Lesson by Michael Shetina
Opening Activity – Freewrite
Write for 3 minutes: How much planning goes into your writing? What do you do before you start drafting? Do you need to be in a specific setting? Do you outline? Do you talk through your ideas with colleagues? Do you have separate documents that you use for planning? Write down anything you can think of.
Explanation (for Students)
Recursiveness and Variability in the writing process
An important note before we begin: writing processes are recursive, not linear. I have chosen the order of our writing process lessons (Planning, Drafting, and Revision) because you typically do prewriting before drafting, and you need to have drafted to do revisions. However, they do not flow in a neat line from one process to another. We may do some prewriting, then move on to drafting, edit what we have, do more prewriting, drafting, prewriting, editing, revision, etc.
We all write differently, and we vary our writing processes based on the rhetorical situation and other constraints. For example, I don’t use the same process when I’m under a tight deadline as when I have several days to accomplish a writing task.
For these reasons, I prefer to use the plural writing processes rather than the singular writing process.
By the end of this week, I would like you to have reflected on your best writing practices and come up with a plan to maximize both the quality and efficiency of your writing, allowing you to produce excellent communication a quickly as possible.
Prewriting
1. Rhetorical Situation
To know how or what to write, we need to consider the rhetorical situation first: topic, deliverer, purpose, audience, genre, and context.
From Howdy or Hello? Chapter 9: The Writing Process:
- What are you trying to accomplish with the document? (Purpose)
Are you trying to convey information (inform), convince someone to hire you (persuade), or explain how to accomplish a task (instruct)? - With whom are you trying to communicate in the document? (Audience)
This question is connected to your document’s purpose: Who are you trying to convince, inform, or teach? How does the specific audience shape your writing strategies? - What else is happening, and what other factors in the situation make now the best time to communicate this information? (Context)
Is this document in response to a timely, specific event and/or the result of information you learned? Is there a “gap” that needs to be addressed? - Based on the purpose, audience, and context of your document, what is the most appropriate form for the document? (Genre)
Each genre and form comes with its own expectations and conventions. Predetermining these standards can save you noticeable effort in deciding on a document’s organization, content, tone, and design.
Discussion
What are some specific decisions you made in the prewriting phase based on your understanding of the literacy narrative’s rhetorical situation?
2. Brainstorming and Planning
Identify which prewriting strategies you find most beneficial:
- Reading
- Freewriting
- Developing Questions
- Generating Lists
- Outlining
- Idea/Concept Mapping
3. Writing Environments Activity
What is your ideal writing environment? Identify the factors that assist you in creating a productive writing environment. Some categories to explore:
- Location
- Time
- Light
- Temperature
- Smell
- Noise
- People
- Clothing
- Position
- Movement
- Surfaces
- Technology
Select the categories that are most important to you and specify why and how they affect your writing efficiency. For example, describe the lighting conditions and their effect on you.
Once you’ve drafted that list, list at least three physical locations in which you can approximate these conditions. Where and when can you do your best work?