Chapter 2 The writing Process: Stage One (Exploring/Experimenting/Gathering Information)

The Writing Process: Stage One
Exploring/Experimenting/Gathering Informations

The Writing Process Defined

The writing process consist of a set of strategies that will help you proceed from idea or purpose to the final statement of a paragraph or an essay. As presented here, the different strategies move from:

• Stage One: Exploring/Experimenting/Gathering Information
• Stage Two: Writing the Controlling idea/Organizing and developing Support
• Stage Three: Writing/Revising/Editing

The Writing Process Worksheet

The blank Writing Process Worksheet on page 6, with brief directions for the three stages of the writing process, is designed to be duplicated and completed with each major writing assignment. It gives you clear, consistent guidance and provides your instructor with an esay format for finding a checking information. Customarily this worksheet is stapled to the front of your rough and final drafts.

The Assignment

Particulars of the assignment, frequently the most neglected parts of a writing project, are often the most important. If you do not know, or later cannot recall, specifically what you are supposed to do satisfactory work. An otherwise excellent composition on a misunderstood assignment may get you a failing grade, a sad situation for both you and your instructor.

As an aid to recalling just what you should write about, the writing process worksheet provides speace and guidance for you to note these details: information about the topic, audience, pattern of writing, length of the paper, whether to include a rough draft or revised drafts, whether your paper must be typed, and the date the assignment is due.

At the time your instructor gives that information, it will probably be clear; a few days later, it may not. By putting your notes on the assignment portion of the worksheet, you remind yourself of what you should do and also indicate to your instructor what you have done.

Your Audience

More so than most points on the assignment portion of the worksheet, the matter of audience requires special consideration. At the outset of your writiing project, you should consider your readers. Their needs, interests, and abilities should determine the focus of your subject, the extent of your explanation, your overall style, and your word choice. We usually make those adjustments automatically when we are speaking; it is easy to forget to do so when we are writing.

Stage One Strategies

Certain strategies commonly grouped under the heading prewriting can help you get started and develop your ideas. These strategies-freewriting, brainstorming, clustering, and gathering information-are very much a part of writing. The understandable desire to skip to the finished statment is what causes the most common student-writer grief: that of not filling the blank sheet or of filling it but not significantly improving on the blankness. The prewriting strategies described int his section will help you attack the blank sheet constructively with imaginative thought, analysis, and experimentation. They can lead to clear, effective communication.

Freewriting
Freewriting consists of writing without stopping, letting ideas tumble forth.

• Freewriting involves breaking down emotional barriers, generating topics, discovering ideas, and exploring ideas.
• Your approach to freewriting will depend on whether you work on a topic of your choice (great freedom), a topic from a restricted list (more focused), or an assigned topic (concentration on one idea).
• You need not use freewriting for all writing experiences. You would probably not use it for very short assignments, in-class assignments with limited time, outline and summart assignments, or assignments on topics you know well.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is used for quickly developing key words and phrases that relate to your topic. It includes two basic forms: the big six questions and listing.

• You may ask Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? questions about your topic, ignoring questions that do not fit.
• Or, you may simply list points on likely divisions of your topic.Clustering

Clustering
Clustering is visual way of showing connections and relationships. It is sometimes used with an outline and sometimes in place of one.

• Start by double-bubbling your topic.
• Then, in response to the question What comes to mind? single-bubble other ideas on spokes radiating from the hub.

Gathering information

Gathering information can take the form of reading with underlining, annotating, and note taking.


Source:Brandon, Lee. Brandon, Kelly. Paragraphs and Essays with Integrated Readings, Tenth Edition. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008