Because this is a writing course, we take time to explore in class writing in many stages of progress: simply talking about something before you even write, using journals, working with multiple drafts, revising for argument or organization, brainstorming, freewriting, abstracting, summarizing, and list making. However, in most of your courses, unless explicitly told otherwise, teachers will want to see only one draft, a final draft, well thought out, error free, and on time.
It means you can't rush off a draft the night before the way you can for a first draft for this course. It means you need to find ways to continue the peer review and feedback process you use during drafting outside of this course. It means you need to leave time to carefully copyedit and proofread. It means you need to know what your professor expects in the paper, and how the assignment fits in with the entire course and its grading structure.
This writing course requires peer review, multiple drafts, careful copyediting and getting the work done on time. It is also structured to help you do that--there are due dates set for drafts, dates for peer reviews, dates for copyediting to be completed. Chances are you will have no other course in which the teacher schedules these for you and helps to show you ways to write toward clearer thinking and correctly edited English prose.
You will have to do that on your own now.
When you receive a writing assignment, make sure you know these particulars:
Can you use the first person? Some teachers belik.it is improper for academic writing.
How formal does the teacher like essays to be? Some teachers object to an 'everyday' voice, and require a more formal detached tone.
Does the teacher value a specialized vocabulary--what words and phrases from the course's readings does he or she use?
What citation format is required?
Will you be allowed to revise again after a paper is graded? If the answer is yes, do not assume you can rush a draft in the night before.
Is the teacher willing to look at provisional drafts and/or thesis statements? Some teachers will do this. Others will accept an outline; others still will ask you to schedule an appointment to talk about what you want to write about. These are good ways to get to know what your teacher looks for.
Does the teacher believe that the thesis statement must be in the first paragraph?
Do you know if the teacher has any particular errors that annoy him or her?
Do you have a strategy for spotting the items in this list?
Sometimes, when you are writing about new information, you may lose your confidence and you writing might crumble. Keep a few things in mind.
Use strong verbs and try not to fall into an overuse of the verb to be.
Look for places in the writing where you might be repeating an idea sentence to sentence. Very often, these redundancies do not use the same words, but they do restate the same thought. In class we called this spinning your wheels (like a rear tire caught in the mud). You mind is working on an idea, literally turning it over in your head as you examine it. Learn to spot this when the thinking goes onto the page. Revise the writing so only you and your reviewer ever know you got bogged down for a bit. Let everyone else think you just know how to cruise in style.
If it helps to get you moving, write a draft in the first person, and if required by your teacher, then revise out all references to yourself (I think, it is my opinion that, I believe, and so on).
Don't ever sit down to write and not write something. A lot of times you'll be tempted to get a draft right in one shot, but trying to do that will cause a block. Or you might not know what to say and are frozen by the blank screen or page. If that happens, write anything, describe what you're thinking, what's in front of you, what you had for breakfast, make a to do list. If you go to write and can't write what you intend, and then leave with writing nothing, you risk letting writing become associated with not being able. Doctors say the worst place to be when you can't sleep is in bed because if it happens too often, you begin to associate going to bed with not sleeping. The same holds true with writing. Thus I repeat, if you go to write, write something every time you go.
In this course, I plan your writing in advance. In other courses you need to do that on your own. I suggest you do the following:
As you do this, you'll see your planner fill up with green, yellow and red notations. One week might have a green, two yellows and a red. The idea is to start papers on the green, have a full draft ready for revising on the yellow day, and make sure you've completed the paper and have had time to carefully copyedit it by the red day.
Some papers may not need two weeks; others may need more. Use the syllabi's description of the paper's role in the course and the grade scheme to determine that. A research paper might have two green entries (start brainstorm for one; complete hypothesis and research plan for the second), followed by three or four weeks of yellow, and two weeks of red (complete draft with full bibliography complete by first red, fully copyedited and checked for accurate use of sources on second red day, the due date for the teacher).
With each color define a writing goal. For a green entry it might be, 'get 4 page rough draft done in one hour, just type it out to start thinking.'
Ask classmates if you can read their essays and drafts; it will help you think of things to write about and will show you different perspectives and approaches to the assignment.
Find outside readers for your writing. There are writing tutors on campus who can do this, but also try classmates and roommates. Direct the outside readers. Write notes that tell them what you want to do in a draft or in a piece, tell them what your assignment is and what you see as working in the piece. If you have a particular usage or punctuation lapse that occurs, ask them to look for it. If you're trying to cut down on your use of certain phrases (due to the fact that, has the ability to, and such), ask them to look for those. Readers can help with style by simply circling every use of the verb to be (is, are, was, were) and by underlining prepositions (in, on, over, near, etc.).
If you don't know or aren't sure of something, ASK, ASK, ASK .
adapted from: Nick Carbone, Writing
Instructor, Marlboro College
Marlboro, VT 05344