Composition 2

Group 7:
Session 2 and 3
THE OUTLINE OF THE SEMESTER

• Introduction: Review from paragraph to essay

• The Writing Process
• The Process of Writing an Essay
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• The Narrative Essay
• The Descriptive Essay
• The Comparison and Contrast Essay
• The Cause-and-Effect Essay
• The opinion Essay
Code:
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 The
Writing
Process
THE WRITING PROCESS
writing is a process
of inquiry—
it grows and changes over time
Perceptions of the
Writing Process
• If I just follow all the steps in the proper sequence,
then I will come out with a good paper. Writing
happens in a linear fashion.

• Writers start writing when they have everything

figured out.
More Perceptions of the
Writing Process

• Good grammar is good writing; bad writing is

bad grammar.
THE REALITY
• Writers don’t have it all figured
out when they start to write.

• Writing is a skill and a craft that

can be developed.
The Reality
• No writer gets his or her text “right” the
first time. It takes many cycles of adjusting,
adding, trimming, and fixing to get it right.

• Although good grammar is important, there

is more to good writing than correctness.

• Writers often rely on others for ideas and

help. Some texts are even co-authored.
The Writing Process
Stages of the Writing Process

■ There are several stages to the

Writing Process. Each stage is
essential.
● Prewriting
● Writing (Drafting)
● Revising
● Editing
● Publishing
 I. Prewriting

■ Choose/narrow your topic

■ Determine your
■ Audience
■ Purpose
■ Tone
■ Point-of-view
■ Tense
■ Explore your topic
■ Make a plan
 Determine Your Audience

■ Your Audience is composed of

those who will read your writing.
■ Ask yourself:
● Who are my readers?
● What do my readers know about
my topic?
● What do my readers need to know
about my topic?
● How do my readers feel about my
topic?
Audience continued. . .
● What do my readers expect?
■ Standard Written English
■ Correct grammar and spelling
■ Accurate information
■ Logical presentation of ideas
■ Followed directions of the
assignment!!!
● What are my length requirements?
● What is my time limit?
● What does the assignment consist of?
● Is research required?
● What format should be used?
 Determine Your Purpose

■ Purpose is the reason you are

writing.
■ Whenever you write, you always
have a purpose. Most writing fits into
one of 3 categories:
● Expressive Writing
● Informative Writing
● Persuasive Writing
 Determine Tone

■ Tone is the mood or attitude you

adopt as you write.

● Serious or frivolous/humorous?

● Intimate or detached?
 Determine Point-of-View
■ Point-of-view is the perspective
from which you write an essay.
■ There are 3 points-of-view:
● First person—”I, we”
● Second person—”you”
● Third person—”he, she, they”
■ One of the most common errors
in writing occurs when the writer
shifts point-of-view
unnecessarily!
 Determine Tense

■ Tense is the voice you use to

designate the time of the action
or state of being.
● Present tense
● Past tense
● Future tense
 Explore Your Topic

■ Pre-writing Techniques:
● Brainstorming/Listing
● Freewriting
● Clustering/Mapping
● Questioning
● Discussing
● Outlining
 Make a Plan

■ Before you begin drafting your

essay, you should make a plan
(a roadmap).
● Review, evaluate, and organize
ideas written in your pre-writing;
then make a plan for your essay’s
■ Thesis statement
■ Support
■ Order
■ Structure
 Support
■ Be sure to evaluate the
information in your prewriting
carefully in order to choose the
best support for your topic.
● Primary Support—major ideas or
examples that back up your main
points
● Secondary Support—details which
further explain your primary
support
Support continued. . .

■ Basics of good support

● Relates to main point
● Considers readers, i.e. provides
enough information
● Is detailed and specific
 Order

■ The Order is the sequence in

which you present your ideas.
■ There are 3 types of order:
● Time (chronological) order
● Space order
● Emphatic order (order of
importance: least-to-most,
most-to-least)
 Structure/Organization

■ Consider how your essay will

be organized; then create an
Outline.
■ Sample Outline of standard
5-paragraph essay:
A. Introduction
B. Body Paragraph 1
C. Body Paragraph 2
D. Body Paragraph 3
E. Conclusion
 II. Writing

■ During the Writing Stage, you

should
● Create your essay’s Title
● Compose a draft
■ A Draft is the first whole version of all
your ideas put together; it’s a “dress
rehearsal.”
■ You should plan to revise your Draft
several times throughout the writing
process.
 Creating Your Title
■ Your essay’s title should:
● Be original
● Be a reasonable length
● Reflect your topic
● Be lively and attention-getting
■ Your title should NOT:
● Be generic/repeat the assignment
● Be in ALL CAPS
● Be in boldface, “quotation marks,”
underlined, or italicized
● Be followed by a period
 Titles, continued

■ Capitalization Rules for Titles:

● Always capitalize the first letter of
the first word and the last word.
● Capitalize the first letter of each
“important” word in between the
first and last words.
■ Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the)
■ Do not capitalize coordinating
conjunctions (and, but, or, etc.)
■ Do not capitalize prepositions (on, at,
in, off, etc.)
 Writing a Draft

■ Basics of a good draft:

● Has a fully developed introduction
and conclusion
● Has fully developed body
paragraphs, each containing a
topic sentence, at least two
examples, and detailed support
● Follows standard structure and
uses complete sentences
 III. Revising

■ Revising is finding & correcting

problems with content; changing the
ideas in your writing to make them
clearer, stronger, and more
convincing.
■ Revising looks at the “Big
Picture”—the Idea level.
 Revision Strategies
■ Look for
● Unity
■ Does everything refer back to main point?
■ Does each topic sentence refer to the thesis?
■ Does each sentence in each BP refer back to the
topic sentence?
● Detail and support
■ Does each BP contain at least two examples?
■ Is each example followed by at least one
supporting detail?
● Coherence
■ Are all points connect to form a whole?
■ Are transitions used to move from one idea to the
next?
 Revision Tips

■ Take a break from your draft

before attempting to revise.
■ Read your draft out loud and
listen to your words.
■ Imagine yourself as your reader.
■ Look for consistent problem
areas.
■ Get feedback from peers.
■ Get help from a tutor!
 IV. Editing

■ Editing is finding and correcting

problems with grammar, style,
word choice & usage, and
punctuation.
■ Editing focuses on the “Little
Picture”—Word level.
 Editing Strategies

■ Keep an Error Log to help you

identify your problem areas and
improve your writing.
■ When editing, review your paper
for one type of error at a time;
don’t try to read through looking
for everything at once.
 Editing Tips

■ Work with a clean printed copy,

double-spaced to allow room to
mark corrections.
■ Be cautious of spell-check and
grammar-check.
■ Read your essay out loud.
■ Get feedback from peers.
■ Work with a tutor!
 Self-Review

■ You should never move to peer

review without first completing a
self-review (revising & editing); you
want your peer to look for mistakes
that you were unable to catch
yourself!
■ After you have reviewed your own
work, make the necessary
corrections and print a clean, revised
copy before moving on to peer
review.
 Peer-Review

■ It is important to make the peer

review process useful.
■ Basics of useful feedback:
● It is given in a positive way
● It is specific
● It offers suggestions
● It is given both verbally and in writing
 Publishing

■ Writing is communication—if you

have written something, you
must have intended for
someone to read it, even if that
person is only yourself.
■ When you publish a document,
you are releasing it to the public
for others to read.
 Publishing

■ Not all of your writing will be

taken through the publishing
stage, but even turning a paper
in to your teacher constitutes
“publishing.”
■ So what do you do after you get
your paper back?
● This is an extra step in the writing
process known as reflecting.
Thanks!
Do you have any questions?
inassannouni@gmail.com
inass.announi@uit.ac.ma

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