Writing Process and Composition
What to know
Writing is recursive, not strictly linear. Candidates should understand prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, and know that writers move back and forth among these stages. Know the major modes and purposes: narrative, expository or informational, argumentative, and descriptive. Understand thesis development, organization, cohesion, transitions, sentence variety, word choice, and audience awareness. Command of conventions includes grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. Also know how to teach source integration, paraphrase, summary, quotation, and citation to avoid plagiarism. Familiarity with rubrics, peer response, conferencing, and trait-based feedback is essential.
Traps
Questions often confuse revision with editing. Revision changes ideas, organization, and clarity; editing corrects conventions. Proofreading is the final check for surface errors. Do not confuse mode with genre: argumentative writing is a purpose or mode, while an editorial is a genre. A thesis is not the same as a topic. Another trap is treating grammar instruction as isolated drill rather than applied, contextualized revision.
Worked example
Original: 'The experiment was done by the students and it was successful in showing that the hypothesis was correct.' Revision for concision and active voice: 'The students' experiment supported the hypothesis.' This is a revision because it changes structure and emphasis, not merely punctuation. Rule of thumb: if the change affects meaning, organization, or style, call it revision; if it fixes correctness, call it editing.