The Writing Process

1) Consider the purpose and audience

· Why are you writing this? (persuade readers to act, explain something, etc.)

· Who is going to read it? (what do they know, expect, do they agree with you, etc.)

2) Explore the topic

· Brainstorming

· Freewriting

· Clustering (do with “writing” as topic)

· Questioning (who, what, when, where, why, how?)

3) Develop a thesis statement (main idea)

· Include a topic (state the topic) and comment (make a point about the topic)

· Make it interesting, specific, and limited

4) Plan the essay

· Choose a pattern of organization for each paragraph

· Write out a plan (outline or list) for the essay

5) Write a first draft

· Write down your first ideas for the essay

· This may lead you to change your idea or organization plan

· It does not need to be a perfect, completed product at this point

6) Revise, edit and proofread

· Assess main ideas, organization, structure of paragraphs, variety of sentences, etc.

· Try and get feedback from others (teacher, other students)

· Proofread for spelling, punctuation, grammar

Checklist of Essay

The Whole Essay

1. Is the topic of the essay suitable for college writing and sufficiently narrow?

2. Does your thesis statement clearly communicate the topic and focus of the essay?

3. Does your thesis clearly reflect the purpose of the essay?

4. Does the essay reflect an awareness of its audience?

5. Does the essay take into account the special requirements – the assignment’s time limit, word limit, and other factors?

6. Does your essay have a logical organization pattern?

7. Is the tone of the essay suitable for its audience? Is an appropriate tone consistent throughout?

8. Is your thesis supported well by the main ideas of the paragraphs?

9. Do the paragraphs cover separate but related main ideas?

10. Have you covered all the material promised by your thesis statement?

11. Are the connections among the paragraphs clear?

12. Does your introduction lead into the thesis statement and the rest of the essay?

13. Does your conclusion provide a sense of completion?

14. Have you cut any material that goes off the topic?

15. Is the length of each paragraph in proportion to the whole essay and the length of the other paragraphs? (Remember that an introduction and conclusion are usually shorter than any of the body paragraphs in an essay.)

16. Does your essay have a title? Does it reflect the content of the essay, directly or indirectly?

17. Is your reasoning sound?

18. Does your essay avoid logical fallacies?

Paragraph

1. Does the introduction help your audience make the transition to the body of your essay?

2. Does each body paragraph express its main idea in a topic sentence as needed?

3. Are the main ideas – and topic sentences – clearly related to the thesis statement of the essay?

4. Are your body paragraphs developed? Is the development sufficient?

5. Does each body paragraph contain specific contain specific and concrete support for its main idea? Do the details provide examples, reasons, facts?

6. Are your facts, figures, and dates accurate?

7. Is each body paragraph arranged logically?

8. Does the conclusion give your reader a sense of completion?

9. Have you cut any material that goes off the topic?

10. Have you used necessary transition?

11. Do the paragraphs maintain coherence with pronouns, selective repetition, parallel structure?

12. Do you show relationships between paragraphs?

Sentence

1. Are your sentences concise?

2. Have you eliminated sentence fragments?

3. Have you eliminated comma splices and fused sentence?

4. Have you eliminated confusing shifts?

5. Have you eliminated misplaced modifiers?

6. Have you eliminated dangling modifiers?

7. Have you eliminated mixed sentences?

8. Have you eliminated incomplete sentences?

9. Do your sentences express clear relationships among ideas?

10. Do you use coordination correctly?

11. Do you use subordination correctly?

12. Do your sentences avoid faulty parallelism?

13. Do you use parallelism as needed to help your sentences deliver their meaning?

14. Does your writing style reveal sensitivity to the need for variety and emphasis?

15. Do your sentences vary in length?

16. Does the structure of your sentences help convey the emphasis?

Words

1. Have you used exact words?

2. Does your word choice reflect your intentions in denotation and connotation?

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