1. Writing as a Problem Solving Process
Chapter 16
Writing as a Problem Solving Process

2. Multiple Drafts
Experts use multiple drafts to come up with their final version
Early stages of writing:
Discover, deepen, and complicate ideas
Keep revising and clarifying
Create global revisions rather than local revisions
Cross out paragraphs, pages rather than words
See example on page 419

3. Why Multiple Drafts?
Multiple drafts help writers overcome the limits of short-term memory
Writing a draft captures and stores your ideas as you develop them
When you reread your draft, you can revise, note problems, develop more ideas, extend draft, recall more info, see what doesn’t fit
Multiple drafts help writers accommodate changes
Ideas can change and evolve and writers focus on more detailed info
Multiple drafts help writers clarify audience and purpose
What do your readers already know?
How can you change their views?

4. Multiple Drafts cont.
Multiple drafts help writers improve structure and coherence
Early drafts follow the writers thoughts as they are created
Later drafts are restructured to meet the reader’s needs
Multiple drafts let writers postpone worrying about corrections
Early drafts are rough and messy
Later drafts allow the writer time to correct grammar, spelling, cohesion, and clarity
Expert writers continually cycle back to earlier stages of writing as their thinking evolves

5. Revise Globally As Well As Locally
Local revisions:
Changes that affect only one or two sentences
Global revisions:
Changes that affect your paper on a whole. One revision could affect other parts of your draft
Include substantial rewrites and starting over
See strategies on page

6. Ten Expert Habits
Use exploratory writing and talking to discover and clarify ideas
Freewriting, idea mapping, dialectic conversations
Schedule time
Don’t begin your writing the night before it’s due!
Leave sufficient time to explore, draft, revise, and edit
Figure out what methods of drafting work for you
Typing versus freehand, create an outline, freewrite, etc.
Think about your audience and purpose from the start
What effect will your writing have on your audience?
Try to change your reader’s point of view

7. Habits cont. For the first draft, reduce your expectations
Expect your first draft to be bad, messy
Use your first draft to get ideas flowing
Revise on double or triple spaced hard copy
Print out your rough draft and write all over it
Easier to make edits to a hard copy than to scroll through your text on a computer
Think increasingly about the needs of your readers
Be aware of your reader’s expectations

8. Habits cont. Exchange your draft with others Save correctness for last
Get other people’s reactions and thoughts
Peer reviews
Save correctness for last
Make corrections when you’re close to your final draft
Learn how to satisfice-suffice and satisfy
Do the best job you can considering your time constraints and difficulty of the task
Realize when enough is enough

9. Peer Reviews Review classmates drafts Provide comments and suggestions
Be specific and give helpful ways to fix the issue
Read the entire draft before making any corrections or comments
Use a peer review template to help you cover all the bases ( I will always supply this)
Peer reviews make you responsible to provide fresh insight and ideas to the writer
Talk to the writer after the review and talk to them about problem areas, offer advice