Bird by Bird,
describes the next part of the
process as “seeing what
develops” - like a polaroid.
 After writing your VRD, let it
breathe for a day or so and then
read it again.
 Do you see anything different
there?
 Can you see a more interesting
direction for your essay
developing?
 Is there more to explore?
 Anne Lamott’s
Three Draft Essay
 After gathering ideas, you can think of your essay writing
process in three drafts:

 The Down Draft: Just get it all down (aka - the VRD).

 The Up Draft: Then fix it up (revision and organization).

 The Dental Draft: Check every ‘tooth’ carefully - work on

word choice and sentencing to make it sound better
(tweaking).
 Read it Out Loud
 During the revision phase - read your paper slowly, out loud
to yourself.
 Better yet, read it out loud to a friend or tutor.
 Even better - have someone read it out loud to you!
 You will be amazed what paper issues you can ‘hear’ that
you missed when reading.
 If parts are awkward, confusing, choppy or repetitive, you’ll
notice.
 You might feel a little silly - but it may mean the difference in
your paper grade.
 Formatting and Requirements
 If you haven’t already - it’s time to revisit your
assignment sheet.
 Notice the requirements for paper length, font,
margins, etc.
 Does it need a cover sheet? A creative title?
 What should be included in your folder with the
final draft?
 After all your hard work - don’t loose points by
neglecting the requirements.
 Finish It!
 At this point - if you’ve gone through the process - you
should be proud of your essay.
 If you’ve also gone to the Writing Center and conferenced
with me - you should be proud and confident.
 Give it one last check for those sneaky, ‘dum’ errors (like
writing ‘to’ instead of ‘too’ or ‘your’ instead of ‘you are’)
 And all that’s left to do is…

Staple it - put it in a folder with the process

and celebrate!