Your Writing Process

Name: Your Writing Process
Rating: 4.3 (87 reviews)

9 Steps to Better Writing

Created byScott Kramer

Last updated 10/2015

English

What you'll learn

Understand the process that leads to polished writing for college, business, or personal writing projects.
Prewrite to focus writing on a main point
Write a working thesis
Generate many supporting ideas through brainstorming, mapping, freewriting, and other techniques.
Refine and arrange ideas to simplify the drafting process.
Revise, edit and proofread to achieve a finished document.

Course content

6 sections • 22 lectures • 1h 25m total length

The Lay of the Land4:06
We begin with the big picture, an overview of the whole writing process.

Each and every technique and strategy is important to practice.

Your goal should be to find out which strategies work best in different situations.

There isn't a single, correct writing process.

The path to a decision2:39
Whether you are writing a personal bio, taking a position on a controversial issue, developing an article or crafting a proposal for a client, the first step is always deciding on the topic and main idea.

A very brief introduction to Brainstorming, Free writing, Mapping, Journal writing, and others.

You learn which ones are best for different situations.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
Brain rains great ideas3:12
Brainstorming is explained.

Use it to narrow the topic or to generate supporting ideas after writing a working thesis.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice brainstorming.
Demo1: Brainstorm3:34
Brainstorm to narrow a topic for a descriptive essay by a three-minute session that lists 10–15 ideas, then select a focus based on audience, assignment, and purpose.
Ideas gathering for the visual learner1:45
The mapping process is explained.

This technique is excellent for visual learners.

It has a lot in common with brainstorming.

Uses circles and lines to track the thought process and show how ideas relate.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
Demo2: Mapping3:56
Use mapping or webbing to narrow a restaurant topic with a visual layout of circles and lines. Develop a strong thesis and gather material for a vivid descriptive-analytical review.
Ready, set, write....and now stop1:38
Freewriting is explained.

This is the writer's block remedy.

Great for generating supporting ideas for essays, stories, arguments, poems, and articles.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
3 more great prewriting strategies2:43
Explains how to use a journal, do research or employ (five Ws and an H) questions.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.

A thesis does the heavy lifting3:22
Decide on the topic and main idea of this writing.

Develop a working thesis that will help you stay focused as you generate support.

Understand the parts of the thesis: Topic and Main Idea.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
Demo3: Working Thesis3:27
Develop a working thesis for a restaurant review by defining audience and purpose, then narrow to the brewpub near my house, highlighting rustic interior, warm service, delicious beers, and pizza.
Supporting that point3:45
Return to the prewriting strategies: Brainstorming, Freewriting, Journal Writing, Research, Mapping, and others.

Use them to gather support for thesis.

Support might be facts, descriptions, narratives, personal experiences, quotes from research, data, statistics, reasons, and examples.

Shoot for 25-30 main points and support details.

Turn your internal editor off and gather as many raw ideas as possible.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
Demo4: Support Brainstorm2:41
Generate about 20 descriptive details through brainstorming to support your working thesis, using earthling beer and food's rustic interior, service, beers, and pizza, then revise with mapping and freeriding.
Demo5: Support Mapping5:19
Create a center thesis and surrounding categories using idea mapping to generate a review article about beer and food, layer detail, group ideas into paragraphs, and plan the essay arrangement.
Demo6: Support Freewrite6:53
Practice focused freewrite to generate supporting details for a working thesis by writing nonstop for several minutes, turning off the editor, and returning to the topic.
Boiling it down to the best4:16
When you have at least 25-30 raw ideas it is time to decide what will work.

Go back to the working thesis and think about each idea and how they relate to it.

Drop ideas that are off topic.

Add new ideas that may come up as you see areas that are missing support.

There are times when a great idea comes up that will make you rework your thesis.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
Gather and gear up for draft3:43
From the best supporting details, cluster together groups of 3-5 related ideas.

These will become sentences and paragraphs.

Now look at each list and put numbers or letters to arrange the best order of paragraphs.

Take a couple of minutes to listen to the talk.

Go to the resources to study the samples.

Practice.
Demo7: All the steps before the draft15:04
Learn to organize ideas before drafting by clustering brainstormed material, mapping a working thesis, and arranging interior, food and beer, service, and atmosphere into a cohesive restaurant review.
Quiz #1: Prewriting

Demystifying the draft4:29
Not expected to sit in front of a blank computer screen and write slowly for many painful hours.

The secret of a first draft is quick and easy.

It is simply a transcription of your pre-writing.

Take each cluster and expand on them to a write rough sentences and paragraphs.

The trick is keep moving forward.

If you can't think of a word or you are not happy with a sentence structure just make a mark in the margin to return during revision.

When you are finished your first draft do not begin revision.

Stop everything you are doing and now take a break.

Revision3:04
Focus on the content.

Print out your writing.

Read it out loud with a pen in hand.

Mark anything that sounds weird or awkward. If something seems off-topic, or a paragraph seems to be missing something make a note to revise it.

Go back to the computer to fix every mistake or solve any questions.

Read each fix out loud to be sure it sounds right and relates to the main point.

Your revision does not finish until the writing communicates exactly what you want it to say.
Editing2:35
Now that the document's ideas are perfected, it is time to fix any and all writing errors.

Print out your writing.

Read it out loud with a pen in hand.

Mark anything that might be a misspelling, faulty punctuation, a grammar or style issue, or a sentence writing error.

Go back to the computer to fix every mistake or solve any questions.

Continue to read out loud to test each solution.

Feel free to access a writing handbook if you doubt your knowledge of a grammar rule.

Editing does not finish until the writing is near perfect.
Proofreading1:56
This is the final essential step in the process.

It takes real patience.

In order to polish your writing, you will need to read it over many times (at least 5).

Each read you will find different errors to fix.

I usually spread this process over a day or two.

Personalizing the process and the conclusion1:09
Through a steady practice, it is time to see which techniques work best for you.

Return to the tried and true techniques that you like.

You may ignore certain steps of the process for some writing situations.

Slowly develop your own tricks and shortcuts.

In the end, we all develop our own writing process

You will no longer sit at a blank computer screen and struggle to write.
Quiz #2: Draft and Reworking

Requirements

Any person can learn to write.
It will be essential to have access to a word processing program like Google Documents or MS word.

Description

What students are saying:

"This course by Scott Kramer has been a life saver. In a relatively short course. Scott walks you through a simple writing process and gives you an 'over the shoulder' view of an example throughout the course...I would happily pay for this course. Dare I say, I'm actually starting to enjoy writing now!"--Omar

If you have EVER said that you want to be a better write than this course is perfect for you.

Anyone can learn to follow this clearly explained nine-step practice
Whatever your writing needs, personal or professional, this course builds confidence.
With detailed video explanations, demonstrations, quizzes, and links to supporting resources, Your Writing Process will help you grow as a professional.
You can finish this course in under 2 hours and it will change the way you write.

Enroll today and finally become a better writer.

Who this course is for:

New college students
Returning adult students
Business professionals who harbor doubts about their writing
Creative writers who want to return to the basics

Your Writing Process

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Overview of the writing process1 lecture • 4min

Prewriting7 lectures • 19min

Prewriting: supporting ideas9 lectures • 49min

The draft1 lecture • 4min

The key to good writing3 lectures • 8min

An Important Final Point1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: