Stages of Composition
Often considered a stepping stone to the final product, this process involves shaping your ideas through writing.
What is drafting?
Using this method from the textbook, a writer can generate ideas by considering what information they DON'T already know about a topic. "Hm, I wonder..."
What is questioning?
This is the category of writing that high school and college papers usually fall into. As a genre, it has its own conventions and even its own jargon, which can vary from field to field.
What is academic writing?
This is a useful tool when revising your own writing because it allows you to condense your own ideas and make sure that each paragraph supports your thesis.
What is reverse outlining?
This type of sentence that condenses your argument should be debatable and focused and should not be "buried" in the middle of your paper.
What is a thesis statement?
This word refers to the process of clarifying and shaping a composition that is already in progress.
What is revision?
This method has three basic rules:
1) Use all your allotted time.
2) Keep your pencil on the page (or your fingers moving on the keyboard).
3) Don't erase or cross out--the result is for your eyes only!
What is freewriting?
Typically found in newspapers or within online publications like Medium, this genre of writing is usually longer than a letter to the editor and lets people share their ideas about a given topic.
What is an op-ed?
This type of revision involves reconsidering larger-scale considerations, such as your paper's purpose, audience, and message. Think big!
What is global revision?
This paragraph(s) lays out the stakes of a piece of writing, typically introduces the argument, and provides a sense of the shape the rest of the paper will take. Think of it as a first impression!
What is an introduction?
The textbook's term for generating new ideas and arguments. Hint: Another word for Thomas Edison's creations.
What is invention?
Head, shoulders, knees, and...Elbow? Peter Elbow describes two different functions the brain serves during the writing process. This first function involves generating ideas.
What is creativity?
This specific kind of academic writing is often taught to high school students in order to simplify the process for young writers; while not inherently "wrong," it is not always the most effective way to structure a paper in college and beyond.
What is a five-paragraph essay?
This type of revision happens on a smaller scale and typically result in changes to transitions, syntax, and word choice.
What is local revision?
This type of paragraph can be among the trickiest to write because it's your last chance to promote your paper's argument. Often, you might consider, "Where do we go from here?"
What is a conclusion?
Nicotra uses this term (also used in computer science) to refer to the writing process as non-linear and looping back on itself.
What is recursive?
This second brain function that Peter Elbow identifies as part of the writing process involves analyzing the effectiveness of your own ideas. It should be kept separate from the first function so that they two don't interfere with one another.
What is critical thinking?
These pieces of writing can be used for civic participation, as they involve contacting people in positions of power about topics that matter to you.
What are letters to legislators?
Instead of treating the contents of your early drafts like flowers that cannot be uprooted, Nicotra recommends this other garden metaphor, involving food that grows in dirt.
What are potatoes?
Mmm, this tasty acronym refers to the different components of a body paragraph in academic writing.
What is PIE? (Point, Illustration, Explanation)
Also known as a "sh*tty first draft," this draft involves putting your ideas onto the page without revising as you go, with the intent of cleaning up the draft and rewriting rough parts at a later time.
What is a down draft?
What is mind mapping?
What is a fact sheet?
While encouraging students to treat revision as a crucial component of writing, Nicotra points out that the word "revision" literally means this.
What is "to see again"?
Like a weather report, this component of an introduction gives your reader a sense of what they can expect to find in the rest of your essay.
What is forecasting?