ENGL1010 Composition IStage 1- Prewriting
In out-of-class essays where students pick their own subject to write about, each student has to find a topic to write about. They begin gathering details in order to generate enough raw material so that the students could find something to write about. From their prewriting, students select one "branch" that they then focus on. In an in-class essay, there is neither the time for unfocused prewriting nor is there the need since the essay question provides a focus. S students can skip Stage 1.
Stage 2 - Focused Prewriting
The goal of focused prewriting is either to discover a purpose or to discover details to fit a purpose. Since the essay question in an in-class essay provides the purpose for the essay, students need only discover details to fit a purpose. The fastest most efficient prewriting method for accomplishing this is probably brainstorming. In an in-class essay, brainstorm as many details as possible to fit the essay question.
Stage 3 - Selecting and Ordering Details to Fit a Purpose
It isn't always necessary to write a draft in order to accomplish Stage 3. For instance, for a research paper, arranging notecards and creating a scratch outline can provide a way of selecting and ordering details. In the in-class essay, writers accomplish Stage 3 by crossing off the brainstorm list details that are not needed, by combining details from the list that would be more effective together, by grouping details that have been brainstormed, and finally by numbering the groups in the order in which they will be used in the essay.
Stage 4 - Revision (Sharpening Purpose and Sharpening Details)
In an in-class essay, Stage 4 is skipped as a separate stage. Instead, students should make sure in Stage 2 that their thesis fits the essay question and that they brainstorm and select the most effective details possible for the essay.
Stage 5 - Editing (Making Language Effective)
In an in-class essay, editing focuses on clarity. Students should write slowly enough that they can make their ideas clear and understandable. In the in-class essay, there simply isn't time to review word choice or to restructure paragraphs. Students can make their introduction effective by restating the essay question as the introduction. They should organize their body paragraphs around clear topic sentences and keep their conclusion short by restating the main idea of the essay briefly to draw all of their ideas together. The key to writing an effective in-class essay draft is good planning in the first three stages and writing slowly enough that the writer can stay clearly focused on the main idea of the essay.
Stage 6 - Proofreading (Making the Format Effective)
There isn't time to recopy or rewrite the essay. Students should write slowly enough that their handwriting is legible or type. When writing handwritten copies, skip lines, write on the front side of lined notebook paper, and write in blue or black ink. Make any corrections by neatly crossing out any changes and writing the revision above the line (or in a BlueBook examination, on the facing page). As a rule, students don't have time to use white-out to make corrections--it takes too long to dry. Finally, students should spend several minutes looking over the essay to find and correct those grammatical errors which students are most likely to make. Concentrate on the major errors (Sentence structure--Fr, CS, RO and agreement--Prn, s/v). If students have trouble with verb forms (for instance, leaving ed endings off verbs) or pronoun forms (using things like theirselves which is not a word), they should proofread for these. The key is for students to know what patterns of errors they are most likely to make and to proofread for these.
Timing
In general for an in-class essay, students should spend one-third of their time planning the essay (Stages 1-4), one-half of their time writing the essay (Stage 5), and one-sixth of their time proofreading the essay (Stage 6). That means that in a fifty minute essay, students should spend fifteen to twenty minutes planning the essay, twenty-five minutes writing the essay, and five to ten minutes proofreading the essay. Again, this is a general rule. Sometimes students will find they may need less time for planning or more time for proofreading. These are just guidelines.
ENGL1010 Composition I