Spoken English Master Course

1. Free Hand Writing

2. Clear your mind.
Relax.
Forget all of the rules concerning grammar.
This is the most important part of the exercise.

3. Set a time limit for yourself.
If you are a beginning writer try a ten-minute limit.
If you are a more experienced writer, try fifteen to
twenty minute sessions. There are recommendations for
longer sessions: forty-five minutes to an hour, but I have
found that any session longer than twenty minutes
become ineffective.
What usually results are cracked splashes of ideas that
are so abstract and far removed from the original focus
that the writer cannot use them for the given piece of
writing.

4. After you’ve set a time limit, WRITE.
Don’t stop. If you spell words wrong, don’t go
back to edit. If the idea fades KEEP WRITING. This
is crucial to the exercise. Even if you have nothing
on your mind, write “I HAVE NOTHING ON MY
MIND, I HAVE NOTHING ON MY MIND, I HAVE
NOTHING ON MY MIND.” You can keep writing
this over and over because it is okay. What you
are doing is freeing your mind, and eventually
something will surface even if you have to do
multiple sessions of free writing.

5. When the time limit is finished, STOP.
Write nothing else. Then go back to the page. Read it slowly, and underline all of
the ideas that surfaced during the session that pertain to the formal writing on
which you are working. If the freewriting is too unfocused to use, take a break.
Try a second session later, but try to maintain focused on the subject on which
you are writing.

6. Writing Process

7. Step 1: Generate Ideas
There are four primary methods of generating ideas:
1.Brainstorming
2.Freewriting
3.Idea Map/Web
4."Moodling”

8. Step 2: Plan and organize
1. Sample Detailed Outline
2. Creating a Detailed Outline

9. Step 3: Draft
• To get our ideas down on paper—often
complex ideas that may not even be fully
formed or understood yet by the writer
• To say them in the best possible way, with
correct grammar and elegant wording

10. Step 4: Revise
"Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is
won or lost." —William Zinsser, On Writing Well

11. Step 5: Edit
1. After you have finished inputting your revisions, print out a clean copy of your paper. (Most
people can catch errors better on paper than on a screen.)
2. Print out the Personalized Editing Checklist, and in addition to the common errors listed
there to check, keep a running list of errors that you are prone to, such as incorrect article
usage, word order, or plural/singular nouns.
3. Read through your paper once for each of those error types—i.e., one at a time, checking
only for that problem. This process will be time-consuming at first, but the more you
concentrate on and fix individual types of errors, the more the correct grammar will be
reinforced in your brain and the quicker those errors will disappear from your drafts.
4. If you are unsure about something, consult your course reader or grammar handbook. (The
Bedford Handbook and Rules for Writers, both by Diana Hacker, are excellent choices.)
5. Input the edits into your computer (saving the paper as a new version) and print out a clean
copy.
6. Read through the paper one last time and fix any other errors you spot.
7. Print out and turn in a final draft that you can be proud of!