THE PROCESS OF ACADEMIC WRITING

Academic writing

SPA ( Subject, Purpose, Audience)

STAGE. 1

                                PREWRITING

Writing is a process, not a “product” which means that a piece of writing, whether it is a composition for your English class or a lab report for your other classes is never a complete; that is, it is always possible to review and revise, and review and revise again.

There are 4 (four) main stages in the writing process: Prewriting, Planning, Writing, and Revising drafts, and Writing the final copy to hand in. Let’s concentrate on prewriting techniques, which are activities to help you generate idea for your writing assignments.

STEP. 1                                  CHOOSING AND NARROWING DOWN THE TOPIC

Narrow the topic into a particular subject aspect of a general subject. Suppose you are interested in environment. It would be impossible for you to cover such a big topic in a paragraph. You would have to narrow the topic to perhaps environmental pollution. It is still too broad a topic for a paragraph, so you might even further narrows the topic to a type of environmental pollution, such as pollution of the oceans. HOWEVER WRITING ABOUT OCEAN POLLUTION IS STILL TOO BROAD BECAUSE IT WOULD INCLUDE POLLUTION BY OIL, CHEMICALS, SEWAGE, AND GARBAGE. Therefore, you might make this topic even narrower by writing only about the effects of oil spills on sea life. The point is, you must narrow the subject of your paragraph to a specific focus so that you can write about it clearly and completely

General topic                                                     ENVIRONMENT

POLUTION

OCEAN POLLUTION

Specific topi                                                        OIL SPILLS

Specific enough                                                EFFECTS ON SEA LIFE

PRACTICE. I

Individually, narrow one of the following general topics to one specific aspect (specific enough a topic) that could be written about in one paragraph.

1.       School

2.       Television

3.       Sports

4.       Entertainment

5.       Food

STEP. 2                  BRAINSTORMING

After you have chosen the topic and narrowed it to a specific focus, the next prewriting step is to generate ideas. This is done by a process called brainstorming. Although these brainstorming activities may seem unnecessary at first, after doing them a few times, you will realize their usefulness. Brainstorming for ideas can get you started writing more quickly and save your time in the later stages of the writing process.

Some useful brainstorming techniques are listing, freewriting, and clustering as well as treeing. Learn each of them and then decide which one is the most productive for you.

A.      LISTING

Listing is a brainstorming technique in which you think about your topic and quickly make a list of whatever words or phrases come into your mind. Your purpose is to produce as many ideas a possible in a short time, and your goal is to find a specific focus for your topic.

Follow these procedures:

Write down the general topic at the top of your paper.

Then, make a list of every idea that comes into your mind about the topic. Keep the ideas flowing. Try to stay on the general topic; however, if you write down information that is completely off the topic, don’t worry about it because you can cross it out later.

Use words, phrases, or sentences, and don’t worry about spelling or grammar.

Here is an example of the listing technique on the topic of THE CULTURE SCHOCK experienced by international students in the United States.

CULTURAL SCHOK Communication problem Poor verbal skills Children disrespectful New language American family life Families seldom eat together Lack vocabulary Show affection in public Americans talk fast They are friendly People are always in a hurry Use slang and idioms Families don’t spent time together on weekend and holidays Children are “kings” Lack confidence Americans food is unhealthy Everyone eats fast food Homeless people shocking sight American students Classroom environment Unclear expressions Public transportation is not goo Need a car Use first names with teachers College professors wear jeans Students ask questions No formal dress code No one takes time to cook good meals Professor’s role Children spend more time with friend than with parents Use incomplete sentences Poor pronunciation American difficult to understand Students can challenge professor

GROUP- A	GROUP- B	GROUP- C
Americans talk fast Poor verbal skills New language Lack vocabulary Communication problem Use slang and idioms Unclear expressions Use incomplete sentences Americans talk fast American difficult to understand Poor pronunciation	Students can challenge professor Use first names with teachers College professors wear jeans No formal dress code Professor’s role Classroom environment

THE ROUGH OUTLINE

Communication problems

a.       Poor verbal skills

b.       Lack vocabulary

c.       Poor pronunciation

d.       New language

2. Americans difficult to understand

a. use incomplete sentences

b. unclear expressions

c. Americans talk fast.

d. Use slang and idioms

Preliminary |Outline

Communication problems A: poor verbal skills -          . lack vocabulary -          . poor pronunciation B: Americans difficult to understand -          . use incomplete sentences -          . use unclear expressions -          . talk too fast -          . use slang and idioms

Step. 2 Writing the Topic sentence

1.       One problem that many international students face in the United States is communication problem

2.       International students in the United States face communication problems with Americans.

Step. 3

Communication problems  One problem that many international students face in the United States is communication problem A: International students have poor verbal skills. 1.       Lack vocabulary 2.       Have poor pronunciation B: Americans are difficult to understand. 1.       Use incomplete sentence 2.       Use incomplete expressions 3.       Talk too fast 4.       Use slang and idioms

The Writing process

Step. 1

The 1^st rough draft.

Professor’s role

Classroom environment

MODEL