The Basic Elements of Writing and Generating Ideas
| Site: | Plateforme pédagogique de l'Université Sétif2 |
| Cours: | Written Expression |
| Livre: | The Basic Elements of Writing and Generating Ideas |
| Imprimé par: | Visiteur anonyme |
| Date: | Friday 22 November 2024, 07:08 |
Description
This lesson presents detailed explantion of the basic elements of writing, and how to generate and outline ideas.
1. The Writing Process
The Writing Process is a series of steps to help you write a paper. It is like
using a map to get to an unfamiliar place. The Writing
Process has five steps.
Step 1: Pre-Writing.
Begin by brainstorming ideas for topics, organizing an outline, and developing a plan. After you have selected a topic.
Step 2:Drafting.
Write a strong topic sentence. The topic sentence is a simple sentence
that sets the stage and tells the reader about the subject. In the topic sentence you tell your audience what you are going to talk about. Next develop an introduction to the topic, your main points and supporting details, and write a concluding paragraph.
Be sure to use facts, examples, and details to back up your
sentence. Your main points will be several sentences that support and give further explanation to your topic. When you write the concluding paragraph you are summarizing the main points in the body of the paper.
Step 3: Evaluating and Revising.
Read your paper carefully. Many times people skip this step. When you begin to evaluate and review your paper, change from the role of writer to the role of a critic. Try to examine your paper through the eyes of a reader who does not know anything about your topic.
— Have you explained everything fully?
— Have you included enough facts and examples for the reader to
understand?
Read your paper out loud to make sure that it makes sense.
After you have made improvements you may want to have someone else
read your paper and make comments.When writing you may go through
Step 3 several times before you are ready to write a final draft.
Step 4: Editing .
Read your drafted paragraph and try to check sentence effectiveness. When you have corrected all errors
including spelling, punctuation, and grammar, you are ready to write
your final draft. When you have completed the final draft, proofread
again to make sure you did not miss any errors, such as spelling, punctuation,
and paragraph indention.
Step 5: Proofreading.
Read your draft again and try to correct spelling errors, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraph indentation.
2. Basic elements of writing
Writing is complex because you have to consider many variables. You
need to think about your knowledge of the subject and your purpose in
writing the document. You have to consider your readers and their expectations.
You have to take into account what they may or may not know about
the subject, what will interest them, what details are essential, and what
kinds of explanation will make your points clear. You also have to consider
the best form for presenting this information.
2.1. Narrowing Down the Topic
“What should I write about?” Some people think the hardest part of writing
is finding a topic. However, more often than not, you will have to deal with
topics professors or employers assign to you. Sometimes, too, situations in
everyday life require you to address a subject in writing. Initially, not all of
these topics will engage you. In fact, sometimes you may have to write
about topics you dislike. So instead of “What should I write about?” the
more frequent question is “How can I make this topic interesting for myself
and my readers?”
If you find a topic boring or too hard, your reader will likely have the
same reaction to your paper on that topic. Challenge yourself to find your
own creative ways of making topics and assignments personally interesting.
Begin by having an open mind about the subject and believing that you have
something worthwhile to say about it. Know, too, that you are more likely to
become engaged with a subject after you have listened, read, debated, pondered,
and explored beyond the surface.
2.2. Purpose
A way to think about purpose is to consider why you are writing or what
you want a piece of writing to accomplish. The very basic purposes of writing
are these: to explain, to convince, and to entertain.
Some writing, such as a textbook or a set of directions, has a very strong focus on explanation.
Writing with a primary purpose to explain is sometimes called expository writing. Other writing—such as advertisements, editorials, and political speeches—has a strong intent to persuade or to convince readers to take action or change their way of thinking. A great deal of writing—
such as gossip magazines, comics, and fiction—simply entertains us.
However, once you start digging more critically into the purposes of those
documents, the picture becomes more complicated. While a set of directions can
be pretty boring and strictly expository, the authors have carefully chosen a format
and organization that they think will make the directions easier to follow.
So while the primary purpose may be to provide an explanation, the people who
write instructions also think about how to make the format pleasing and simple.
Sure, businesses use advertisements to convince consumers to spend
money and buy products. However, advertisements also explain or provide
information about a product. In addition, some of the best advertisements
try to be funny or shocking so people will remember them.
Likewise, while a short story may be entertaining to read, it can also
explain people, places, problems, issues, and ideas.
2.3. Audience
Since you are writing for college courses, you already know that professors do not all
have the same requirements for their assignments. A biology professor may want a different style of writing than a history professor does.
There is an old saying from the military that “terrain determines tactics,” and this adage proves true with writing. If you think of each person or group of people you are writing
to (your audience) as having certain characteristics—values, attitudes, intelligence, and biases—this will take you a long way toward using the right “tactics” to get a good grade,
earn a promotion at your job, or influence your community about a certain issue.
3. Generating Ideas
Brainstorming
Brainstorming involves listing important details or examples or points
that you want to make in a piece of writing. For example, if you are writing
an argument, you could list possible objections that readers might have
and then show how those readers’ objections are off base or illogical. If you
are writing a descriptive essay about a place that is important to you, you
could list specific and concrete details, painting a verbal picture for your
readers and making them see, hear, and smell that place so they feel like
they are there.
These are some of brainstorming techniques:
1-Key Word Clustering/Mapping:
Write down key words or phrases relevant to your topic of interest. Draw lines to
identify connections between them.
2-Listing:
Make a list of ideas and/or quotations about your potential topic. For each idea or
quotation, write a question you would like your paper to answer, according to your
interests.
3- Asking Questions:
Write down every question you have about your topic. Circle the ones you want to
address in your paper.
4-Making a Recipe:
Write a recipe that lists all of the ingredients or basic ideas of your paper.
5-Writing Dialogue:
Write a dialogue where person A agrees with your point of view and person B disagrees.
Try to be objective.
6-Writing Letters:
Write a letter to someone explaining why you agree or disagree with a particular point.
Write another letter taking the other side. Write a letter to the author of the text you are
working with. What questions do you have about the text?
Freewriting
A method both college and professional writers use is free writing. When
free writing, you should not get caught up in correcting grammar or spelling.
Nor should you try to organize or stop to judge the worth of the ideas
as you write them down. You just write quickly to get ideas onto the page or
screen. You should write non-stop, meaning that whatever is going through
your head goes onto the page or screen. If you are thinking, “I don’t know
what to say,” for example, you should literally write, “I don’t know what to
say” because that is what is in your mind.
This chaotic and messy writing process, in many cases, helps you free
up your creativity and discover ideas you might not have discovered if you
were carefully crafting a piece of writing. Usually, you should freewrite for
anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, and then go back and read what you
have written. As you read, underline or circle valid, important, or interesting
sections of writing that you might use in your paper. Most of the freewriting
may look quite ugly in places, but the point is for you to get ideas
out there.
4. Outlining
Formal Outlining
In a formal outline, you create a hierarchy of your details and points, organizing
your ideas using Roman numerals, letters, and numbers and varying indentations to indicate the importance of each point; the closer to the left margin, the more important the point.
Formal outlining is a valuable tool because it encourages you to create your thesis statement and many times write complete sentences. A formal outline also uses numbers and letters to indicate the different levels of support.
This approach may also help you generate more ideas and keep you on
track. Furthermore, you can experiment with different organizations for your paper in using formal outlines. Since you probably write using a computer, moving your points around using the “cut” and “paste” functions in your word processing program is quite easy.
Sketch or Scratch Outlining
In contrast to formal outlining, sketch outlining is less rigid. Instead of
using upper and lower case letters, Roman numerals, and numbers, you simply sketch your ideas in an order that makes sense to you. You can come back to it and change your organization if you think of a better way to organize your thoughts. The important aspect of outlining is putting down
descriptive phrases and thoughts that will make you remember what you want to say in the paper.