Formulaic Writing

A good starting place is to recharacterize writing as thinking. Experienced writers don't figure out [blank] they want to say and then write it. They write in order to figure out what they want to say. Experienced writers develop theses in dialog with the body of the essay. An initial characterization of the problem leads to a tentative thesis. Then, drafting the body of the paper reveals thorny contradictions or critical areas of ambiguity, [blank] the writer revisits or expands the body of evidence and then refines the thesis based on that fresh look. The revised thesis may require that body paragraphs be reordered and [blank] to fit the emerging thesis. Throughout the process, the thesis serves as an anchor point while the author wades through the morass of facts and ideas. The writer continues to read to learn more about his or her issue and refines his or her ideas in response to what is learned. The dialogue [blank] thesis and body continues until the author is satisfied or the due date arrives, whatever comes first.