English 101: Journey Into Open

English 101: Journey Into Open

Writing for College Classes

Christine Jones

Glendale

English 101: Journey Into Open by Christine Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Contents

Introduction
Christine Jones Welcome to English 101 Open Why, What, When, Where, How, Who? Some Comparisons The Keys to Success Optional Extra

The Writing Process

Prewriting Prewriting Strategies Journaling Freewriting Brainstorming Mapping Listing Asking Defining Questions Noting Pros & Cons Outlining See It in Practice Ready to Write

Audience and Voice Audience Awareness WRITING FOR YOUR AUDIENCE ANALYZING YOUR AUDIENCE SEE IT IN PRACTICE Finding Your Voice Different Voices Academic Voice Tips on Academic Voice See It in Practice Ready to Write

Drafting Introductions & Conclusions Introductions Introductions Purpose Introductions Strategies Conclusions See It in Practice Ready to Write THESIS STATEMENTS PARTS OF A THESIS SENTENCE THESIS ANGLES COMMON PROBLEMS THESIS CREATION THESIS CHECKLIST SEE IT IN PRACTICE THESIS STATEMENT ACTIVITY ARGUMENTATIVE THESIS ACTIVITY ANALYZE THIS SEE IT IN PRACTICE PARAGRAPHING TOPIC SENTENCES PARAGRAPHING & TRANSITIONING SEE IT IN PRACTICE ESSAY WRITING TRADITIONAL ESSAY STRUCTURE TRADITIONAL STRUCTURE ACTIVITY ROUGH DRAFTS SEE IT IN PRACTICE

Revision REVISING & EDITING PROCESS REVISING STAGE 1: SEEING THE BIG PICTURE REVISING STAGE 2: MID-VIEW REVISING STAGE 3: EDITING UP CLOSE SPECIFIC POINTS TO CONSIDER REVISING & EDITING TIPS THE WRITING PROCESS IN REVIEW

Peer Review PEER REVIEW HOW TO GIVE FEEDBACK HOW TO RECEIVE FEEDBACK MAKE PEER REVIEW A PART OF YOUR LIFE CONCLUSION Providing Good Feedback

Outlining and Annotation Outlining Pre-Draft Outlines Traditional Outlining IMRAD Outlining See It in Practice Outline Time? Post Draft Outline

Illustration and Exemplification

Classification

Rhetoric and Writing

Rhetoric WHAT IS RHETORIC? PERSUASIVE APPEALS LOGOS PATHOS ETHOS MODES OF PERSUASION ACTIVITIES [h5p id="24"] SEE IT IN PRACTICE READY TO WRITE ASSIGNMENT ANALYSIS PURPOSE AUDIENCE INTENDED AUDIENCE Offending an Audience VOICE SEE IT IN PRACTICE READY TO WRITE

MLA Style Citation & Documentation Locating Reference Information MLA Style | 8th Edition Single Author Two Authors Three or More Authors Multiple Works by the Same Author Multiple Sources No Page Numbers Verse Anonymous or Unknown Author Citing Indirect Sources MLA Works Cited Print Books Ebooks Print Magazine Articles Online Magazine Articles Print Journal Articles Online Journal Articles Article from a Database Print Newspaper Online Newspaper Web Page Images & Other Multimedia Theses & Dissertations Blog Entry / Comment Online Course & Discussion Boards Email Government Publications Interviews MLA Style Demo MLA Formatting Guide MLA SIGNAL PHRASES Avoiding Plagiarism When Documenting Attribution

Using Description Attributions

Essay Features: Read Me! Things You Should Already Know Stating Your Thesis Implying Your Thesis Placement of Thesis Statements Topic Sentences Paragraphing: MEAL Plan Conclusions 20 Most Common Grammar Errors Try It Out Punctuation Putting It All Together

Reflection and Portfolios Prior Learning

Using Multiple Sources

Research

Reading in College Active vs. Passive Reading Common Reading Systems Attribution

Identifying Sources RESEARCH STRATEGIES DATABASE SEARCHING INTERNET SEARCHING STRATEGIES SEE IT IN PRACTICE EVALUATING SOURCES SOURCE SUITABILITY AUTHORSHIP & AUTHORITY EVALUATING SOURCES: DOCUMENTATION TIMELY SOURCES SEE IT IN PRACTICE USING EVIDENCE EXPERIENCE PRIMARY SOURCES SECONDARY SOURCES SOURCE INTEGRATION PARAGRAPHING: MEAL PLAN SUMMARIZING PARAPHRASING PARAPHRASING STRUCTURE USING QUOTATIONS USING PHRASES & WORDS USING SENTENCES LONG QUOTATIONS MLA LONG QUOTE GUIDELINES SIGNAL PHRASES ACTIVITY SEE IT IN PRACTICE ANNOTATING SOURCES USING EVIDENCE ACTIVITY ANALYZE THIS SEE IT IN PRACTICE Identifying a Journal Article WRAP UP

Evaluating Sources What Might be a More Credible, Reliable Source? Is your source enough of an authority on the topic?

Rhetorical Modes

Narrative and Memoir Essays Memoirs Most People Don’t Understand Memoirs Sample Dialogue Basic Dialogue Rules Example Memoir Time to Write Attributions

Evaluation Essays Five Characteristics of an Evaluative Essay Time to Write Attribution

Argument Essay Strengthening Your Argument A Note About Audience Counterargument Student Example: Mini-Argument Time to Write Attributions

Literary Analysis What is Literature? Some Misconceptions about Literature Why Reading Literature is Important How to Read Literature

Writing a Letter Aspen Country Lodge

Compare and Contrast Attributions

Cause and Effect Attributions

Process Analysis Attributions

Definition Attributions

Appendix THESE MATERIALS AND TEXTBOOKS HAVE BEEN USED LIBERALLY TO FORM THE CONTENT FOUND IN THE ENGLISH 101 JOURNEY INTO OPEN COURSEBOOK Other Materials

1

Christine Jones

Welcome to English 101 Open

This textbook is an English 101 text that includes rhetoric and approaches to research.

There are hundreds of wonderful, free writing resources available online, yet most college writing classes still use expensive textbooks. Students have been frustrated by textbook prices for longer than most instructors have noticed. Your instructor, like many others at the campus, has been actively working to lower that barrier to instruction and learning.

This course uses OER Materials.

OER stands for Open Educational Resources. OER materials are free or low cost. This book focuses on freely available works under a Creative Commons license. All works here are adaptable; all works here are printable and downloadable for free. This book CAN be printed if you feel the need for a physical textbook. Speak to your instructor about how to make that possible.

Materials have been organized into “Chapters” which connect to the Modules of the course. They are NOT in the same order that the modules are. However, there are a few extra chapters in the book. This is because of the changing nature of the course. You may not completely read the textbook by the end of the semester. The materials include text, videos, and interactive activities that were developed under Creative Commons licensing.

You are expected to read the texts, watch the videos, and participate in interactive activities. You should complete the reading before coming to class, as I will be teaching with the expectation that you have completed the reading. It is best if you complete your Cornell Notes before the classes so you will be familiar with the information and be able to use them in class. Many of the in-class assignments are directly related to the information you will find in the book. Some of the in-book activities will be requested in class!

H5P Activities

The videos and activities that are in the book are sometimes graded. If you are reading the textbook for information, you can do that in any format you like, even printed. If you want the credit for completing the activities, you will need to access the textbook online. This is only required for completing the graded activities. Here is an example of a graded activity that might show up in Canvas.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=4#h5p-62

Be sure to click “Submit” if there is a submit button. If there is a print button available, be sure to save a copy to your Google Drive. I recommend having a folder for the textbook activities in case of technical issues. These saved documents should be saved in PDF format. Mac, Iphone and Ipad access may make saving as a PDF difficult, but you can also save it to a Google Doc and then download as PDF.

Why, What, When, Where, How, Who?

by Sybil Priebe

WHY Do I Have to Take This Class? WHY Do I Have to Improve My Writing?

Students ask me why they have to take my class. They ask me this a lot. A LOT.

Now, I could be a typical teacher and roll my eyes, but I usually try to connect these questions with the REAL WORLD. College instructors are supposed to prepare students for that big scary REAL WORLD, right? So, often, I’ll explain it like this:

“Do the people around you communicate well? Everyone always knows what the other one is saying, thinking, feeling at any given moment? Or, perhaps this is a better question: The people around you never fight or argue?”

Rarely can anyone say they haven’t seen people fight. Here’s a key to why English is important at all levels – communication is super tricky. We create slang on a daily basis, we text people with acronyms, and we still have people not understanding other people even when we don’t use slang or a text message! And don’t forget that if we can’t speak well, we probably aren’t writing well – what does that mean in our future jobs? For our future customers? What does that mean for us as people in relationships, friendships, etc.?

WHAT is Writing All About?

What is Composition? What is Rhetoric? What is Literature? What is Linguistics?

These are terms you might only get quizzed on during Jeopardy, but if we start from the smallest level and work our way to the largest, it goes like this: Linguistics is the study of words, Composition is the study of arranging those words into sentences and paragraphs and essays, and then Literature is the study of fully composed pieces of work that may or may not be true (Nonfiction vs. Fiction). That weird word Rhetoric? Yeah, that’s the study of Argument.

WHEN Should We Write? WHERE Should We Write?

All the time and everywhere.

HOW Can You Get Started with Writing?

With this amazing book!

WHO Am I Writing This For?

Okay, so typically, you might only be composing an assignment for your teacher’s eyes only, but if you participate in Peer Review, or will be showing the final product to the public, your audience is more than one person.

Some Comparisons

High School	College
Reading assignments are moderately long. Teachers may set aside some class time for reading and reviewing the material in depth.	Some reading assignments may be very long. You will be expected to come to class with a basic understanding of the material.
Teachers often provide study guides and other aids to help you prepare for exams.	Reviewing for exams is primarily your responsibility.
Your grade is determined by your performance on a wide variety of assessments, including minor and major assignments. Not all assessments are writing based.	Your grade may depend on just a few major assessments. Most assessments are writing based.
Writing assignments include personal writing and creative writing in addition to expository writing.	Outside of creative writing courses, most writing assignments are expository.
The structure and format of writing assignments is generally stable over a four-year period.	Depending on the course, you may be asked to master new forms of writing and follow standards within a particular professional field.
Teachers often go out of their way to identify and try to help students who are performing poorly on exams, missing classes, not turning in assignments, or just struggling with the course. Often teachers will give students many “second chances.”	Although teachers want their students to succeed, they may not always realize when students are struggling. They also expect you to be proactive and take steps to help yourself. “Second chances” are less common.

The Keys to Success

Planning Strategies

Time Management

Setting aside enough time

Breaking Assignments into manageable chunks

Setting a purpose for reading

How did my instructor frame the assignment?

How deeply do I need to understand the reading?

How does this assignment relate to other course readings or to concepts discussed in class?

How might I use this text again in the future?

Comprehension Strategies

Reading for Information

Reading that aligns with our skill level and interests

Magazines, newspapers, the latest book in our favorite series, a book about our favorite subject

Reading is not challenging and can be done passively

Reading for Understanding

Reading that is outside of our skill level and interest

College textbooks and assignments

Reading is more challenging and requires more effort/deliberate action

Active Reading

Reading for understanding cannot be done passively

How much understanding you gain from a text depends on how much activity you put into it

Active readers engage with a text: ask questions and demand answers

Active readers can organize the reading and record answers to any questions

Connect what you read to what you already know. Look for ways the reading supports, extends, or challenges concepts you have learned elsewhere.

Relate the reading to your own life. What statements, people, or situations relate to your personal experiences?

Visualize. For both fiction and nonfiction texts, try to picture what is described.

Pay attention to graphics as well as text. Photographs, diagrams, flow charts, tables, and other graphics can help make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable.

Understand the text in context. Understanding context means thinking about who wrote the text, when and where it was written, the author’s purpose for writing it, and what assumptions or agendas influenced the author’s ideas

Plan to talk or write about what you read. Jot down a few questions or comments in your notebook so you can bring them up in class.

Annotate a Text

Develop a system and stick to it!

I generally underline the Thesis and Topic Sentences

I use vertical lines in the right margin of a paragraph for important supporting details–note the word, important; I do not highlight small details because annotations should be used for the main ideas and should point you toward what you need to read further.

I circle unfamiliar words and write their definition above the word or next to it.

I write notes in the margin if I want to connect the information to something else I have read or an essay I am writing.

I use an asterisk or exclamation point for startling facts/ statistics or surprising information.

Continuously Monitor Your Comprehension

Summarize the main points

Thesis

Topic Sentences

Ask questions and then answer them

Prepare questions for class discussion

Use the SQ3R Strategy

Survey the text in advance.

Form questions before you start reading.

Read the text.

Recite and/or record important points during and after reading.

Review and reflect on the text after you read it.

Key Takeaways College-level reading and writing assignments differ from high school assignments not only in quantity but also in quality. Managing college reading assignments successfully requires you to plan and manage your time, set a purpose for reading, practice effective comprehension strategies, and use active reading strategies to deepen your understanding of the text. College writing assignments place greater emphasis on learning to think critically about a particular discipline and less emphasis on personal and creative writing

Optional Extra

As I was preparing this textbook, I came across a series of helpful videos that I know can help YOU, my students, with your college courses. However, I feel it should be up to you whether you watch them or not. So, I have put them here. This is the first in a playlist of helpful videos. Only one of the videos will be required and it is already in the chapter it links with. The others are optional, but a fun way to check your skills. Have fun!

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online here: https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=4#oembed-1

This textbook was compiled by Mrs. Christine Jones for her English 101 course using multiple OER and Creative Commons licensed materials. A complete guide to the texts used can be found in the Appendix, with links to the Pressbooks and source materials pages. Specific citations and attributions can be found at the bottom of each chapter.

**The memes used in this book are NOT creative commons and are used in a “Fair Use” educational capacity only, intended for this edition of the online textbook. If you are making a copy of this text, please remove the memes before use.

I

The Writing Process

Writing is a Process

Do you know what a Slinky® is?

It’s a toy that can serve as a metaphor for the writing process.

A Slinky is one piece of material that’s coiled in many loops. Writing is a large process that’s made up of smaller ones—processes that connect and loop around each other.

A Slinky, after the first nudge, travels downstairs on its own, step by step. An experienced writer, after the first nudge of an idea or observation, moves through the writing process step by step, with the option to loop back up the stairs as well as down.

Okay, that’s as far as the metaphor stretches (and yes, that’s a bad pun). But you get the idea through the visual example. Writing is a process.

Writing is a tangible result of thinking. And learning how to think—how to develop your own ideas and concepts—is the purpose of a college education. Even though the end result of writing is a product, writing itself is a process through which you ask questions; create, develop, hone, and organize ideas; argue a point; search for evidence to support your ideas…and so on. The point here is that writing really involves creative and critical thinking processes. Like any creative process, it often starts in a jumble as you develop, sort, and sift through ideas. But it doesn’t need to stay in disarray. Your writing will gain direction as you start examining those ideas. It just doesn’t happen all at once. Writing is a process that happens over time. And like any process, there are certain steps or stages.

These are some of the major stages in a strong writing process:

Thinking about your assignment

Developing ideas (often called prewriting)

Narrowing a topic

Gathering information

Ordering and drafting

Revising and editing

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online here: https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=32#oembed-1

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online here: https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=32#oembed-2

Thinking About Your Assignment

When you receive your writing assignment from your professor, it’s important to stop and think about your assignment. What are the requirements? What is the purpose of this assignment? What is your professor asking you to write? Who will be your audience?

Before you begin to write any part of an essay you have been assigned, it’s important to first carefully consider your assignment. You must think about the requirements and how you plan to meet those requirements. All too often, students make the mistake of jumping into an assignment without stopping to think about it rhetorically.

What does it mean to think about an assignment rhetorically?

It means that you’re being considerate of the purpose of the assignment, the audience for the assignment, the voice you might want to use when you write, and how you will approach the assignment effectively overall.

Each time you are presented with a writing assignment in the college, you’re being presented with a particular situation for writing. Learning about rhetoric can help you learn to make good decisions about your writing. Rhetoric can be simply defined as figuring out what you need to do to be effective, no matter the writing situation.

Thinking rhetorically is an important part of any writing process because every writing assignment has different expectations. There is no such thing as right when it comes to writing; instead, try to think about good writing as being writing that is effective in that particular situation.

The following video presentation will help you as you begin to think about your assignments rhetorically. It’s so important to stop and think about what you are being asked to write about and why before you begin an assignment.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online here: https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=32#oembed-3

Developing Ideas

Writers need to have something to write about. In college, you’ll be expected to provide your own observations and ideas. Even in a research paper on an assigned topic, you’ll be expected to offer your own thinking about what your sources say. The purpose of writing in college is to show your own analysis and thought processes on the concepts that you’re learning about.

Writers develop ideas in many ways, including the following:

Journaling

Freewriting

Brainstorming

Mapping or diagramming

Listing

Asking defining questions

Noting Pros & Cons

You will find each of these options explained in more detail in the Prewriting chapter. If you do not already have a strong prewriting process, you should try out several of the strategies to see what works best for you.

Narrowing a Topic

Once you have decided what you want to write about, you need to stop and consider if you have chosen a feasible topic that meets the assignment’s purpose.

If you have chosen a very large topic for a research paper assignment, you need to create a feasible focus that’s researchable. For example, you might write about something like the Vietnam War, specifically the economic impact of the war on the U.S. economy.

If you have chosen a topic for a non-research assignment, you still need to narrow the focus of the paper to something manageable that allows you to go in-depth in the writing. For instance, you might have a goal of writing about the nursing profession but with a specific focus on what the daily routine is like for a nurse at your local pediatric hospital.

The important thing is to think about your assignment requirements, including length requirements, and make sure you have found a topic that is specific enough to be engaging and interesting and will fit within the assignment requirements.

GATHERING INFORMATION

It’s easier to gather information once you have a relatively narrow topic. A good analogy is when you conduct a search in an online database. You’ll get thousands (if not more) entries if you use the keywords Vietnam War as opposed to fewer and more focused entries if you use terms related to the economic impact of the war on the U.S.

Or, if you’re analyzing The Great Gatsby, you’ll be able to gather more specific information from the novel if you focus on a character, a theme, etc. instead of all elements of the novel at once.

It may help to use the image of a hand fan in order to understand gathering information. Think of your narrow topic as the end of the fan, the point at which all of the slats are linked together. As you gather information about your narrow topic, the fan spreads out, but the information is still all connected to the narrow topic.

NOTE: Sometimes, gathering information occurs before you narrow a topic, especially if you don’t have much knowledge of that subject.

You might use a general reference source, such as an encyclopedia, a textbook, a magazine, or a website to get a broad view of the issues related to a topic. This, in turn, helps you think of ways to narrow the topic in order to create a focused piece of writing.

However, it’s important to remember that sources like encyclopedias should be starting points only and should not be the kinds of sources you use in most college-level essays.

ORDERING & DRAFTING

Before you begin to draft, it can be helpful to create an outline to help you organize your thoughts. You can refer to the prewriting if you have organized thoughts already using a prewriting strategy, such as mapping. The important thing is to list out your main ideas, including your thesis, to help you visualize where you are going with your essay. An outline will also help you see before you begin drafting if your ideas will support your thesis.

The actual writing occurs after you have a focus and enough information to support that focus. Drafting involves making choices about how much information to offer and what information to put where. Your outline will be a guide, but you may find that you need to revise the order once you begin drafting.

Consider the following points as you draft:

Is there enough information to provide evidence for your assertions? If not, circle back to gathering information.

Is there a basic idea that needs to be offered first so that readers understand subsequent ideas?

Are there related ideas that logically should be grouped together?

Are there some ideas that are more important than others and, if so, what is the best place in the writing to emphasize those ideas?

Are there logical linkages between ideas, so readers don’t get lost moving from one idea to the next?

Drafting consists of building the paragraphs of your writing and linking them together. And, remember, your draft you create at this point is not your final draft. There are additional steps of the writing process to consider before you are ready to submit your work.

REVISING & EDITING BASICS

Revising

Many students often try to lump revising and editing into one, but they are really two separate activities. Revising is about your content while editing is about sentence-level issues and typos. It’s important to remember to allow yourself time to complete both parts of this process carefully.

Revision is about seeing your writing again. Revising is an important step in the writing process because it enables you to look at your writing more objectively, from a reader’s view. Set your writing aside for a time. Then go back to it and work from big to small as you ask and answer revising questions.

Basic Big Revision Questions—Ask These First:

Are there places that are not clear? Are there places that need more information? Are there places that need less information, because the information seems to diverge too much from your main point? Does some of the information need to be re-ordered in order to make sense to a reader who may not have much background on this topic?

As you see, these basic revision questions concern themselves with the amount, clarity, and order of information. That’s what the revision process is all about—making sure that your concepts and supporting information are presented in the clearest, most logical way for most readers to understand.

Once you deal with the big things (amount and order of information), then you can move to the small things—the language, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Editing

Once you have your content the way you want it and have completed your revisions, it’s time to think about editing your paper. When you edit, you are looking for issues with sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. And, when you edit, it’s important to realize that it’s difficult to catch all of these errors in one editing pass. A thorough editing process is one that involves several editing passes. Research on student writing indicates that most of the errors in college essays are related to careless editing. With that in mind, it’s important to take steps to ensure you are engaging in a good editing process.

Questions to Consider When You Edit

Is the language clear and easy to read and understand? Are difficult terms defined? Is the sentence structure clear and easy to understand? Are the sentences grammatically correct? Have I proofread and checked for typos and misspellings? What errors might my spell checker and grammar checker have missed?

WRITING PROCESS ACTIVITY

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=32#h5p-1

SEE IT IN PRACTICE

In this first section, you’ll see the student’s assignment sheet and hear a discussion of the key things she must consider for her assignment.

Then, consider the different steps of The Writing Process—Prewriting Strategies, Audience Awareness, Voice, Introductions & Conclusions, Parts of a Thesis Sentence, Paragraphing, Essay Writing, and Revising & Editing, and notice how the student approaches these steps given her specific assignment. As you watch each step, you’ll want to think about how you might apply each step to your own assignment, as you’ll be given a chance to engage in each step with your own writing assignment.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://open.maricopa.edu/english101open/?p=32#h5p-2

THINK ABOUT WRITING

Now that you have seen how the student in the video approached her assignment, it’s your turn to examine your own writing assignment. As you do, it’s a good idea to do a little writing in a writing journal in some notes. In your writing, you should to the following questions about your assignment:

What is the purpose of my assignment, or what is my professor asking me to do with this assignment?

Who is my audience for this assignment? Did my professor specify an audience? If not, who can I assume is my intended audience?

What ideas do I have for a topic that might work for this assignment? Do I have freedom with my topic, or do I have to choose from a specific list?

How can I apply a strong writing process to my approach for this assignment? What is my plan here?

Before you begin to gather ideas during the prewriting process, it’s important to make sure you understand what you are being asked to do by your professor’s assignment. You should share your responses to these questions with your classmates to see if they have the same or similar responses. What questions might you have for your professor?

In the next chapter, we will discuss developing ideas.

ATTRIBUTIONS

Content Adapted from Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). (2020). Excelsior College. Retrieved from https://owl.excelsior.edu/ licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License.

1

Prewriting

Prewriting Strategies

Writing is a creative project, and writers go through the same messy stage. For writers, the development stage involves playing with words and ideas—playing with writing. Prewriting is the start of the writing process, the messy, “play” stage in which writers jot down, develop, and try out different ideas, the stage in which it’s fine to be free-ranging in thought and language. Prewriting is intended to be free-flowing, to be a time in which you let your ideas and words flow without caring about the organization, grammar, and the formalities of writing. There are many ways to develop ideas for writing, including: Journaling Freewriting Brainstorming Mapping or diagramming Listing Outlining Asking defining questions Noting Pros Cons Journaling Journals are safe spaces to record your experience of the world. Use a journal to write about an experience you had, different reactions you have observed to the same situation, a current item in the news, an ethical problem at work, an incident with one of your children, a memorable childhood experience of your own, etc. Try to probe the why or how of the situation. Journals can help you develop ideas for writing. When you review your journal entries, you may find that you keep coming back to a particular topic, or that you have written a lot about one topic in a specific entry, or that you’re really passionate about an issue. Those are the topics, then, about which you obviously have something to say. Those are the topics you might develop further in a piece of writing. Here’s one sample journal entry. You’ll find ideas that the writer might develop further in a piece of writing: Example The hot issue here has been rising gas prices. People in our town are mostly commuters who work in the state capitol and have to drive about 30 miles each way to and from work. One local gas station has been working with the gas company to establish a gas cooperative, where folks who joined would pay a bit less per gallon. I don’t know whether I like this idea – it’s like joining one of those stores where you have to pay to shop there. You’ve got to buy a lot to recoup your membership fee. I wonder if this is a ploy of the gas company???? Others were talking about starting a petition to the local commuter bus service, to add more routes and times, as the current service isn’t enough to address workers’ schedules and needs. Still others are talking about initiating a light rail system, but this is an alternative that will take a lot of years and won’t address the situation immediately. I remember the gas crunch a number of years ago and remember that we simply started to carpool. In the Washington, DC area, with its huge traffic problems and a large number of commuters, carpooling is so accepted that there are designated parking and pickup places along the highway, and it’s apparently accepted for strangers to pull over, let those waiting know where they’re headed, and offer rides. I’m not certain I’d go that far . . . Freewriting Try a series of timed freewritings. Set a timer for five minutes. The object is to keep your fingers moving constantly and write down whatever thoughts come into your head during that time. If you can’t think of anything to say, keep writing I don’t know or this is silly until your thoughts move on. Stop when the timer rings. Shake out your hands, wait a while, and then do more timed freewritings. After you have a set of five or so freewritings, review them to see if you’ve come back to certain topics, or whether you recorded some ideas that might be the basis for a piece of writing. Here’s a sample freewriting that could yield a number of topics for writing: I don’t think this is useful or helpful in any way. This is stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m looking out of my window and it’s the end of may and I can see that white cotton stuff flying around in the air, from the trees. One of my aunts was always allergic to that stuff when it started flying around in the spring. Don’t know offhand what type of tree that comes from. That aunt is now 94 years old and is in a nursing home for a while after she had a bad episode. She seems to have one now every spring. It’s like that old tree cotton triggers something in her body. Allergies. Spring. Trying to get the flowers to grow but one of the neighbors who is also in his 90s keeps feeding the squirrels and they come and dig up everyone’s flowerbed to store their peanuts. Plant the flowers and within thirty minutes there’s a peanut there. Wonder if anyone has grown peanut bushes yet? Don’t know . . . know . . . Possible topics from this freewrite: Allergy causes Allergies on the rise in the U.S. Consequences of humanizing wild animals Growing your own food Brainstorming Brainstorming is like freewriting around a specific topic. It helps you bring your subconscious thoughts into consciousness, identifying as many ideas as possible that are related to a particular topic. To brainstorm, let your thoughts about a specific topic flow, and list those thoughts. Example Squirrels How to get them out of the garden How to get rid of them ethically (without killing) Squirrel traps Repellents for squirrels Types of squirrels Brown vs. black vs. red squirrels Flying squirrels What they eat Different types of play Training squirrels Hunting squirrels Squirrels and cats How they nest Build nests in the same place each year So, what happens once you’ve brainstormed a topic? Look over the list. Are there items that group together? Are there items that catch your interest as a thinker, researcher, and writer—items you want to know more about? Are there items that seem unrelated or not useful? Use your list as a starting place; it creates ideas for you, as a writer, to work with. Mapping Mapping or diagramming helps you immediately group and see relationships among ideas. Mapping and diagramming may help you create information on a topic, and/or organize information from a list or freewriting entries, as a map provides a visual for the types of information you’ve generated about a topic. For example: Free web tools for mapping and diagramming: MindMeister Bubbl.us Coggle Lucid Chart Listing Making a list can help you develop ideas for writing once you have a particular focus. If you want to take a stand on a subject, you might list the top ten reasons why you’re taking that particular stand. Or, once you have a focused topic, you might list the different aspects of that topic. Example Ways to live a greener life: Use natural cleaning products without propellants Walk or bicycle to places nearby Use recycled products Take public transportation Recycle cans and bottles Use non-life-threatening traps instead of chemical squirrel repellents As you review and work with your initial list, you’ll find yourself revising it by adding or deleting items. Doing an initial list is a quick and useful way to develop ideas for writing. Asking Defining Questions If you have a broad topic you want to write about, but don’t quite know how to narrow it, ask defining questions to help you develop your main idea for writing. Example I want to write about school taxes. Why do only property owners (and not renters) in New York State pay school taxes? What percent of overall school funding comes from school taxes? Do other states fund schools in the same way? Does the state lottery system, initially designed to fund schools, actually support schools? Is there a limit to paying school taxes when one gets older and no longer has children in school? Once you have your questions, you can work with the list to group related questions, and then decide whether your writing can logically deal with a number of the questions together or only one. Use questioning to help develop a focus for your writing. Noting Pros Cons Once you know your topic for writing, develop ideas by pretending you’re preparing for a debate. List all of the pros and cons you can think of related to your topic. When you have your lists of pros and cons, you can then decide whether to include one or both sides in your writing. For example: Example Smoking Outside of BuildingsPros: Conforms with state legislation for no smoking in the interiors of public places Inconveniences smokers, perhaps an inducement to quit? Cons: Creates a wall of smoke that people need to walk through Businesses must purchase and maintain a place for smokers to discard matches and cigarettes Inconveniences smokers Outlining Outlines are a necessary part of writing. Period. Outlines are like a roadmap. They give you direction; they tell you where to go. Working without an outline is like trying to get from Oregon to New York and only knowing you need to go east. In technical writing, outlines can serve multiple purposes. One is to help the writer organize ideas and evidence, and the other to communicate your plan of development clearly to the person who has the authority to move your project forward. Therefore, the various parts of your outline should make sense to you and communicate your ideas clearly to your audience. As you begin to outline your report: Indicate the main idea or thesis at the top. An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
HowToMakeAnOutline2019 See It in Practice Now that you have seen how some prewriting techniques can help you get your ideas going as you begin your writing process, it’s time to see how our sample student applies some of these strategies to her essay assignment. In this screencast, you’ll see the student share freewriting and mapping. An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
Ready to Write If you have never tried out some of these prewriting strategies, it’s a good idea to give them a try, especially if you have writer’s block or feel your current prewriting strategies don’t work well for you. Using your own assignment, spend some time trying out at least two of the prewriting activities described in this section of The Writing Process. What are your results? What information can you use as you progress with your essay? Which prewriting strategy worked best for you? You should put the notes you develop from your prewriting activities in a journal or someplace that will be handy for you. You can type or handwrite your prewriting, but even after you finish reviewing your notes initially, keep them around, as you may need to come back to them later if an idea you have from the beginning doesn’t work out. Be sure to share your results with someone, such as a classmate or your professor. Talking about your ideas, especially in this early stage, can really help you develop your ideas in your mind and can help you develop new ideas as well. 2 Audience and Voice Audience Awareness Your instructor, of course, is your audience, but you must be careful not to assume that he or she knows more than you on the subject of your paper. While your instructor may be well-informed on the topic, your purpose is to demonstrate your knowledge and fully explain what you’re writing about, so the reader can see that you have a good grasp on the topic yourself. Think of your instructor as intelligent but not fully informed about your topic. Think of your instructor as representing people from a particular field (historians, chemists, psychologists). Another approach is to think of your audience as the people who make up the class for which you are writing the assignment. This is a diverse group, so it can be tough to imagine the needs of so many people. However, if you try to think about your writing the way others from a diverse group might think about your writing, it can help make your writing stronger. WRITING FOR YOUR AUDIENCE Sometimes, it’s difficult to decide how much to explain or how much detail to go into in a paper when considering your audience. Remember that you need to explain the major concepts in your paper and provide clear, accurate information. Your reader should be able to make the necessary connections from one thought or sentence to the next. When you don’t, the reader can become confused or frustrated. Make sure you connect the dots and explain how the information you present is relevant and how it connects with other ideas you have put forth in your paper. As you write your essay, try to imagine what information your audience will need on your topic. You should also think about how your writing will sound to your audience, but that will be discussed more in the next section on Voice. When it’s time to revise, read your drafts as a reader would, looking for what is not well explained, clearly written, or linked to other ideas. It might be useful to read your paper to someone who has no background in the topic you’re writing about to see if your listener can follow your argument. As always, your job as the writer is to communicate your thinking in a clear, thoughtful, and complete way. ANALYZING YOUR AUDIENCE Because keeping your audience in mind as you engage in the writing process is important, it may be helpful to have a list of questions in mind as you think about your audience. The interactive worksheet below can be saved and printed if you want to keep it near your computer as you write. An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
SEE IT IN PRACTICE Now that you have read more about the importance of writing with your audience in mind, take a look at how this student considers her audience for the sample assignment she is working on. An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
Finding Your Voice Deciding what kind of voice to use in writing depends entirely on who will be reading what you write and what your purpose is in writing. Are you writing about the first time you ever drove a car? Explaining your theory about why yoga is such a popular exercise regimen and spiritual practice? Putting forth your informed opinion of why hybrid cars are problematic for the environment despite their increased gas mileage? What creates voice is simply the words you choose and the way you use them. What kind of voice you use in a paper depends on the assignment and the audience, as well as the effect you want to create. By making conscious choices about the words you use to communicate to your reader, you establish a voice. Different Voices Note the two different voices here talking about the same subject. Which boss would you rather work for? Example Boss 1:
Boss 2:
Notice the different tones in the two passages. The tone is part of the voice and reveals the attitude of the writer, which can range from friendly to angry to cold to intimate. If you’re writing a personal essay, about an experience in your life, then the voice you use will reveal how you feel about the experience. You’ll most likely write using the personal pronouns I or we. You’ll let your personality emerge in the language you choose. If you want to convey a humorous or outrageous event, then your words and your tone will reflect that. You might exaggerate, use informal, even silly-sounding words or use acerbic, or understated language. Your sentences might be short and convey energy. If, on the other hand, you are writing about a loss, your words will be more serious, your tone somber, and your sentences might be longer, more thoughtful, and reflective. As the writer, you get to decide how you want to describe your experience. Notice the different voices and sentence structure in the excerpts from these two popular memoirs. Example Memoir 1: We didn’t call it the kitchen in our house. We called it the Burns Unit. “It’s a bit burned,” my mother would say apologetically at every meal, presenting you with a piece of meat that looked like something—a much-loved pet perhaps—salvaged from a tragic house fire. “But I think I scraped off most of the burned part,” she would add, overlooking that this included every bit of it that had once been flesh. ~from The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson Memoir 2:
~from A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion If your assignment is to write a more academic paper, then you will want to consider using the academic voice, which will be discussed next. Academic Voice You use the academic voice because your opinion is based on thinking; in your paper, you’re revealing your thought process to your reader. Because you’ll be appealing to reason, you want to use the voice of one intellectual talking to another intellectual. If the subject matter for your academic writing isn’t personal, as in the case of a formal research paper, you would take on a more detached, objective tone. While you may indeed feel strongly about what you’re writing about, you should maintain a professional tone, rather than a friendly or intimate one. However, it’s important to note that even the most formal academic voice does not need to include convoluted sentence structure or abstract, stilted language, as some believe. As with all writing, you should strive to write with clarity and an active voice that avoids jargon. All readers appreciate a vigorous, lively voice. Instead of:
Write:
Of course, the decision about whether you use a specialized vocabulary depends entirely on who your audience is and the purpose of the paper. REMEMBER: Some academic writing will require a more personal tone, such as when you are writing a formal narrative essay or perhaps an ethnography (study of a culture) essay. In general, the academic voice is a formal one, but there will be variations based on the situation. Tips on Academic Voice When using the academic voice you won’t usually use first personal pronouns. Instead of:
Write:
NOTE: There are exceptions for certain types of writing assignments. Avoid using second-person pronouns. Instead of: When you read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” you will realize that King was writing to people besides the ministers who criticized him. Write:
Avoid contractions in more formal writing. Instead of: It shouldn’t be difficult to record what we feel, but many of us just can’t get our feelings down on paper. Write:
Avoid informal language. Instead of: It’s obvious that she’s a feminist because she makes a big deal about women who were into the suffrage movement. Write:
Abbreviations for common terms should not be used in academic writing Instead of:
Write:
See It in Practice In the following video, we’ll check in on our student as she reflects on the tone of voice she’ll use in her essay. You’ll notice her struggles as she considers how she’ll keep a formal tone for an essay that requires some examples of informal language. An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
Ready to Write Now that you have had a chance to learn more about an academic voice and how to use a voice that will be appropriate for your assignment, it’s time for you to consider the voice for your writing. Be sure to refer back to the Tips on Academic Voice. Then, spend a few minutes writing in some notes or in a writing journal about the tone of voice you plan to use in your assignment and give reasons why this voice will work well in this particular situation. If you have doubts, be sure to double-check with your professor. It can be difficult when you’re first learning to write in a more formal voice. You don’t want your writing to sound stuffy or convoluted, but you do want to be sure to avoid a voice that is too informal. Share your thoughts with your classmates as well, as they will be able to offer insight and support as they consider their voices for your assignment as well. Remember that academic writing is not the same as creative writing and there are some important limitations to voice to consider. However, many writing assignments will allow for some flexibility. 3 Drafting Introductions Conclusions The introduction and conclusion of an essay serve an important purpose: They provide a kind of framing for the body of an essay. That framing helps your audience better understand your writing. The introduction prepares your reader for the ideas that are to come in the body of your essay. The conclusion provides important reminders about key points from the body of your essay and provides you with an important opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your audience. The following pages will help you develop a strong frame for your essay. You’ll want to write effective introductions and conclusions. After all, they are the first and last impressions your audience will have of your essay.