Learning Commons:Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication/Writing Basics
Writing Basics
Getting started on a writing project can be a daunting task, between figuring out what your professor wants, what topic you want to write about, what you want to say about that topic, and how to do research... not to mention grammar, style, development, citation, formatting, and all of those other little things that turn out to be very important.
A writing project becomes much more managable when you follow the writing process: take some time to prewrite, where you plan and generate ideas; when drafting, focus on turning those ideas into something resembling an essay, rather than a perfect essay draft; take plenty of time to revise so that you can shape your draft into a polished, effective essay; lastly, be sure to edit so that your polished essay is also grammatically and mechanically correct.
The following resources will help you with any writing project. They address some of the most common concerns when it comes to essay writing.
