The Writing Process

This section introduces students to the writing process for college essay assignments. It can be read sequentially, beginning with Critical Reading and ending with Revise and Edit. A sequential reading pairs nicely with research-based academic essays, which is also covered by the parts Writing to Persuade and Writing to Inquire.

On the other hand, many of the following chapters can be read in isolation from the others to help with a particular assignment or stage within it. “Critical Reading” covers reading foundational strategies that apply to many assignments and even different courses. The three chapters on Drafting, as well as “Revise and Edit,” also apply to most academic essay writing situations.

While these chapters cover the basics of reading, pre-writing, drafting, and revision, they are not intended to prepare students for particular genres of writing assignments, such as how to draft an informative essay or a personal narrative. Those sections are covered separately, in other Parts of this textbook.