There’s a big difference between being the best swimmer in your neighborhood and beating
Michael Phelps at the Olympics.
The sense of accomplishment is real in both places, but making the swim team and crushing
a world record aren't the same goals.
And writing works like that too.
There are levels of success.
We’re probably not going to achieve bestseller status while we’re taking college classes
or writing for work, but we can always write better than we did before.
To improve our skills, it helps to think about writing as a series of organized steps called
the Writing Process, which is what we’re learning about today in Study Hall: Composition,
presented by Arizona State University and Crash Course.
I’m Yumna Samie, let’s get started.
The Writing Process is a set of steps that allows us to approach writing systematically,
which means using an organized method.
And these steps can be learned, practiced, and improved.
We’ve all run into at least one writing project that inspires dread or anxiety, especially
when the stakes are high -- like a final paper for a class or a thank you card for a really
important person in your life.
These feelings can muddle our writing lives to the point where we think we hate writing
or we're just not any good at it.
I don’t know about you, but I think some of this queasiness is just a feeling
of not knowing how to start, and other parts of it come from unrealistically high expectations
about how fast and easy writing should be.
The way a lot of us try to write is like watching Michael Phelps cut through the water and going,
“I want to do that.”
So you jump in the pool without any practice and can barely float.
And then you say, “I guess I’m just not a natural swimmer” and literally throw
in the towel.
This sounds pretty silly when it comes to swimming, but when we throw our hands up and
say “I guess I’m just not a natural writer,” we’re falling into the trap called the Lone
Genius model of writing.
We tend to imagine good writers as being people for whom excellent, insightful sentences pour
out fully-formed, like water from a golden faucet.
We imagine them coming up with brilliant ideas out of their smarty-pants heads.
We don't see the hundreds of books they’ve read that helped them put those ideas together,
or the hours they spent writing to organize their messy thoughts.
We picture them working alone in a room, filled with scattered papers and empty mugs, without
anyone else around.
Usually, though, ideas come from talking with friends and consulting experts,
not out of thin air.
This idea of a talented lone genius makes us think we’re either a writer or we’re not.
And if the going gets tough (which it will for every writer by the way) we might assume
we just don’t have the talent and give up.
This lone genius model is a myth.
Instead of locking ourselves in an isolated cabin in the woods, we can use the Writing
Process to help us shift our focus from the final product to the steps we need to get
there.
And that lets us work on specific skills like drafting, revising, or editing.
This is what we mean when we say composition.
Sometimes, composition is treated like another word for writing, but we’re referring to
the skills that help us become better writers.
These go way beyond lists of vocabulary words, spelling tests, grammar worksheets, or learning
letters in grade school.
College composition as an academic discipline developed in the last century or so.
But scholars have studied how we speak and write for thousands of years, back to the
days of philosophers like Aristotle and Plato.
Compositionists, or people who study composition, want to help people who have big, interesting
ideas that they sometimes struggle to convey in written form.
Which is… all of us.
Compositionists also study how writing has an impact on the world.
What makes people want to keep reading certain newspaper articles or long novels?
How can a great Tweet or Instagram post convince someone to join a movement?
How can an advertisement convince you to buy something?
And the path to great, impactful writing is the Writing Process.
We’ll talk about each step individually in later videos, but here are the core five steps.
First, there’s invention, the nitty-gritty work we do to come up with and discover ideas.
This happens through research, talking, or doing quick writing activities that
encourage connections.
It’s always building on the work of writers who have asked similar questions in the past.
Second, there’s planning.
Planning helps us answer the big questions before we put all our ideas in written form.
What will we need to read, how much time will this take, and what will the final product
look like?
Third is drafting.
This is where we start putting those words together for a writing task.
We get to try things and experiment, knowing we can start over if we want at this point.
We see what works and get rid of what doesn’t.
Fourth is revising.
We look over, think more about, and redo parts of what we wrote in the drafting stage.
This is a time to get feedback from others to help us see anything we missed and make
improvements.
And fifth is editing.
We smooth out the format, structure, style, and grammar based on who will be reading the
final product.
We don’t want anything to get in the way of our message.
Mistakes and typos can distract or confuse our readers.
The Writing Process has been thought about a lot and that’s why we have these
five particular steps.
The process is both descriptive and prescriptive.
Descriptive refers to the fact that the Writing Process is like an observation.
If you look at how a lot of successful writers write, you’ll notice these steps.
Think of a descriptive process as coming up with a swimming technique by watching 10 different
swimmers in the pool and noticing how they move.
At the same time, the Writing Process is prescriptive, or a model that experts say will work and
that you can count on.
A prescriptive process is like asking a pro like Michael Phelps for swimming advice and
then putting into practice what he says.
The Writing Process generally has an order, but it’s also recursive, or a thing that
repeats itself.
Sometimes, you’ll go back to drafting after you revise, or you’ll keep inventing during
or after your planning step.
Writing is hard -- and not always straightforward -- work!
And to start this hard work, we need to slow down our writing: pay more attention during
each step, and give ourselves time.
Let's consider how to do this by seeing a writer in action.
Wilma usually smushes all her writing into one whirlwind session at midnight when she’s
tired and frantic.
She’s done okay in school, but she’s now taking an Intro to Business class and wants
to wow her professor.
Her grade in this class matters to her long-term goals of working in management.
So her next assignment is to write an executive summary of their
semester-long business plan project.
It should cover all the main points of the hypothetical landscaping business she’s
developing.
To work for a high grade, she’s trying to slow down and separate different steps of
the Writing Process, giving each one more time.
In her late-night writing sprints, Wilma usually just runs with the first idea that comes to
mind, but now she wants to spend some time on invention.
So she sets a timer for 20 minutes and brainstorms ideas about equipment, local plant nurseries,
and different landscaping packages she might offer.
Instead of frantically writing her assignment in a coffee-fueled hour, Wilma gives herself
a whole hour just to research other landscaping businesses, modern gardening styles, and how
to write good executive summaries.
Plus, she gives herself a couple more hours to actually sit down and write.
Lastly, Wilma usually sends the final paper to her professor immediately because she’s
running up against a deadline.
This time, she wants to finish her executive summary 3 days early and schedule an appointment
at the campus Writing Center, where she’ll read it aloud with a friendly consultant who
can give her feedback.
Taking the extra time also lets her catch some small mistakes in spelling and grammar.
She isn’t sure which step will really change her final product, but she knows that
giving her writing more attention and sticking with the tried-and-true Writing Process will help.
Wilma is a writer in action!
When you first try the Writing Process with all its five steps, take a moment to consider
how it feels.
It’ll probably take a little more time, but the results are also probably a lot stronger.
We all write a lot these days, from emails and texts to school papers and screenplays.
And it can feel more important than ever before to be great at communication, even though
nobody’s writing is perfect.
So the Writing Process can help with it all.
Here’s what we’ve learned so far:
First, the Writing Process is broken down into steps because each step requires different
skills, and each of those skills can be learned and improved.
Second, focusing on the steps of the Writing Process helps us reduce fear, uncertainty,
and stress about writing projects.
Going through each step helps us improve our writing.
Lastly, the process works best with all five steps, but it’s not one-size-fits-all.
Everyone can make the Writing Process work for them with just a few small adjustments.
Remember what we said at the beginning: we aren’t here to lock ourselves away to try
and become lone geniuses who churn out classic novels.
And even the most successful writers use the Writing Process.
We’re here to help each other produce writing that gets us closer to our personal goals.
We may not be the next Michael Phelps or N.K. Jemisin,
but the Writing Process helps us improve.
Next time, we’ll dive deep into the Invention step, learning about generating, discovering,
and collaborating to come up with ideas.
Thanks for watching Study Hall: Composition, which is produced by Arizona State University
and the Crash Course team at Complexly.
If you liked this video and want to keep learning with us here in Study Hall, be sure to subscribe.
You can learn more about ASU and the videos produced by Crash Course
in the links in the description.
See you next time!