This document outlines the writing process for crafting an essay. It recommends generating ideas through pre-writing techniques like listing, mind mapping, freewriting, and journalist questions before beginning a rough draft. The rough draft should be improved through revision and organization, then carefully edited and proofread. Reading drafts out loud can help identify issues. Writers are advised to thoroughly understand the assignment before starting and check requirements to avoid losing points. Following this process of prewriting, multiple drafts, and revision should result in a successful paper.

1. The Writing Process
Or… Zen and the Art of Essay Craft

2. Getting Started
First and foremost…
DON’T PANIC!

3. GETTING STARTED II
Habits That Will Result in a Poor Paper
 Procrastinating
 One-draft writing
 Massive self-criticism
 Thesaurus abuse
 Marriage to first draft
 Plagiarism
Habits That Will Result in a Successful
Paper
 Pre-writing
 Developing
 Revising
 Collaborating
 Re-writing
 Conferencing

4. Understand Your Assignment
Then Forget About it For Awhile
Getting Started
 Thoroughly read your assignment
prompt.
 What, specifically, is your topic?
 Who is your audience?
 How long should your essay be?
 Are there special requirements?
 Ask questions if you don’t
understand.

5. Getting Ideas
After figuring out your assignment - you need to
generate ideas before you begin drafting.
Forget about the end product for a bit and just get
creative.
Try listing, mapping/clustering/webbing, free-writing,
journalist questions, cubing, or any other method of pre-
writing that works for you.

6. Listing
 Listing is a good way to
quickly gather many ideas on
paper.
 Simply make a list of as many
ideas as come to you as
quickly as possible.
 Topic: Essay About An
Important Place
 List:
 Bed, my comfy chair, the
mountains, the ocean, my
office, the garden, anywhere
with a book, Starbucks,
home, the shower, the right
state of mind…

7. Mind Mapping-Clustering-
Webbing- Bubbling
 Mapping is a form of free
association that creates a
visual image of ideas and their
connections. Using mapping
can give you not only ideas
for an essay - but connecting
ideas that may turn into
paragraphs.
Favorite Place
Comfort
Starbucks
Aesthetics
Books
Tastes
Smell
Hanging out
with friends
Writing Studying
Energy

8. Freewriting
 Write, write, write and don’t
stop. Freewriting means
taking an idea and running
with it wherever it leads.
Don’t think about it - just
keep writing. When you free
yourself and just allow the
ideas to come, you might end
up with a great essay topic
that you wouldn’t have
thought of otherwise.
Starbucks
Coffee calls from shelves and
walls. I can’t not stop in. Who
will be waiting for me today?
Chatting till I have to run to
class, my latte sloshing with
each step. I don’t even mind
when it splashes on my
fingers: my sugar-free, non-
fat liquid gold. Keeping me
sane. The barista knows my
name. Here I sip the taste of
home.

9. Journalist/Reporter Questions
 Use the standard questions every
journalist must answer.
 Who
 What
 When
 Where
 Why
 How
 Thinking of different ways to answer
those questions might lead to a fresh
perspective on your topic.
The Taste of Home
Who: Either alone or with friends.
What: Coffee, coffee, coffee!
When: Day, night, when studying, when
socializing, when thinking, when
chilling…
Where: Starbucks, Coffee Haus, my
office, home, pretty much anywhere
Why: Energy, inspiration, comfort, mental
and emotional health
How: With all the senses engaged.

10. Cubing
 Similar to Journalist Questions,
cubing involves considering your
topic from six different angles.
 Describe it (colors, shapes, sizes,
etc.)
 Compare it (What is it similar to?)
 Associate it (What does it make
you think of?)
 Analyze it (Tell how it's made)
 Apply it (What can you do with it?
How can it be used?)
 Argue for or against it
Describe it: Engage the senses - how does it
look and taste and feel - what do you
hear and smell?
Compare it: Like finding my muse.
Associate it: A luxurious bubble bath;
slipping into silk pajamas.
Analyze it: It gives me a moment to breathe
in my surroundings, to organize my
thoughts. When drinking a cup of
coffee with friends, I am sharing my real
self.
Apply it: Coffee can be an effective and
relatively safe energizer. It can help get
through massive amounts of graduate
school readings.
Argue for or against it: Strangely, I think of
home and comfort when I drink a cup
of coffee during the day, despite the
fact that no one in my home is terribly
fond of coffee. When I make coffee at
home, it never seems to be as
comforting as coffee I share with friends
at work.

11. The VRD
(Very Rough Draft)
The VRD is rough - very rough.
Take your idea and start writing about it.
Don’t worry too much about spelling, punctuation,
organization or grammar. Just make sure it’s marginally
readable.
It’s like freewriting - but attempts to stick to the topic and gets
typed.
It CAN be nutty, horrible, abysmal, disorganized, slangy and
even silly.
The idea is to just get started.

12. “Polaroids”
 Anne Lamott, in Bird by Bird,
describes the next part of the
process as “seeing what develops” -
like a polaroid.
 After writing your VRD, let it
breathe for a day or so and then
read it again.
 Do you see anything different
there?
 Can you see a more interesting
direction for your essay
developing?
 Is there more to explore?

13. Anne Lamott’s
Three Draft Essay
After gathering ideas, you can think of your essay writing
process in three drafts:
The Down Draft: Just get it all down (aka - the VRD).
The Up Draft: Then fix it up (revision and organization).
The Dental Draft: Check every ‘tooth’ carefully - work on
word choice and sentencing to make it sound better
(tweaking).

14. Read it Out Loud
During the revision phase - read your paper slowly, out loud to
yourself.
Better yet, read it out loud to a friend or tutor.
Even better - have someone read it out loud to you!
You will be amazed what paper issues you can ‘hear’ that you
missed when reading.
If parts are awkward, confusing, choppy or repetitive, you’ll
notice.
You might feel a little silly - but it may mean the difference in
your paper grade.

15. Formatting and Requirements
If you haven’t already - it’s time to revisit your
assignment sheet.
Notice the requirements for paper length, font,
margins, etc.
Does it need a cover sheet? A creative title?
What should be included in your portfolio/folder
with the final draft?
After all your hard work - don’t loose points by
neglecting the requirements.

16. Finish It!
 At this point - if you’ve gone through the process - you should be
proud of your essay.
 If you’ve also gone to the Writing Center and conferenced with me -
you should be proud and confident.
 Give it one last check for those sneaky, ‘dum’ errors (like writing ‘to’
instead of ‘too’ or ‘your’ instead of ‘you are’)
 And all that’s left to do is…
Organize it-put it in your portfolio folder with the process pieces and
celebrate!