December 16, 2023

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 3 Polishing

From start to finish, the essay writing process has become a much less painful one. I know where students will struggle and have developed supports.

As I wrote in part 1 and part 2 of this blog series on a less painful essay process, after class after class, and year after year of teaching students about text dependent analysis writing (you might call it a literary analysis essay), I feel confident in the process I have designed for myself and my students.  

I know where students will struggle and I have developed the supports that students will need to avoid or correct those struggles. From start to finish, the essay writing process has become a much less painful one.

In the first blog post in this series, I discussed the steps I follow during the pre-writing process, and in the second blog post in this series, I focused on how I guide students through the drafting process. In this final blog post in this series, I am sharing what the revision and editing process looks like for my students.



December 15, 2023

A Less Painful Essay Writing Process: Part 2 Drafting

Writing an essay isn’t easy. Neither is teaching students how to write one. Here's what I do in the drafting stage to make the essay process smoother.

As I wrote in part 1 of this blog series on a less painful essay process, after five years of teaching students to write a literary analysis essay, also known as text dependent analysis writing in my neck of the woods, I’ve gotten the hang of how to make the best of it for me and my students.

Writing an essay isn’t easy and neither is teaching students how to write one. Over time I have fine-tuned the supports, structures, and examples I provide my students during the essay writing process.

While the first blog post in this series outlined steps I take during the pre-writing process for a less painful essay process, this blog post focuses on what I do during the drafting stage to make the essay process smoother for myself and my students.