Process Paragraph

At the top of your prewriting, write down two areas you wish to improve on or two goals you wish to accomplish in this assignment.

Step 1: Prewriting

A process paragraph explains how to do something or how something happens.

Your first step is to decide what process you would like to explain.

See this week’s reading for possible topics. Once you have a topic, spend about 10 minutes gathering your thoughts about your topic. See the readings from Week 1 for tips on prewriting.

Ask yourself:

· What is the goal or outcome of the process?

· What are the necessary steps or stages in the process?

Step 2: Planning

Consider the material you gathered in your prewriting and create an outline for your paragraph. Organize your ideas in the order the steps occur.

Topic sentence

Step 1

Detail

Detail

Step 2

Detail

Detail

Step 3

Detail

Detail

Conclusion

Check your outline for unity, development, and coherence by asking yourself:

· Is your main idea or topic sentence clear?

· Do your steps actually support the main idea? Delete anything off topic

· Do you have enough steps and supporting points? You should have at least three

· Are your steps organized in a logical order?

Step 3: Drafting

· Using that outline, write the first draft

· “Flesh out” the ideas from your outline

· Include transitional words and phrases to create a flow between sentences. See this week’s reading for a list of transitions for a descriptive paragraph

· Compose a title for your work

Step 4: Polishing

Ask yourself:

· Are my sentences too long or too short?

· Do I have enough sentence variety?

· Are my words appropriate for academic purposes?

· Do I have any major grammatical errors (e.g., fragments, comma splices, or run-on sentences)?

· Do I have any spelling or mechanical errors?

· Are my verb tenses or persons (first, second, third) consistent?

· Are there verbs or adjectives I could replace with better ones (e.g., nice = cordial, amiable, gracious; do = accomplish, undertake, perform)? Let  www.thesaurus.com (Links to an external site.)  become your new best friend.

Running the spell-checker is not a substitute for proofreading your work carefully.

Review the rubric below.

Plagiarism

You are expected to write primarily in your own voice, using paraphrase, summary, and synthesis techniques when integrating information from class and outside sources. Use an author’s exact words only when the language is especially vivid, unique, or needed for technical accuracy. Failure to do so may result in charges of Academic Dishonesty.

Overusing an author’s exact words, such as including block quotations to meet word counts, may lead your readers to conclude that you lack appropriate comprehension of the subject matter or that you are neither an original thinker nor a skillful writer.