The Writing Process

What to do when an assignment is unclear:

1. Ask the professor or your classmates:

• It is better to be proactive and reach out to your professor beforehand than to spend time doing work that does not fulfill the assignment.

• Check in with your classmates to see if you can get more clarity from them, or if you need to ask the professor for clarification.

2. Consider the course materials and syllabus:

• Assignments are usually linked to recent material and content covered in the course. Review the course texts and other recent assignments.  Perhaps they will shed light on the most recent assignment. 

• Depending on the course and instructor, the syllabus may also contain the assignment but written more clearly. Be sure to check the syllabus just in case. 

3. Stick to the text of the assignment:

• Try to avoid making guesses or assumptions outside what the professor has written. Some professors give detailed assignments and some give assignments with less specific instructions. 

• In the end, you cannot anticipate “what a professor wants” beyond what has been written in the assignment (or has been established in earlier parts of the course). 

4. Avoid looking online for answers:

• It’s possible you’ll run into misinformation, or even businesses posing as “academic or study services” ready to take your money in exchange for “help” with assignments. You could be the victim of a scam, be sent in the wrong direction with an assignment, or run into academic integrity issues. 

• There are plenty of University resources that can help you in productive ways with your assignments. 

5. Talk to a librarian or the Writing Centers:

• If the assignment is research-based, a librarian can help you find materials that already exist on the topic.  By gaining a better understanding of the overall topic of the assignment, the assignment itself may become clearer to you.  They can also help steer you to helpful sites, appropriate resources, and materials online to help clarify the assignment. 

• Writing centers and other tutoring services see a wide-range of assignments come through. As such, they may have seen this assignment many times and have a good understanding of the expectations and various possible approaches. 

6. Do the assignment:

• Confusion about assignments can unfortunately sometimes lead students to avoid assignments altogether. It is best to try the assignment. Perhaps you understand it better than you think you do. And even if you did not completely understand the assignment, you probably at least understood some aspects of it. In all likelihood, by turning in the assignment you should at least receive partial credit and the professor may be more willing and open-minded to work with you for possible revision or resubmission. 

Overview:

The more writing you do over the course of your time at UMA (and beyond), the more you’ll discover what your own process is. We encourage you to try this process out to see how it fits you!

Before even starting to brainstorm a topic or do research on what to write, consult your assignment. Consider things like page limits, if the assignment gives you a specific topic that you must write about, or if there are certain types of sources you must use. 

Brainstorming & Researching:

After considering the assignment parameters, think about what topic might be of interest to write about. If there are any questions you have about the topic, you could potentially use that as your research question. A librarian is a great resource for this stage of your writing. 

• Do some pre-research. Reading about something on Wikipedia can help you get an idea of what you want to write about. 

• Once you have an idea, do more research to find sources you can cite in your paper (often the sources you use might be your assigned texts). 

  • Keep track of your sources and take lots of notes. This will make it easier to cite your sources later on.

• Do some brainstorming about how you might write your paper. What is your argument or thesis? What questions are you trying to answer? 

Outlining:

What path will you take to make a clear argument in your paper?

• Use section headings, bullet points, or numbering to lay out a basic outline of your paper. 

• Try summarizing what each section or paragraph will accomplish in your paper and how it supports your thesis statement. 

Writing a First Draft:

Use your outline to guide your first draft. Keep in mind that it’s a draft! You don’t have to be perfect, or even make total sense when drafting. 

• Consider starting with the body of your paper. The introduction and conclusion are typically easier to write once you have the bulk of your paper figured out. 

• Be open to changing the structure of your paper if things change as you start writing. 

• Keep in mind that you will likely edit the paper quite a bit in the next stage, so try not to edit your writing too much at this point. 

Revising & Redrafting:

Once you get your first draft out of the way, read over it again and think about what questions you still need to answer in your paper. Try to find areas where you need to provide more evidence and look at areas that might be unclear to a reader. 

• While it’s hard to get feedback on something you’ve already put a lot of work into, getting someone else to read your paper will ultimately make your paper much stronger. They may see errors or muddy aspects of your argument that you might not see. 

• The Writing Center and VAWLT are great resources at this stage in the writing process. 

Proofreading & Editing:

This is the stage where your structure and argument are finalized and you just need to make sure your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style are all correct and consistent. 

• Utilize a spelling and grammar checker. 

• Reading your paper out loud is an effective way to find clunky sentences, and spelling errors that spell checkers might miss, and make sure your tenses are correct.

Suggestions for crafting a thesis statement:

What is a thesis statement? 

• A thesis statement is a concise, declarative sentence or a couple of sentences that summarize the main point or argument of an essay or research paper. It typically appears at the end of the introduction paragraph and provides a clear direction for the rest of the paper. The thesis statement should be specific, focused, and arguable, and it should be supported by evidence throughout the paper. The goal of a thesis statement is to inform the reader about the main point of the paper and to guide the writer in developing the rest of the content. 

How to write a thesis statement: 

Writing a strong thesis statement is crucial for college-level writing because it sets the foundation for the rest of your paper. Here are some tips for writing a strong thesis statement:

• Make sure your thesis statement is specific and focused on a single idea. It should clearly convey the main argument of your paper.

• Your thesis statement should be debatable. This means that it should present an argument that can be challenged or supported with evidence.

• Use strong language and avoid vague or ambiguous terms. Your thesis statement should be clear and concise.

• Make sure your thesis statement is relevant to the assignment prompt and fits the scope of your paper.

• Consider the audience for your paper and tailor your thesis statement accordingly.

• Revise and refine your thesis statement as you write your paper. It may change as you gather more information and develop your argument.

Thesis statement example:

• "Although social media has revolutionized communication and connectedness, it has also had a negative impact on mental health, particularly in young adults, who are more susceptible to depression and anxiety." 

Possible ways to get started:

It can be difficult to know where to start when constructing a thesis statement. Here are a few strategies:

1. Perhaps the easiest way to start constructing a thesis statement is to find something a respected person said and disagree with it. Respond to that statement by either agreeing or disagreeing (or a mixture of both).  Make sure the person or entity you are responding to is respected in the field–the stronger your starting point is, the stronger your argument can be.  

2. Start with a question that can be answered in multiple ways and choose one possible way to answer it. Your argument will become why your answer is more feasible or credible than the other potential answers.   

3. Create a contrasting statement. This is often accomplished by beginning a sentence with a dependent clause (like the thesis statement example above). Dependent clause marker words like “while” and “although” can naturally create contrasting statements that lead to arguments–”while it seems like A is true, B is actually true.”  

4. Consider actual arguments or debates you have been in recently. Can one of those be honed into a thesis statement?

How to incorporate feedback into your writing:

1. You are the author: 

• You do not have to follow every suggestion given to you. 

2. Take some time to process and synthesize feedback: 

• You may not like some feedback initially but try not to dismiss it immediately.

3. Feedback comes in many forms:

• Sometimes you may get questions that should be answered in your writing. Other times you will get suggestions for changes. Feedback can also come from computers through things like AI chatbots or grammar checkers. Be aware that this feedback is not always correct!

4. Seek out multiple, trusted, and diverse sources for feedback: 

• It's important to feel like you can trust someone's suggestions and you may also want to get feedback from someone who has different opinions or writing styles to get a more holistic take on your writing.

5. Be aware of your mindset:

• Receiving feedback can be difficult so it's important to be sure you're in a good mindset to receive feedback thoughtfully and openly.

6. Only incorporate feedback you're comfortable with: 

• You are the author, so it's up to you to choose which feedback to incorporate into your work. 

7. Keep your eyes on the prize:

• Feedback is something that should be helpful to your work. If it's not helpful, don't use it. Feedback should be a tool in your writing toolkit, not a stressor. 

Suggestions for crafting effective reading responses:

Before reading the assigned text: 

• Look over the specific course instructions on how to respond

• Make a prediction about what you think you’ll get out of the text

• Set up a workspace that allows you to examine the text and annotate it comfortably

While reading the assigned text: 

• Go beyond reflexive highlighting--paraphrase key ideas, jot down questions, note points of agreement or disagreement, and possible points of connection, commonalities, and comparison

• Jot down unfamiliar words and phrases to look up, either while reading or after

After reading the assigned text: 

• Reread the text or passages that are particularly complex

• Look up words and phrases for which more clarity was needed 

• Revisit the specific course instructions on responding 

• Draft a focused response that picks up key elements of what seemed most significant to you about the reading

• Review your draft, revising to ensure the response fulfills course assignment expectations