1. Finding Your Focus: The Writing Process

2. Everyone has a writing process.

3. Why do you need a writing process? It can help writers to organize their thoughts. It can help writers to avoid frustration and procrastination. It can help writers to use their time productively and efficiently.

4. Steps of the Writing Process Prewriting Drafting Revising  Self Revising  Peer Revising Editing Publishing

5. Prewriting: coming up with your topic Brainstorming:  Getting your ideas on paper so you can give yourself the widest range of topics possible

6. Listing Political apathy Animal abuse NFL instant replay Air pollution Telemarketing scams Internet censorship NBA salary caps Paper Topics Brainstorming

7. Mapping Out Ideas ME Internet censorship telemar- keting scams NFL instant replay NBA political apathy three-party system salary caps sportsmanship animal abuse First Amendment Flag Burning Amend- ment

8. Data Collection Gathering ideas Locating and evaluating research Conducting interviews

9. Drafting: getting your ideas on paper in an organized way. Give yourself ample time to work on your project. Find a comfortable place to do your writing. Avoid distractions. Take breaks.

10. Revising: reviewing ideas and making changes Review higher-order concerns:  Clear communication of ideas  Organization of paper  Paragraph structure  Strong introduction and conclusion

11. Editing: checking for correctness Review later- order concerns:  Spelling  Punctuation  Capitalization  Grammar  Format

12. Editing Tips Slowly read your paper aloud. Read your paper backwards. Exchange papers with a friend. NOTE: Spell check will not catch everything, and grammar checks are often wrong!

13. Publishing: creating a final copy that celebrates your work Format:  Final Draft (minimum: 1 ½ pages written, 1 page typed)  Final drafts must be written in ink or typed  Typed: double spaced, times new roman, font size 12  Written: legible, black ink, no skipping lines

14. The Writing Process: Find Your Focus Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing Publishing