Writing 2-3 teaches writing as a complex process made up of smaller processes: pre-drafting (conceptualizing the essay), drafting (writing the essay), and revision (making both substantive and targeted changes in the essay).
In Writing 2-3, instructors construct assignments so that students will have practice and instruction in each of these important activities. To assist students in the writing and revision processes, faculty and teaching assistants confer with students frequently throughout the term.
The most exciting part of academic work is the exploration of ideas. Writing 2-3 instructors devote ample class time to helping students explore ideas by teaching them how to ask fruitful questions. Students are also schooled in the rigors of analysis: instructors insist that students read meticulously and that they thoroughly interrogate their texts.
Drafting is the process of shaping one's ideas into a coherent composition. Writing 2-3 instructors assist students in the drafting process by holding writing workshops in which student work becomes the center of collaborative analysis. As students consider the feedback they receive in these workshops, they understand their aims with increasing clarity, and so they draft their arguments with increased precision and grace.
Writing is revising. In Writing 2-3, students engage in a multi-draft writing process, receiving feedback from their instructors, TAs, and/or peers at every step of the way. By revising a text, a writer also revises his or her thinking. Revision therefore becomes essential not only to a successful paper, but to a writer's intellectual growth as well.
