The Writing Process, Step 2: Planning (Outlining)

In Step 1,you chose topics and narrowed them, and you generated ideas by brain-storming.
In Step 2 of the writing process, the planning stage, you organize the ideasinto an outline.
Turn back to the model about culture shock on page 267. The writer developed three
different lists of ideas:communication problems, classroom environment, and merican family
life. Imagine that you are the student and that your assignment isto write a single paragraph.
 Step 2A: Making Sublists
As a first step toward making an outline, divide the ideas in the communication problems list
further into sublists and cross out any items that do not belong or that are not useable.
MODEL Sublists

The two sublists are (1) items that describe international students (poor verbalskills) and (2)
items that describe Americans (Americans difficult to understand). New language and lack
confidence do not fit in either sublist, so cross them out. Theremaining items fit under 1 or 2.
Now you have created a rough outline.
MODEL Rough Outline

 Step 2B: Writing the Topic Sentence

Finally,write a topic sentence.The topic is clearly communication problems. A pos-sible
topic sentence might be as follows.
One problem that many international students face in the United States is
communication with Americans.
OR
 International students in the United States face communication problems with
Americans.
 Step 2C: Outlining
An outline is a formal plan for a paragraph.You may never need to prepare a formal outline,
but if you do, this is what one looks like.

With this outline in front of you, it should be relatively easy to write a paragraph.There is a
topic sentence, two main supporting points, supporting details, and since this is a stand-alone
paragraph, a concluding sentence.

PRACTICE 5 Outlining
Follow the three steps described above and develop outlines for one of the other groups from
the brainstorming list on culture shock, classroom environment orAmerican family life. Each
outline should contain a topic sentence, main supporting points, and supporting details.

Culture shock

Topic sentence Almost everyone experiences culture shock when they enter the world of
lectures.

Supporting point Culture shock is a situation where a person feels shocked, worried, and shocked
in facing the culture around his environment.

Supporting details - There is a feeling of frustration to depression

- There is a desire to withdraw from the social environment
- Loss of self-confidence

Supporting Point How to overcome culture shock so that we can rebuild enthusiasm for learning
and better academic potential

Supporting details - Accept the reality of the new environment.

 - Always think positive and openmind
- Participate in campus activities

Concluding sentence From the explanation above, it can be concluded that culture shock is something
that new students naturally feel. It is fitting that the impact of culture shock
must be avoided by means of the prevention described above.

The Writing Process, Step 3:Writing

Step 3 in the writing process is writing the rough draft. Follow your outline as closely as
possible, and don't worry about grammar, punctuation, or spelling. A rough draft is not
supposed to be perfect.
Above all, remember that writing is a continuous process of discovery. As you are
writing, you will think of new ideas that may not be in your brain storming listor outline.You
can add or delete ideas at any time in the writing process. Just besure that any new ideas are
relevant.
A rough draft that a student wrote from her outline follows.

MODEL First Rough Droft

The Writing Process, Step 4:Polishing

The fourth and final step in the writing process is polishing what you have written. This step
is also called revising and editing. Polishing is most successful if you doit in two stages. First,
attack the big issues of content and organization (revising). Then work on the smaller issues
of grammar and punctuation (editing).
 Step 4A: Revising
After you write the rough draft, the next step is to revise it. When you revise, you change
what you have written to improve it. You check it for content and organiza-tion, including
unity, coherence, and logic. You can change, rearrange, add or delete, all for the goal of
communicating your thoughts in a clearer, more effective, and more interesting way.
During the first revision, do not try to correct grammar, sentence structure, spelling, or
punctuation; this is proofreading, which you will do later. During the first revision, be
concerned mainly with content and organization.
-Read over your paragraph carefully for a general overview. Focus on the general aspects
of the paper and make notes in the margins about rewriting the parts that need to be
improved.
-Check to sec that you have achieved your stated purpose.
-Check for general logic and coherence. Your audience should be able to follow your
ideas easily and understand what you have written.
-Check to make sure that your paragraph has a topic sentence and that the topic sentence
has a central (main) focus.
-Check for unity. Cross out sentences that are off the topic.
-Check to make sure that the topic sentence is developed with sufficient supporting
details. Does each paragraph give the reader enough information to understand the main
idea? If the main point lacks sufficient information, make notes in the margin such as
“add more details" or “add an example."
-Check your use of transition signals.
-Finally, does your paragraph have or need a concluding sentence? If you wrote a final
comment, is it on the topic?
Now rewrite your paragraph, incorporating all the revisions. This is your second draft.
MODEL Revisions to Rough Draft
Notice the revisions the student marked on her rough draft.
1. She checked to make sure that her paragraph matched the assignment. The assigned
topic was "culture shock." Although her second sentence mentions culture shock, her
topic sentence does not, so she decided to combine sentences 1 and 2.
2. The writer checked the paragraph for unity and decided that sentence 6, which she
had added while writing the rough draft, was a good addition. However, she decided
that sentence 7 was off the topic, so she cross edit out.
3. She checked to see if there were enough supporting details, and she decided that
there were not. She decided to add examples of poor pronunciation, anincomplete
sentence, and an idiom. She could not think of an example of anunclear expression,
so she crossed out her reference to unclear expressionsin sentence 9.
4. She also decided to add transition signals such as first of all, for example, and also
to make her paragraph more coherent.
5.She decided to add a concluding sentence.
Then the student wrote her second draft.

PRACTICE 6 Revising
By yourself, with a partner, or in a group, revise the following rough draft. Suggestor make
revisions to the content and organization only. The assignment was to write one paragraph on
the topic of culture shock.
Culture shock
Culture shock describes the impact of moving from a familiar culture to one that is
unfamiliar. It includes the shock of a new environment, meeting lots of new people and
learning the ways of a new country. It also includes the shock of being separated from the
important people in your life, such as family, friends, colleagues, and teachers or people you
would talk to at times of uncertainty, people who give you support and guidance.
  Step 4B: Editing (Proofreading)

The second step in polishing your writing is proofreading your paper for possible errors in
grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation.
·Check each sentence for correctness and completeness.You should have nofragments
and no choppy or run-on sentences.
·Check each sentence for a subject and a verb, subject-verb agreement, correct verb
tenses, noun plurals, articles, and soon.
·Check the mechanics: punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.
·Check for incorrectly used or repeated words.
·Check for contractions (can't, isn't, I'lU, and so on). (Some writing instructors permit
them, but others do not. Find out your instructor's preference.)
The student edited her paragraph as shown in the following model.
MODEL Proofreading
Following are the corrections the student made.
Sentence structure
1. This student knows that one of her writing problems is sentences that are sometimes too
short, so she tried to find ways to leng then her short sentences in this paragraph.
·She added When they first arrive in the United States to sentence 2.
·She combined sentences 3 and 4.
·She combined sentences 11 and 12.
2. She crossed out three words in sentence 1 and changed sitting in his car driving up a wall
to driving his car up a wall in sentence 14 to make these sentences more concise.
Coherence
3. It was not clear who They referred to in sentence 7 (Americans orinternational students?),
so she changed it to Intenational students.
Grammar
4. This student knows that she occasionally makes mistakes with verbs and omits subjects, so
she checked carefully for these problems.
·She needed to correct doesn't in sentence 4 and have in sentence 6.
·She needed to add they in sentence 7 and It in sentence 8.
Mechanics
5. The student writer found two spelling errors and added a missing comma.
6. She also eliminated contractions.
Vocabulary
7. In sentence 10,because catch their meaning is not standard English and because she did not
want to use the word meaning in consecutivesentences, she changed the phrase to understand
them.
8. In sentence 11, slang is uncountable, so she crossed out the -s.
9. In sentence 12, people is not very specific. Nonnative speakers is more appropriate.
10. In the concluding sentence she did not want to repeat the phrase verbal skills, so she
wrote verbal abilities instead.
Then the student wrote the final copy to hand in.

Editing Practice
By yourself, with a partner, or in a group, edit the following second draft. Suggest or make
improvements to the sentence structure, and correct any mistakes you find ingrammar,
punctuation, and mechanics. Look for incorrect sentence structure (sentence fragments and
run-ons) and places to combine short sentences. Look for subject-verb agreement errors and
verb tense errors. Look for missing articles (a, an,the) and other missing words. Look for
incorrect forms after the word enjoy. Finally, look for error sin capitalization and noun
plurals, and eliminate contractions.
Before editing
American Family Life (Second Draft)

One culture shock that I experience when I first arrive in U.S. Is American families lifes. In my culture,
family is most important. Is more important than work, school, and friends. We enjoy to spend time
together. Mother cook a nice dinner every night for family. When we come home from work or
school. Every member sit around the table eat and talk. We joke and tease and enjoy this time
together. In U.S., on the other hand, sometimes family never eat dinner together. The children busy
with after-school sports or clubs. The father worklate. The mother often work too. So she doesn't
have time to cook nice meal. Maybe she bring home already-prepared food from a restaurant such
as pizza. Or maybe she cook a fast-food dinner in the microwave. In addition, my family enjoys to
spend time together on weekends and holidays. For example, on sundays we often having big
barbecue, invite Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandparents. We spend whole day together. It gives nice
feeling. In U.S., in contrast, children have their own activities, parents have different activities,
teenagers prefer to be with their own friends. In fact, children spend more time with friends than
with parents. Families here don't live close to one another. Children don't know their aunts and
uncles. They don't become close their cousins. As we do in my culture. It's too bad, I think, for close
family is lasting treasure.

After editing
American Family Life (Second Draft)

One culture shock that I experienced when I first arrived in the U.S. Is American families lives. In my
culture, family is the most important. It is more important than work, school, and friends. We enjoy
to spending time together. Mother cooks a nice dinner every night for the family. When we come
home from work or school, every member sits around the table eats and talks. We joke and tease
and enjoy this time together. In the U.S., on the other hand, sometimes the family never eat dinner
together. The children are busy with after-school sports or clubs. The father workslate. The mother
often works too. So she doesn't have time to cook a nice meal. Maybe she brings home already-
prepared food from a restaurant, such as pizza. Or maybe she cooks a fast-food dinner in the
microwave. In addition, my family enjoys spending time together on weekends and holidays. For
example, on sundays we often have a big barbecue, and invite aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents.
We spent the whole day together. It gives a nice feeling. In the U.S., in contrast, children have their
own activities, parents have different activities, teenagers prefer to be with their own friends. In
fact, children spend more time with friends than with parents. Families here don't live close to one
another. Children don't know their aunts and uncles. They don't become close to their cousins. As
we do in my culture. It's too bad, I think, because a close family is a lasting treasure.

Now you are ready to write the final copy to hand in.Your instructor will expect itto be
written neatly and legibly in ink or typed on a computer. Read it once more, and don't be
surprised if you decide to make changes. Remember that writing is acontinuous process of
writing and rewriting until you are satisfied with the final product.
Following is the final copy of the paragraph about communication problems.
 Model Final Copy

B Punctuation Rules

Using correct punctuation is important because punctuation conveys meaning justas words
do. Consider these two sentences:
Eat children.
Eat,children.
Both sentences are commands, but the first sentence would be correct only in a
society of cannibals'! Learn and practice the rules of punctuation until you areconfident about
using them correctly.
Commas:
Commas are sometimes trouble some to learners of English because they are use ddifferently
in other languages. There are many comma rules in English, but you may remember them
more easily if you realize that they can be organized into just fourmain groups: introducers,
coordinators, inserters, and tags. Each group of com-mas relates to independent clauses in a
particular way, except the coordinator group. Coordinator commas link not just independent
clauses but any coordinate (equal) elements in a sentence.
Study the examples for each comma group, and notice the kinds of elements that can
be introducers, coordinators, inserters, and tags.
Introducer Commas
An introducer comma follows any element that comes in front of the first independent clause
in a sentence.

'cannibals: people who eat human flesh

Thanks to Anne Katz of ARC Associates,Onkland,Califormia,for permission to adapt her presentation of

comma rules