Strategies for Teaching Students Writing Process Strategies – Tips Adapted from our Rhetorics

Writing: A Manual for the Digital Age by David Blakesley and Jeffrey L. Hoogeveen

• Invention (Chapter 1-3):
  • Thinking about Context from the writer’s perspective and the reader’s perspective.
  • Analysis of the textual, immediate, and social and historical contexts for the writing situation.
  • Examine the rhetorical situation.
  • Freewrite. (See p. 34 for tips on freewriting on a computer.)
  • Generate alternatives with group brainstorming.
  • Write a dialogue to represent multiple perspectives.
  • Make a cluster map.
  • Define, compare, or examine cause/effect.
  • Researching as invention (see p. 41).
• Drafting (Chapter 4):
  • Work with a partner to narrow your topic by asking each other questions and considering the subtopics of most interest to you.
  • Refine the thesis statement (see pp. 47-51 for activities).
  • Examine whether the writing situation calls for a thesis (see p. 4).
  • Examine body paragraph structure with T-R-I (Topic, Restriction, Illustration) and T-R-I-R (Topic, Restriction, Illustration, Restriction) examples (see pp. 54-55).
  • Color code key terms used to keep the reader on track (pp. 56-57).
  • Examine the functions of transitional expressions (see p. 58).
  • Write alternative conclusions.
  • Create working or topical outlines.
• Drafting & Revising to Develop Ideas (Chapter 5):
  • Revise a paragraph, or the whole paper, for unity.
  • Revise for topical flow.
  • Color-code transitions, pronouns, and other lexical ties that aid coherence.
  • Experiment with using parallel structure to create coherence.
  • Extend description or process analysis (see pp. 76-77).
  • Analyze use of: cause and effect, definition, contrast, problem-solution paragraphs, narration, exemplification, and/or classification and division.
  • Diagram classification and division.
• Revising (Chapter 6):
  • Use a self-evaluation checklist (see p. 88).
  • Examine your response to the rhetorical situation. See p. 90 for self-assessment questions focused on audience and purpose.
  • Respond from a reader’s point of view.
  • Focus on small parts of the draft: the introduction, a body paragraph, or the conclusion.
  • Evaluate evidence used (see pp. 94-95).
  • Gloss paragraphs to reassess the organization of the text.
  • Track versions with file naming conventions (see p. 98 for an example).
  • Point, summarize, and reflect (see p. 101).
• Editing (Chapter 6):
  • Use the paramedic method (see p. 99).
  • Have your computer read aloud (see p. 107).
  • Read line by line.
  • Read sentences in reverse order.
  • Focus on global issues, then local issues.
  • Review for your own patterns of errors (see p. 109 for some common style and mechanics mistakes/errors).
• Reflection: Describe your writing process. Consider how the writing process might change depending on the type of project and the rhetorical situation.
• Part 1 (the first six chapters) of the text focuses on “Managing Your Writing Process,” and others process strategies are scattered throughout discussions of research, design, style, and reading and writing critically.

Everything’s an Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz

• This text includes a variety of rhetorical strategies that could be introduced as part of the planning or drafting processes.
• The faculty member would need to help student connect these rhetorical strategies to the development of their own writing process strategies.

The Academic Writer by Lisa Ede

• Part 1 (Chapters 1-3) examine the rhetorical writing processes.
• Part 3 (Chapters 8-12) offer additional strategies.
• Invention:
  • Freewriting, looping, and brainstorming.
  • Clustering and asking journalistic questions.
  • Asking topical questions.
  • Research and discover drafts.
• Planning and Drafting:
  • Write a workable plan.
  • Manage your own drafting process (see pp. 256-259).
  • Focus on thesis statement.
  • Follow textual conventions.
• Revising:
  • Self-assessment (see p. 283).
  • Soliciting feedback from different groups of readers and using that feedback.
  • Revise for style (coherence and voice).
• Reflection:
  • Reflect on your experience as a writer.
  • Identify and analyze your composing process (see questions on p. 35).

Meeting of Minds by Patsy Callaghan and Ann Dobyns

• Chapter 1 includes an extended discussion about writing process strategies.
• Chapter 2 includes an extended discussion about rhetorical situations and includes strategies for matching rhetorical choices to the situation.
• Chapter 11 includes 27 pages of strategies for revising.
• Chapter 12 focuses on editing.
• Planning:
  • Brainstorm
  • Sketch
  • Talk to people
  • Ask questions
  • Argue against your idea
  • Gather information
• Revising:
  • Add material
  • Delete material
  • Reorder material
  • Connect ideas
  • Make substitutions for clarity or emphasis.

Tags: rhetoric texts