Theoretical Introduction to English

Composition Course
LECTURER
Mohammad Mujahid “Ibrahimi”
Email: m.ibrahimi@kardan.edu.af
Facebook: Mujahid Ibrahimi
WhatsApp: 0093799601531
 LECTURE 2
WRITING PROCESS
GETTING READY TO WRITE
 Course Outline
1. Introduction to writing process
2. Prewriting, the planning and post writing stages
3. Steps involved in three stages
4. Choosing and narrowing a topic
5. Brainstorming, freewriting, mapping and listing.
6. Outlining and how to organize ideas.
7. Revision, editing, proofreading final draft
 Learning Outcome
Students will learn different writing process stages and steps.
Students will learn about brainstorming and its types.
Students will be able to organize their thoughts using prewriting techniques.
Students will be able to brainstorm, outline and organize their thoughts.
Students will be able to choose a proper topic for their essay and paragraph.
Students will understand the difference between first and second draft.
Students will learn how to edit, revise and write final draft of their essay.
 WRITING PROCESS
 Writing process is a set of mental and physical steps that a writer takes
to create effective, clear, organized and well-structured piece of writing.
Writing process steps play an important role in producing a strong and
effective piece of writing. Good writers go through several steps to
produce a piece of writing.
 Writing process includes three stages:
1) Prewriting stage
2) Planning stage
3) Post writing stage
 Each of these stage includes several steps for effective writing.
 PREWRITING STAGE
 Prewriting is the initial stage of the writing process in which a writer
brainstorms or generates ideas, gathers information, and organizes
thoughts before drafting. This stage helps writers to develop a strong
foundation for writers work. Prewriting includes the following steps:
1. Choosing a topic
2. Understanding the purpose
3. Understanding the audience
4. Doing the research
5. Brainstorming ideas
 PREWRITING STAGE
1. Choosing a topic:
1) Choose a topic that isn’t too narrow (Brief or Limited)
e.g. My age
1) Choose a topic that isn’t too broad (General)
e.g. School
1) Understand the purpose of your topic
Too narrow topic will not have many ideas. On the other hand, too broad topic
will have many ideas or it will be too general to write your essay.
2. Understanding the purpose and doing research:
It is needed to know why you are writing and who will be your readers.
This will help to improve your content, style and tone and will score good.
 PREWRITING STAGE
3. Brainstorming:
Brainstorming is a way or method of gathering ideas about a topic. In
other words, brainstorming is a creative thinking technique for coming
up with new ideas and solving problems. When you brainstorm, write
every idea that comes to your mind. Don’t worry now about whether
ideas are good or silly, useful or not. You can decide that later.
The types of brainstorming are as follows:
1) Listing
2) Freewriting
3) Mapping or Clustering
 PREWRITING STAGE
1) Listing:
• Write down the general topic on the top of your paper.
• Quickly make a list of words, phrases or ideas come into your mind.
• Don’t worry about grammar and spelling; just make a list of ideas.
• Don’t worry about the ideas make sense or not. Cross it out later.
 PREWRITING STAGE
2) Freewriting:
• Write freely about a specific topic because your need specific focus.
• Write the topic at the top of your paper then in paragraph form.
• Write as much as you can about the topic until you run out of ideas.
• Don’t worry about grammar and spelling; just make a list of ideas.
• Don’t worry about the ideas make sense or not. Cross it out later.
 PREWRITING STAGE
3) Mapping / Clustering:
In the center of your paper, write your topic and draw balloon around it.
Write the topic at the top of your paper. Then write whatever ideas come
to you in balloons around the core. Think about each of these ideas and
make more balloons around them. Connect the ideas by drawing lines.
 THE PLANNING STAGE
In this stage generated ideas by brainstorming in prewriting stage are being
organized. In the planning stage, you organize the ideas you generated by
brainstorming into an outline. It includes the following steps:
1)OUTLINE:
Outline is a formal plan for a paragraph. It is a method of gathering and
organizing ideas before we write them in sentences and paragraphs forms.
Outline comes after brainstorming. In outlining best, relevant or appropriate
ideas are chosen and irrelevant and poor ideas are crossed out.
It includes the following steps:
1) Making sub-list
2) Choosing topic sentence
3) Outlining
 THE PLANNING STAGE
1) Making sub-list:
• Out of many ideas brainstormed now it is time to choose the best
ideas for writing a paragraph. Divide them into good/bad or
relevant/irrelevant and number or circle them for including in
paragraph. Cross out irrelevant ideas and pick the relevant.
• This process called “Jotting Outline”, jotting outline is a kind of
disorganized outline which contains disorganized or disarranged form
of ideas before we write them in sentences or paragraph forms.
 THE PLANNING STAGE
2) Choosing Topic Sentence:
• Finally, write a topic sentence. The topic sentence is the most general
and first sentence in a paragraph and it expresses the central focus of
the paragraph. Your topic sentence must be related to the topic.
e.g.
One problem that many international students face in the United
States is communication with Americans.
• Topic sentence includes both the topic and controlling idea.
 THE PLANNING STAGE
3) Outlining:
• In an outline, you write down the main points and sub-points in the
order in which you plan to write about them. In this step you choose
ideas, facts, examples and key points to be discussed in the body.
STRUCTURE:
 THE PLANNING STAGE
FINAL OUTLINING
• With this outline in front of you; you must be able to write first draft
because topic sentence is available, two main points and supporting
details and provide a conclusion to write the first draft or copy of your
paragraph.
 POST-WRITING
The post-writing stage includes the steps needed to take after a piece of
writing or first draft to improve, refine and finalize it. The steps in this
stage are as followings:
1. First Draft
2. Revision
3. Editing
4. Proofreading
5. Formatting
6. Final adjustments
7. Publishing or write final draft
8. Submission
 POST-WRITING
1. Write First Draft:
 Write a rough draft from your outline.
 Write your topic sentence
 Write extra or supporting details about topic sentence.
 Use transition words to connect ideas
 Include relevant and strong information from outlines
 Draw conclusion or write conclusion
 Indent the paragraphs
 POST-WRITING
2. Revision & Content Organization:
 After first draft revise the paragraph.
 Read over your paragraph carefully for general overview.
 Write notes on the margin if need to be improved.
 Check for general logic and coherence among sentences.
 Make sure paragraph has three main parts.
 Make sure it has unity.
 Make sure transition or signal words are used.
 No need to correct your grammar, spelling, punctuation in this stage.
 POST-WRITING
3. Proofreading and Editing:
 Proofread your paragraph or essay and check for grammar, spelling,
sentence structure, capitalization, and the correct of punctuation.
 Make sure no choppy or run on sentences are there.
 Check for correctness and completeness.
 Check for subject-verb-agreement.
 Change vocabulary words as necessary.
 Rectify grammar, spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors.
 No fragments and correct verb tenses.
 Edit all the above errors if exist and start writing your second draft.
 POST-WRITING
4. Formatting and Final Adjustments:
 Make sure you made all the correction in second draft.
 Make a few minor or major changes if needed.
 Make sure enough supporting details and examples exist.
 Indent your paragraphs or essays.
 Always use A4 size paper while writing your essay.
 Use margin 1 inch on all sides.
 Use black or blue pen.
 Number the pages
 POST-WRITING
5. Write final draft and submit it:
Make sure all the errors in first and second draft are
corrected; then write the final draft and submit it to
your instructor. Finally, publish your final draft may be
on hand writing or print form.
 CONCLUSION
• Academic writing is a special kind of writing for college and university work.

• Academic writing is formal in tone.

• It is intended for a specific audience (instructors and professors).

• The purpose of academic writing is to explain or to persuade.

• Prewriting activities are useful for narrowing a topic and generating ideas.
• Three useful brainstorming techniques are listing, freewriting, and clustering.
• Plan your writing by preparing an outline.
• Revision is an essential part of the writing process.
 CONCLUSION
• Your first effort is called the rough draft.
• After revising it for content and organization.
• Write your second draft.
• Proof read, second draft for sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary.
• Write final draft.
 REFERENCE

Writing Academic English, by Alice