The Writing Process for Essays
Answer each of the following questions by writing your responses in the text boxes. After you complete the exercise, click on Email to email your response to your instructor, or click on Print to print a copy of your work.

1. When your instructor gives an essay assignment, but you must select the topic, you will need to generate ideas. Explain different techniques you can use to generate possible topics to use in your essay.



2. Briefly discuss how you can use card catalogs in the library, the Internet, and your textbook to generate possible topics for an essay.



3. Following are three topics that need to be narrowed. Select one topic. In the text box, suggest one way you could narrow this topic so it becomes an appropriate and manageable topic for an essay.

The American economy
Therapy
Global warming



4. Explain an effective note taking technique to use when you need to use the library or the Internet to gather information for an essay.



5. Well-developed essays often begin with an organization or a prewriting plan. Briefly explain different kinds of organizational or prewriting plans that you can use to organize your ideas before you begin writing a draft for an essay.



6. The revision process often occurs in several stages. Explain the process you use to revise an essay.