Becoming a College Writer: A Student Workbook

By Adam Karnes and Laura Scott

Becoming a College Writer is an encouraging new writing textbook that places the power of activity- and discussion-based classroom practices into the hands of students. Based on real writing instruction from real college faculty, this book blends a friendly, accessible voice with hands-on activities in the form of:

• Annotated example papers
• Helpful and simple writing exercises
• Practical guides for essential writing skills
• The writing process
• Essay structure
• Paragraph and sentence structure
• Solutions to common problems

These lessons address the necessary skill sets college writers must wield—not as masters, but as growing writers—in a variety of contexts.

Built by experienced teaching faculty who work with students at all levels of readiness for college writing, this textbook focuses on providing detailed accounts of the most helpful feedback their students have identified from their assignments. The result is an extremely useful and balanced approach to helping students reach their maximum potential as a writer, all without bogging them down with too much information.

Each lesson is further illustrated by diagrammed examples of what good writing looks like. These examples are formed by showing a typical but problematic example that struggling students might write first, followed by step-by-step instructions to improve that writing in the moment, simultaneously teaching the skills needed to do it the improved way in the future.

Finally, a value-packed appendix provides exercises in revision and proofreading, demystifying these processes that so many students forego in order to turn their hurried assignments in on time. Becoming a College Writer gives students a reason to slow down, look twice, and hone their writing: perhaps the most important step of the writing process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chemeketa Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781955499149

Adam Karnes

Adam Karnes has taught writing at a community college since 2012. Adam lives in Salem, Oregon with his wife, three daughters, and two bossy cats.

Book preview

Part 1

Writing Process

Many students approach their writing without a process. A process is a specific approach for completing an often-repeated task. For example, some people always follow a specific series of actions when they leave their house—they grab their keys, put their phone in a pocket, turn off the lights, and lock the door. That’s a simple process, but following it makes the act of leaving the house quick and complete.

While it’s possible to write without a process, you’ll have better results if you make a plan. Instead of waiting until the hour before an assignment is due and completing an essay in one session, begin your writing early and complete your tasks in several steps.

This section describes one approach to the writing process. You may have tried a different way in the past, perhaps with a different number of steps or different names. The most important thing is to find a method that works for your writing. Doing so will cause less stress and likely give you better results.

This book recommends the following steps:

Prewriting

Planning

Drafting

Revising

Editing

1. Prewriting

Before you begin writing at length, take some time to explore your ideas. When students stare at a blank page and call it writer’s block, it’s often a because they didn’t work through the possible topics and approaches to their writing assignments before drafting.

Prewriting involves answering basic questions that will guide your drafting. Those questions might include, What is my topic? or How large is my topic? You can answer these questions to prepare for drafting. You’ve probably done prewriting exercises already. Some of the most common exercises are brainstorming, mind-mapping, freewriting, and looping.

A. Use Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the act of listing potential topics. These ideas could be the main topic for an entire essay, but they could also be the subtopics and details that support your main topic.

When you brainstorm, be kind to yourself. Try not to judge your ideas. Focus on making a long list, not on making a perfect one (figure 1.1.1). You can always skip any topics you don’t like when you’re done. Push yourself to think of more ideas than the few that immediately come to mind. This will increase your productivity.

Try This

Set a timer for 5–10 minutes.

List topics in no particular order.

Put your ideas on the page without judgment.

If you feel like stopping before the time is done, keep going anyway.

When the timer is done, look at your list. Ask the following questions:

Which topics could be the basis for your thesis?

Which topics could be a subtopic, supporting idea, or example?

Which topics are too small or not related to the assignment?

If one of the topics seems promising, do another brainstorm with this topic as a starting point.

Figure 1.1.1. Brainstorming Sample. This list shows a brainstorming exercise for an assignment about a personal experience that changed someone’s view about something.

B. Use Mind-Mapping

If you like to think in images, mind-mapping can be a helpful exercise. This activity is sometimes called clustering or webbing. Mind-mapping is arranging ideas on a page to reflect relationships. It is like brainstorming because you are listing ideas. But the difference lies in how you use the entire page to connect your ideas. You may find that the mind-map helps you to think of more ideas by picturing how similar or different your ideas are to each other (figure 1.1.2).

Try This

Begin with a blank piece of paper.

Write a topic idea in the center of the paper.

Write other topic ideas on the paper, but place each in a location that shows its relationship to the ideas already on the page. Similar ideas should be placed close together. Different ideas should be placed farther apart.

As you write ideas, draw lines between related ideas to show connections.

When you’ve filled the page, you should have a map that shows the relationship between topics and subtopics (smaller ideas).

Review your mind-map, and consider which ideas could work for your project. Which ideas are too big? Which ideas are too small or not related? Which ideas work with your assignment?

You may want to do another mind-map starting with a more specific topic taken from the first mind map.

Figure 1.1.2. Mind-Mapping Sample. This image shows how you can use the page to connect ideas or identify opportunities for new ideas.

C. Use Freewriting

Freewriting is when you write without stopping in order to explore one or more potential topics in sentences. The key to a successful freewriting session is to keep writing, even if you feel as if you’ve run out of good ideas (figure 1.1.3). Don’t stop to ask yourself whether your ideas are good. Just keep writing until you’re done.

Try This

Choose a broad topic or use the topic given by your instructor.

Set a target time for your writing. Five minutes is a good amount of time when starting out. Use a timer you cannot see