COLLEGE WRITING

Lecture 1: Importance of Writing

Writing is, in many ways, a life superior to the processes.

Your grades will depend a lot on your ability to write. Your chances of success in schoolwork will increase as your ability in written expression improves.

In the same way, your chances of success at a job will be greatly enhanced by your ability to write well.

In community life, the one who is known for his writing ability easily finds his place among his peers, in civic organizations, or in church groups.

It is an art of the highest form to give shape and substance to ideas and feelings. It is a wonderful thing to know you have brought into existence that which did not exist before - in a sense that you have created something.

There are three steps you might take in preparation: keen observation, wide reading, and informal writing.

If you wish to interest others with what you write, you must first be interested in it yourself. Look at things with an observing, wondering eye as though you were seeing life for the very first time.

Then, more and more than this, read, and read much. Learn the minds of the great thinkers of the past and you will find yourself viewing the future over the shoulders of giants.

But the most important things you must do is to practice writing by attempting additional exercise on your own. Try poetry, but if you prefer to write in prose; go right ahead.

In conclusion, writing is a sign of the well-educated, thoughtful person. Such a person is that one who has ideas, who can put those ideas into some kind of order, and who is able to share them with others. Such person is a “full man.”

Lecture 2: Basic Steps in Writing

The very act of writing forces us to compose our thoughts, that is, to select the relevant from the irrelevant, to see one idea in relation to other ideas, to shape and develop this idea in an ordered paragraph and then to go on and relate this idea to ideas in other paragraphs. This is composition. It is ordered thought. To compose is to think.

There are two types of composition: the impromptu composition and the assigned composition.

The impromptu composition which you write in class and finish, usually in one 40-50 minute period is short, usually just a paragraph or

two, totaling 150 - 200 words. At this point, there are three things worth remembering: first, get started at once; second, select just one or two ideas to present, don’t crowd a short composition with too many ideas; and third, allot a little time near the end period for revising your work, but don’t spend more time revising than writing. The greatest value of the impromptu composition is its spontaneity. The more you revise, the less spontaneous your ideas sound.

Unlike the impromptu composition, the assigned composition does not depend too much on spontaneity. Rather, it will depend on previous planning and preparation.

The paragraph is the basic unit of the composition. A paragraph is not accidental. It is something that is planned. It is planned development of an idea.

Ways of paragraph development: An idea is brought out by the use of details. Sometimes, an idea is brought out by a

story. An idea is brought out by example. Sometimes a paragraph uses comparison

and contrast to show likeliness or difference.

Sometimes, a paragraph defines an idea.

In conclusion, the different methods of paragraph development may be classified as one or combination of the four types of writing which are: exposition, persuasion, narration, and description.

The main idea of the paragraph is usually found in the topic sentence. Usually, BUT NOT ALWAYS.

If and when the main idea is stated, the topic sentence may be found at the beginning, at the end, or somewhere around the middle of the paragraph.

After you have taken care of the main idea and the topic sentence, it is time to think of all the other sentences you will write. Interesting writing demands that you make use of a variety of sentences within a paragraph. Feel free to choose the kind of sentence that will give the effect you want to produce.

After having the paragraph, here is where the outline comes.

An outline is a blueprint for what you will write. It is not a plan for what you will write. It is planning what you will write.

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