The Writing Process

As we move into the midway point of our semester many of us are preparing to assign that big essay. Maybe it will be a research assignment, maybe it will be about a novel, or maybe it won't have anything to do with your discipline and you just like to see your students break out in a cold sweat or possible faint as they stumble out of class. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

Writing those big essays is difficult for students in many ways. One way to make it easier for everyone is to have students follow the writing process. Keep in mind that these suggestions can be modified in a number of ways to fit individual needs.Below is a list of steps in the writing process. Although these are for your students, you should look over your students' work to ensure they are on the right track.

The Writing Process:
1. Pre-writing: This is a way for students to get their initial ideas on paper. Examples of pre-writing are free writing, creating webs, lists, and even talking with others to brainstorm topics.

2. Organizing: Once students have settled on their individual topics, have them consider a single question to be answered as the overarching theme of the essay. This will help keep the essay focused. As they answer the question, have students categorize their answers. Those categories will soon become the body paragraphs, so this is also a way to ensure that the components will create a unified essay.

3. Drafting: Unfortunately, a lot of students stop at the first draft. They don't like the grades they earn when this happens, and you probably don't like grading essays that have not been revised. Let students know that this is not the final draft, and it will be fixed.

4. Revising: This isn't just editing, this is where students make substantial changes to the content of their essays. In order to make those substantial changes, the teacher needs to be part of the process. Guide your students to the right path in their content, ideas, grammar, structure, analysis, and support. Make them write on the page when they revise, too.

5. Editing: Even after students make those big revisions, there is a good chance that they still have some stray capitals and lose commas. Show them how to fix those problems in class. I know most of you don't teach writing, but you can teach about how to properly insert citations or get upset when they are done improperly. There's a good chance they won't learn the first time, either. Sorry, some of that stuff is difficult.

6. Publishing/ Final Draft: Publishing? Yes. Treat their work like a big deal, as though it is being published, even if you are the only one to read it. Students need to know that everything they put into their essay counts, and regardless of how hard they worked on their assignment it is the final draft that gets the big grade.

Everyone has their own way of teaching writing, and there are a number of instructors here at SWC that do make their students go through this entire process so it's nothing new. However, although the students know how to go through the entire process that doesn't mean they actually will. Pick and choose the pieces you feel are most important and make them requirements for your assignments. Hopefully, your students will begin producing better work. And you can have an easier time grading.