Pre-writing & Planning
– This stage of the writing process involves activities like freewriting, listing, and clustering.
What is prewriting?
The first full version of an essay where ideas are written in sentences and paragraphs.
What is a draft?
Revising means making changes to this—rather than just fixing grammar.
What is content and organization?
The final step before turning in a paper, involving checking spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
What is proofreading?
Every piece of writing has this reason for being written—such as to inform, persuade, or entertain.
What is purpose?
Anker & Moore recommend this graphic tool to visually organize main ideas and supporting details.
What is a cluster diagram or idea map?
This writing technique helps develop ideas in a paragraph by using examples, reasons, or details.
What is supporting or developing?
This technique involves reading a draft aloud to identify awkward or unclear sentences.
What is reading aloud for clarity?
Anker & Moore identify four of these as the most serious writing mistakes.
What are the Four Most Serious Errors (fragments, run-ons, subject–verb agreement, and verb form errors)?
The emotional flavor or attitude a writer conveys toward the topic or reader.
What is tone?
When a topic is too broad, this strategy helps focus it by asking questions like “Which part?” or “What about it?
What is narrowing the topic?
Anker & Moore say that a good paragraph focuses on one main point, expressed in this kind of sentence.
What is a topic sentence?
When revising, writers check that all paragraphs relate back to this central statement.
What is the thesis?
A sentence missing either a subject or a complete verb is known as this.
What is a fragment?
Writing for an instructor versus writing for social media requires awareness of this difference.
What is audience?
The main idea or controlling point that a writer makes about a topic is called this.
What is a thesis statement?
The smooth flow of one idea to another, often signalled by words like “for example” or “as a result,” is called this.
What is coherence or transition?
Anker & Moore encourage writers to seek this type of feedback from peers or instructors during revision.
What is constructive feedback?
Joining two independent clauses without a comma or conjunction creates this error.
What is a run-on or fused sentence?
Choosing language that fits both purpose and audience shows control of this element of writing.
What is voice or style?
In prewriting, identifying the reader’s background knowledge, interests, and expectations defines this element.
What is audience?
When drafting, writers should avoid focusing on perfection and instead aim for this kind of flow of ideas.
What is fluency or getting ideas down freely?
This step of revision focuses on rewriting sentences for conciseness and style without changing meaning.
What is editing for style or sentence-level revision?
To correct verb errors, writers must check that verbs agree with subjects in this.
What is number and tense?
According to Anker & Moore, clear writing is achieved when all choices—content, tone, organisation—align with these two elements.
What are audience and purpose?