1. The Writing Process

2. Writing!
As you may know, in school, the most common form of writing is the 5 paragraph essay.
This form of essay is used often because it is a simple formula for how to write.
Introduction paragraph
3 body paragraphs
Conclusion paragraph
It helps new writers learn the writing process.
Writing is NOT limited to 5 paragraph essays. There are countless ways to create a piece of writing.
We are starting with this format to help you all understand how to write. As the year goes by, you will write in other ways as well.

3. Pre-Writing Writing/Drafting Editing Revising Publishing
The Five Steps
Pre-Writing
Writing/Drafting
Editing
Revising
Publishing

4. Where do I start? Look for inspiration from sources like:
Film
Music
Art
Magazines
Research
Personal experiences
Dreams
Tips for getting started/methods:
Free writing
Journaling
Brainstorming
Webbing/mapping
Graphic organizers
Visualization

5. Pre-Writing: The first step!
When beginning Pre-Writing, the first thing you need to do is answer the following:
Purpose: why are you writing this piece?
Form: how are you writing it? (the format)
Audience: who are you writing it for?
Ideas: what are you writing about?

6. Example
Purpose: “I am writing this essay to inform my audience about what I believe in and why”
Form: “This essay is a five paragraph narrative essay”
Audience: “My audience is Mrs. Heinze and my class”
Ideas: “My essay is about how I came to believe in chances”

7. Purpose: What are some purposes for writing? There are 4…
Who can name them?

8. 4 Purposes for Writing:
Inform
Entertain
Persuade/Argue
Express self

9. Form: type of writing being used
Textbooks
Nutrition labels
5 paragraph essays
Guide books
Picture books
Articles
Etc.
All types of writing fit within one of the four Purposes of writing!

10. Audience: Who are you writing for?
Consider their age
This determines the language you use!
Example: If you are writing for young children, you will use simple language.
Example: If you are writing for a doctor, you will use more complex language.
Consider their level of existing knowledge
This will determine the terminology.
Example: If you are writing about rocket science to a group of 8th graders, you will have to explain specific terminology.

11. Ideas: What are you writing about?
This is the topic of your essay. This year, we will be writing about the following topics.
Narrative Essay: “This I Believe”/What do you believe in and why?
Argument/Research Essay: “Is it ethical to do medical testing on humans or not?”
Human Rights/Research Essay: “My Human Rights Hero”
Autobiography Project: “Who am I?”
You can come up with ideas for things to talk about in your writing through a variety of methods!

12. Ideas: Brainstorming
Brainstorming is the process of writing down words and phrases. Typically this is a list down your page!
Get out a blank piece of paper and label it “Ideas Examples”
On the first line, label it “Brainstorm”
For this example, I will give you about three minutes

13. Brainstorm Example
In the next three minutes, complete a brainstorm about the following topic:
Movie Titles!

14. Ideas: Freewriting
A free write is where you just sit down and write. You write sentences, but don’t worry about spelling and grammar. The point is to keep your pencil going at all times.
Underneath where you completed your brainstorm, label the next section “Free Write”.
You will have about three minutes to complete this section.

15. Free Write Example
In the next three minutes, complete a free write about the following topic:
Friday!

16. Ideas: Clustering/Webbing/Mapping
This is useful when you already have a main idea chosen, but need to come up with the details.
Writing down an idea in a center circle, then coming up with connecting/similar ideas.
Underneath where you completed your Free Write, label the page “Web”
You will be given 3 minutes to complete a web.

17. Main Idea

18. Web Example
In the next three minutes, complete a web about the following topic:
Fads! (what is currently popular in our culture. Consider clothes, music, things we say, celebrities, technology, brands, cars, etc. Think about what is on the news and television.)

19. Pre-Writing Continued… Narrowing/Widening your topic!
Once you have determined your purpose, form, audience and ideas, it is often necessary to narrow or widen your topic.
You have to consider the length of the essay you are writing. If you only have five paragraphs, you need to think about whether or not your topic will fit.
Narrow your topic: make your topic more specific if your topic is too broad!
Widen your topic: add more to your topic if you don’t have enough to talk about.

20. Pre-Writing: Narrowing your topic
More often than not, students need to narrow their topic.
For example: the topic Soccer is very broad.
You could not cover the entire sport in five paragraphs.
In this case, you must narrow your topic to make it more manageable.
Soccer
____________________________________
Positions on the soccer team: goalie
_______________________________
Skills needed to be a goalie

21. Pre-Writing Continued: Key Points
Once you have decided on a topic for your essay, the next step is to choose your key points.
How many key points are there in a 5 paragraph essay?

22. There are THREE key points in a five paragraph essay.
This is the same number as body paragraphs!

23. Key Points Example Example: Lets look back at the topic we narrowed!
Skills needed to be a goalie.
On your piece of paper, underneath where you wrote your map, label your page “Key Points”
In the next three minutes, come up with three key points for the topic of “skills needed to be a goalie”

24. Pre-Writing: Thesis Statement
A thesis statement: one sentence that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text by means of examples and evidence (the key points).
To write your thesis statement, you will combine your topic with your three key points into one sentence.

25. Thesis Statement Example
On your example paper, label the next section “Thesis Statement Example”
In one single sentence, combine the topic “skills needed to be a good goalie” with the three key points you came up with.
Remember, this is ONE SENTENCE!

26. Thesis Statement Practice
Label your paper where you left off with “Thesis Statement Practice”
In the next 5 minutes, choose one of the following topics, and then come up with 3 key points and a thesis statement!
Homework
Parents
Television
Birthdays
Camping

27. ONE FINAL STEP: The Pre-Writing Plan!
To bring this all together, you will complete a Pre-Writing Plan! This is made up of all of the parts we just discussed!
Once you have your Pre-Writing Plan written, the actual process of writing your essay is easy!
Really! It is!

28. Pre-Writing Plan Outline!1.
Purpose: __________________________________________________________________________
Form: _____________________________________________________________________________
Audience: ________________________________________________________________________
Ideas: ____________________________________________________________________________
2. Brainstorm/Free Write/Map: ________________________________________________
3. Narrow/Widen your topic: __________________________________________________
(If your topic doesn’t need this step, just write “My topic does not need to be narrowed or widened.)
4. 3 Key Points:
1.________________________________________________________________________________
2.________________________________________________________________________________
3.________________________________________________________________________________
Thesis Statement: _____________________________________________________________

29. After the Pre-Writing Plan is complete, you will move on to the Rough Draft!

30. The Rough Draft! Finally!
Rule Number One: SKIP LINES!
Rule Number Two: Get your ideas down on paper; don’t try to make them perfect during this step of the writing process. The more you get down on paper, the easier the rest will be!

31. Introduction
The intro paragraph states the topic of the essay and includes the thesis statement in an interesting and informative way!

32. Introduction: Things you SHOULD do
DO mention to the reader what you are writing about- Introduce your topic!
DO capture the reader's attention- be interesting! 

33. Introduction: Things you SHOULD NOT do
Do NOT introduce yourself as the author
Don’t say “My name is bob and…..”
DO NOT begin with “I am going to write about…” 

34. Introduction: The paragraph should be represented as follows
Introduce your subject (generally) and get your reader’s attention
Gradually narrow down the subject, getting more specific. Lead them into your thesis statement.
Use the thesis statement from your Pre-Writing Plan as the last sentence in this paragraph!

35. How do we get the reader’s attention?
Begin with an amusing tone
State with a simple fact that will be important in the essay later
Use a startling fact
Use a confession
Use a quotation
Hint at what is to come
Open with a bold statement
Open with a challenge
Open with a personal experience
Begin with how you felt at a specific moment in time

36. Now, let’s go ahead and write our intro
On a clean sheet of paper, label it “Rough Draft”
In the margins at the top, write yourself a reminder to skip lines
Get out your Pre-Writing Plan
Make sure you skip lines and indent at the start of the paragraph!
Remember to start off with a hook- get the reader’s attention.
Slowly narrow your topic down toward your thesis statement.
Your thesis statement will be the last sentence of your introduction paragraph.

37. The Body/Supporting Paragraphs
There are 3 paragraphs in the body of a 5 paragraph essay!
This is the same number as the number of key points!
You will write a paragraph for each of the key points you mentioned in your thesis statement.
In each paragraph, ONLY discuss that key point. The entire paragraph should revolve around the key point and support what it is saying.
These paragraphs support and explain your thesis statement in detail.
The length of these paragraphs will vary based on how much information you are including.

38. The body of the paper could be represented like this:
Paragraph 1: Topic sentence/key point, followed by supporting details
Paragraph 2: Topic sentence/key point, followed by supporting details
Paragraph 3: Topic sentence/key point, followed by supporting details

39. Body Paragraphs: Writing Tips
Use transitions: these show how idea relate to each other. This can be from sentence to sentence or paragraph to paragraph.
Include a topic sentence at the beginning of each one. This means bring up your key point.
Follow your topic sentence with supporting details. These should give evidence and information to support the key point.

40. Body Paragraphs: Writing Tips
Have you ever heard anyone speak in a monotone?
Boring, right?
This is what your writing sounds like when you lack sentence variety. In order to combat this, we need to use sentence variety.
Sentence variety:
Include different lengths of sentences
Include varying words. Be sure not to use the same pattern of words or specific words.

41. Now, let’s write our body paragraphs!
On the Rough Draft paper that you already wrote your Introduction on, we will add our body paragraphs.
Remember to skip lines!
Indent at the start of new paragraphs
Use your three key points from your Pre-Writing Plan as a guide for what to include in each paragraph.
Start each one with a topic sentence. This sentence should bring up your key point.
The other sentences in the Body Paragraphs should support your key points.
Remember, this is a rough draft. Get as much down on paper as you can. We can improve it later!

42. After you have written the Body Paragraphs…
Highlight the topic sentences in each of the Body Paragraphs.
Circle the supporting details.
Do you need to add more for the details to make sense?
Do you have sentence variety? Check that all sentences are different in length and word choice.
Check for errors. FIX THEM!
Don’t you just love writing essays?

43. Writing the Conclusion
The Conclusion should:
Restate the main idea of the essay
Signal an end to the reader.
When you read or view something that ends abruptly, you probably feel a little let down or confused.
You can avoid this by having a clear conclusion.

44. Conclusion
Restate your thesis. This should have the same details, but be said in a different way.
Broaden the subject out to more general ideas or look to the future.
Sum up what you have said in a general and interesting way, but don’t just repeat exactly what you have already said.
Make sure that the introduction and the conclusion tie together.

45. The Conclusion could be represented like this:
Restate the thesis in different words.
You don’t have to mention every single key point again.
Broaden the topic back to more general ideas.
Lead your readers out of the paper.
End the paper with a powerful statement, something that shows
the end of the paper. Leave the reader with a strong
statement, get them to apply the essay to their own life.

46. Revise and Edit…Aren’t they the same thing?
Revise: Large changes in the overall organization, structure and phrasing of your work.
Edit: Changes in the word by word aspect of your work. Edits are more focused on fixing errors in spelling, capitalization, grammar, punctuation, etc.

47. Revise and Edit Roadmap
Using the Revise and Edit Roadmap I have printed for you, you will proceed to make changes to your essay.
You must do EVERY SINGLE STEP.
If you are doing what you need to and putting forth effort, this should take more than one class period.
MAKE AN EFFORT. I can tell who really tries to improve their essays when I read the final draft. It makes a big difference.
The final step of this roadmap is having Mrs. Heinze (me) check your work. All of the other steps must be completed first.
You will be writing multiple drafts of all essays. Be sure to make significant changes and improvements.

48. THE FINAL DRAFT! WOOOHOOOO!
This is the final step in the writing process. There are specific rules for this step!
ALL FINAL DRAFTS MUST BE WRITTEN IN BLUE OR BLACK INK, OR TYPED AND PRINTED OUTSIDE OF CLASS!
YOU MUST SKIP LINES/DOUBLE SPACE! ALSO, FOLLOW MLA FORMAT!

49. Hand Written Final Drafts
Must be legible. If I can’t read it, it might as well not be on the page!
Must be in DARK BLUE or BLACK pen.
DO NOT WRITE ON THE BACK!!!
Skip lines!
Follow MLA formatting rules!
Indent at the beginning of each paragraph.

50. Typed Final Drafts MLA Format Double spaced
Font has to be Times New Roman, 12 pt. font
1 inch margins
Make sure your header has the same font as the rest of the paper (Microsoft word has the default set so the header isn’t the same font as you choose for the rest of the document)
Indent the first line of each new paragraph
DO NOT BOLD OR UNDERLINE THINGS! And no emoticons 