Freshman Composition
~ The Writing Process ~

P. Aaron Potter
Potter's Field

1. Creation -- Figuring out what to write about
2. Research -- Collating information on your topic
3. Outline Draft -- Organizing your essay
4. Composition -- Getting it all down on paper
5. Pause -- The most important part of writing
6. Revision -- Re-approaching and improving your essay
7. (Repeat previous 2 steps) -- Until it's right
8. Post-writing -- Bibliographies, title-pages, and other extras
9. Proofreading -- The final once-over

• Creation -- the initial stage, during which you must think of just what it is that you are going to write about.   This is, to my mind, the second most important stage of the writing process. Consider who your audience is, what the focus of the class or assignment is, and how significant your topic is.  In a freshman composition course, you will likely be somewhat limited in what you can write about: pay close attention to the suggestions and limitations of your instructor -- there is no quicker way to annoy a composition instructor than to ignore some essential requirement of an assignment, so read the assignment sheet over twice, and underline any statements which limit what you can or cannot write about.  Remember, limitation is your friend...too many writing projects fail because the scope of the project is simply too big to cover in a single essay.  Don't try to cover the history of the Catholic Church in a five-page essay.  The biography of a single Pope might fit into that space...but it would be even better if you limited yourself to discussing the ramifications of a single incident in that Pope's life.  The more tightly you can define your topic, the more intense your writing will be.
  Most importantly: choose a topic which interests you!  If you are not interested in your chosen topic, I gaurantee you it will show up in your writing.  You can't make a subject interesting to your audience if it bores you.  In addition, you likely won't spend enough time or effort on your project to do well.  Better to drift slightly off your assigned topic (clear it with your instructor first) than to set yourself up for three weeks of misery and twenty pages of bland, mediocre writing.
  Once you have chosen a topic, define it as explicitly as possible -- use a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or other appropriate reference book to help you clearly outline the scope of your essay project, and don't go outside of that scope once you've defined it.
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• Research -- Once you have defined your topic, it may be necessary to do some research. Clearly if you are presenting an expository paper on a topic of general interest, you'll want to consult some general sources first, and then follow up with more specific resources.  Again, consult an encyclopedia or dictionary if appropriate to make certain you have defined your topic tightly enough.  Make a list of the terms, people, places, and events which are mentioned in your general sources as related to your topic.  Plug these terms into the search engine of the UCR Library catalog to find sources which will provide you appropriate background information on your topic. When you consult a source, be certain to look at the bibliography of sources which contributed to it: you will often find useful pointers to additional material related to your field. 
  I highly reccomend you consult a reference librarian at this stage in your research -- he or she will be able to direct you to databases and topic-specific resources which relate to your field.
  Be certain you make very careful notes about what sources you consult during your research (even the ones you don't directly quote in your essay).  You must properly cite every single source you consult, quote, or paraphase, usually in the form of footnotes or endnotes to your essay.  Consult your instructor as to the proper form for citations.  Yes, this is a lot of work, and it seems like a relatively minor issue: trust me, it's not.  Failing to cite your sources constitutes plagiarism, and is grounds for an "F" in the course, and possible dismissal from the University.
  Note: even if you are relating a personal experience or viewpoint, and do not feel the need for formal research, it is a good idea to spend some time writing down everything you can recall about the incident, or every point you wish to make over the course of the essay. Think of it as researching yourself.
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• Outline Draft -- You have now compiled a fairly extensive amount of material related to your topic.  The first step in outlining your essay itself is to further limit your material. Consider your thesis statement first.  For most Freshman composition papers, this should consist of a single sentence which contains the basic premise or argument of your essay.  It is usually placed near the beginning of the essay, often at the end of the first paragraph, and serves to inform your reader of what they can expect to learn throughout the course of your essay.  A thesis statement outlines the problem you hope to solve, the question you hope to answer, or the point you seek to prove over the course of your essay.
  Once you have declared your thesis, go through your material and eliminate any which does not clearly support or relate to your thesis.  Because of space limitations, you may need to further pare material down to the few essential points or strongest arguments which support your thesis.  I know it feels difficult to throw away material you spent days researching, but it is essential that your essay remain fairly tight in structure: in a five page paper on the diamond industry, you can't afford a two paragraph digression on the history of mining equipment.
  Once you have chosen what material you wish to present, you need to figure out what order you are going to present it in.  There are several methods for this, but the following is my favorite:
  Open up your word processing software and open a new, blank document.  Write your thesis statement on the first line.  Start a new paragraph.  Type in the first point, argument, bit of evidence, or element of your essay -- make a complete sentence.  Start a new paragraph.  Type in the next point, element, or argument.  Continue in this manner until you have a single sentence for every point you wish to present in your essay.  Make certain each and every one of those sentences relates clearly to your thesis statement.  Now use the cut and paste functions of your word processing software to re-organize your points in a logical fashion.  For essays which relate an event, the history of a topic, or a personal experience, use chronological organization (usually an introductory paragraph, then all events in the order in which they occurred, usually followed by a concluding paragraph).  For argumentative or expository papers, use topical organization.  The trick with topical organization is to create a logical flow between elements...related arguments should be placed near one another in your essay -- this will also make it easier for you to create logical transitions betwen paragraphs when you get to the composition stage.  In general, the more obvious, basic, or unsophisticated points, or those with the least impact, should be placed earlier in the essay.  The more complex arguments, those which build upon points previously presented in your paper, and those with the most impact should be placed later in the essay.  Remember that you will need to introduce and define new topics and terms before you can base arguments on them, so any introductory material should go early in your essay.  By building up towards your most influential, persuasive arguments, you give the audience a sense of growing dramatic impact, and your final argument functions similarly to the climax of a movie or a play.  You rarely see movies in which the big fight with the villain appears at the beginning of the film!  However, also remember that these are general guidelines, not absolute rules!  You may find it suits your purposes to grab your reader's attention with a strong argument early in your essay, and then deliver substantiating claims and supporting arguments as your essay develops.
  The standard deductive essay structure is the most common organizational scheme in high-school level composition: an introductry paragraph ending in a thesis statement, in which you alert the audience of your intentions...followed by a series of points or arguments, one per paragraph...followed by a concluding paragraph in which you sum up your arguments and restate your thesis.  This is a fairly effective organizational style with a long history, and which you have probably practiced many times.  It's also about as exciting as leftover ramen noodles.  In Freshamn composition, instructors like to see students break out of the overly-formal structure of the standard deductive essay.  Consider a simple change: put a quote or dramatic statistic or some other element at the beginning of your essay, before your introductory paragraph.  This gives a sense of immediacy and impact to your paper, and hooks your reader before you bludgeon him or her to death with the (usually fairly bland) introduction to your topic.  If you're feeling particularly frisky, instead of starting by declaring all of the arguments you plan on making over the course of your essay, simply introduce your topic as a question or a problem to be solved...then present your arguments and let your concluding paragraph(s) serve as the answer to that question.  By not showing all of your hand at once, you (a) let your arguments build more naturally upon one another, giving the appearance of logical progression instad of contrived organization, and (b) encourage your readers to identify more with your logic, giving them the sensation that they are discovering the answer to the problem along with you, rather than having you force your conclusions down their throats.  Whatever your organizational choices, remember that the standard deductive essay style is there to catch you if you start to get lost in your own arguments.
  This is also the time to consider the pacing of your essay.  In general: statistics, quotes and dialogue, descriptions of physical surroundings, people, and objects, and active verbs tend to be fast paced elements in writing.  Definitions of terms, discussion of abstract concepts, background information, complex verb structures and logical pronouncements tend to be slow paced elements.  In general, you will want to vary slow and fast paced elements in order to keep your essay interesting:  too many slow elements in a row can wear your reader as they attempt to decipher your language, or follow your extended logical arguments; too many fast elements all at once can exasperate your reader as they search for some depth or relief from a ceaseless stream of facts, quotes, and action sequences.
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• Composition --The trick here is that every single sentence you have written during the previous step is going to become a complete paragraph in your final paper, with the sentence itself forming the topic sentence of the new paragraph.  With standard font and margins (about 250 words per page), you should figure on approximately two-and-one-half paragraphs per page; that means that for a five page paper, you should have prepared about fifteen sentences in your outline, including your introductor paragraph and your conclusion.
  When fleshing out your paragraphs, you should apply the same rules that you used to construct your outline.  Just as each point in the outline related clearly to the thesis statement, so each sentence in your paragraph should relate clearly to the topic sentence of that paragraph.  Related points or sentences should be near one another, and you should follow a chronological or topical organizational scheme appropriate to your material.
  Be certain to include logical transitions throughout your paper, both between paragraphs and between sentences within a single paragraph.  If you are relating material chronologically, transitions will appear fairly naturally: "First..." "Then..." "After that...."  Be particularly careful when using transitions which indicate causality ("Therefore..." "Because of..." "Thus...") and do not use them unless you are certain of the cause and effect relationship between the elements you are linking together (see the section under logical flaws on the grading and marking page).
  When considering the issue of pacing at the sentence level, there are a number of mitigating factors to the advice I gave at the end of the outlining section above: complex, polysyllabic, obfuscatory or prolix prose tends to slow your writing down.  Short words go fast.  One single-clause, declarative sentence can convey a great degree of drama, and adds zest to your writing: "Jesus wept."  However, a long series of short, single-clause sentences can act like speed-bumps on your reader: "I entered the room.  I picked up the chalk. I turned to the board.  I wrote my name."  This can work if the action itself is particularly dramatic: "I entered the crypt.  The axe gleamed.  I turned towards the coffin.  I raised the axe high over my head...."  However, this can only be sustained for so long, and eventually you'll need to drop into a more standard, two or more clause sentence structure: "I shrieked, and splinters flew as the axe bit deeply into the coffin's mahogany surface!" As with many important writing skills, the best way to get a feel for sentence-level pacing is to read.
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• Pause -- The single most important step in the composition process, and one which too many writers ignore, through overconfidence, ignorance, or necessity.  Now that you've finished the composition process itself and you have a first draft of your paper, the tendency is to want to finish the paper up immediately, so many students jump directly into the revision and proofreading stages.  Still worse are those students who wait until the last minute (late on the day before the assignment is due) to write their papers, and therefore must either immediately perform any revisions or, worst of all, perform no re-writing or proofreading at all.  Short of turning in your paper late, this is the fastest way to sabotage your writing and your grade, so listen carefully:
  DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WRITE YOUR PAPER!!!  I know very well you can write five pages in about two to three hours.  However, these will be five pages of substandard writing, nowhere near the quality you can produce if you devote even half an hour to revising and proofreading your paper.  Trust me, your instructor is perfectly able to tell which papers were written at ten p.m. the night before they were due and which were not...and guess which ones receive higher grades.
  The problem is that if you attempt to re-read your paper immediately after you have finished writing it, your mind is still full of the words you meant to say, the phrases you meant to use, and therefore many grammatical and mechanical errors in your writing are invisible to you.  Even worse, your mind is still animated by the train of logic which you used to reach your conclusions in your essay, so that glaring inconsistencies, dropped steps, and other logical flaws are similarly invisible: after all, you already know what it is you meant to prove, so the point is already proven in your mind, making it nearly impossible to truly test your own logic for flaws.
  The solution is to take some time out after finishing your paper before you revise and proofread.  Do homework for other classes, read a book, eat dinner, take a nap, see a movie: anything to distract you and disengage your mind from the topic of your essay.  I suggest at least a day's time between the completion of your first draft and your revision, but even half an hour is better than nothing at all.  The intention is to de-familiarize you with your own thoughts on the topic, so that you can approach your essay from the unfamiliar perspective which a new reader (such as your instructor) will have as they read your work for the first time.
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• Revision -- During the revision process, you shuold approach your essay with the same critical eye you would bring to an unfamiliar piece of writing.  Certainly you should check for grammatical mistakes, malapropisms, and other mechanical errors...but more importantly, you must check your logic for dropped steps, insufficient evidence, unsupported assertions, and other logical fallacies.  One tactic is to imagine that you are an attorney arguing a case, and that the essay in front of you is a piece of evidence which supports the other side.  Check for appropriateness of tone relative to your audience and your material, pacing of paragraphs and sentences, precision of word choice, etc.  When you find errors, fix them.
  I advise you to read your paper out loud.  This will often detect grammatical errors such as subject-verb disagreement, as well as weaknesses in pacing...if you find yourself skipping through blocks of short, single-clause declarative sentences, consider joining them into slightly longer, more complex sentences with appropriate conjunctions.
  Remember, be bold in your revisions.  Don't be afraid to tear out chunks, even pages, of your essay, if the material doesn't clearly support or relate to your thesis.  Although you may decry the wasted time and effort you put into such material, remember that your readers will not take your perspective toward such digressions: to them, such passages are a waste of their time, and they (and you) are better off without them.
  I also advise you to ask someone else to read your essay: a room-mate, friend, sibling, or parent.  Often others can find errors in grammar, word choice, and logic which escape you.  On the UCR campus, consider taking your essay to the peer-assistants at the office of Student Services behind the physical education building (note: the best place to take your writing is the Writing Resource Center, next to the English Department, where, qualified instructors can assist you.  Unfortunately, as of the present writing, the Writing Resource Center has been closed due to lack of funding -- please e-mail Chancelor Orbach and the administraion to register a complaint regarding this situation).
  One of the most useful things you can do is to take your draft to your composition instructor!  I know this seems either embarassing or slightly unethical, as though you were cheating.  Trust me, it isn't either one.  Writing is not something you are expected to know perfectly, without help (if it were, Freshman composition wouldn't be the most ubiquitous class in higher education).  Your instructor is there to help you improve your composition skills, and will be happy to assist you, as well as impressed by your foresight in bringing a draft to their office hours.  In addition to general writing tips, your instructor will (obviously) be more able than anyone to give you tips which will help your writing achieve a higher grade.  Even if you don't have a draft ready, feel free to bring in outline drafts, notes, research ideas, whatever you have.  It is likely that your instructor will be able to suggest some avenues to explore, possible organizational schemes, material you should be sure to cover, as well as material you should avoid.  If your instructor is not available, consider consulting another composition instructor, such as one whose classes you have previously taken.  It may be that another instructor will not feel they can read papers you are submitting in another instructor's class, but it can't hurt to ask. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you find that the instructor of your class is unwilling to look at or assist you with drafts before you hand them in, I would advise you to drop that class if at all possible, and find another class with an instructor who doesn't regard composition as some sort of test.  Composition is a skill, and learning it i a lifelong process; it is not something you will ever "know," as you know the melting point of selenium or the date of the battle of Waterloo.  An instructor who treats it as though it were (and I've never actually met one) might give you a high grade in their class for your ability to recognize a gerund on an objective essay...but they won't help you learn how to write.
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• Repeat --  Every time you significantly revise your paper, pause again for as much as a full day before re-reading your revised essay.  It is essential to maintain some critical distance between yourself and your writing!  This is yet another reason to give yourself plenty of time: avoid last-minute-writing.
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• Post-writing -- Once you are satisfied with the essay proper, you can move on to post-writing projects.  Write out your bibliography (again, check with your instructor as to the appropriate format), attach a title page, etc.  This might also be a good time to re-check your assignment sheet and make certain that your essay covers all the ground required by the assignment.  Relax a little.  Have some coffee.  Pat yourself on the back for being wise enough to complete your essay well before the due date.
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• Proofreading -- Before you hand in your paper, print it out if you haven't already, and go over it with a fine-toothed comb with an eye only for grammatical and mechanical errors (see the grading and marking page for details).  Don't attempt to fix content at this point: simply make certain your spelling is correct (use the spellchecker on your word-procesing software), your verbs and subjects agree, and so on.
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