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The Writing Process

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you develop and elaborate an idea with specific detail, evidence, and explanation, and recognize where a draft needs more support?

Developing and elaborating ideas: supporting a point with specific details, examples, facts, and reasons, elaborating by explaining how the support proves the point, choosing the sentence that best develops a paragraph, and recognizing where a draft is thin or underdeveloped, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to develop ideas on the Virginia EOC Writing test: supporting a point with specific detail, examples, and reasons, elaborating by explaining the support, choosing the best developing sentence, and spotting thin paragraphs. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items.
9 min answer →

How do you plan a composition, choosing a focus, organizing ideas into a logical structure, and recognizing the best plan or arrangement in a draft?

Planning and organizing a composition: establishing a clear focus or thesis, generating and grouping ideas, ordering them into a logical structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion, and recognizing the most effective plan, opening, or arrangement of paragraphs in a draft, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to plan and organize writing on the Virginia EOC Writing test: setting a clear focus, grouping and ordering ideas with an introduction, body, and conclusion, and recognizing the best plan or arrangement in a draft. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items.
9 min answer →

How do the multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising and editing items on the EOC Writing test work, and how do you approach each format?

Revising and editing item types: understanding how the EOC Writing test presents a student draft and tests it with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced items (drop-down corrections, hot-text selection, drag-and-drop ordering, fill-in-the-blank), telling revising items (content and flow) apart from editing items (conventions), and approaching each format, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How the EOC Writing test's multiple-choice and technology-enhanced items work: drop-down, hot-text, drag-and-drop, and fill-in-the-blank items on a student draft, the difference between revising (content, flow) and editing (conventions), and how to approach each format. Tested across the Writing MC and TEI section.
9 min answer →

How do you revise a draft for unity (every sentence on topic) and coherence (ideas that flow logically), and choose effective transitions?

Revising for unity, coherence, and transitions: removing sentences that stray from the focus (unity), ordering and connecting ideas so they flow logically (coherence), and choosing the transition word or phrase that signals the right relationship between ideas, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to revise for unity and coherence on the Virginia EOC Writing test: removing off-topic sentences, ordering and linking ideas so they flow, and choosing the right transition. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items including which sentence to delete.
9 min answer →

How do you revise for precise, vivid word choice and an appropriate tone, and combine or vary sentences so the writing reads with rhythm rather than monotony?

Word choice, tone, and sentence variety: revising for precise and vivid diction, choosing words that fit the audience and an appropriate tone, and varying sentence beginnings, lengths, and structures (including combining choppy sentences) so the writing reads smoothly, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to revise word choice and sentence variety on the Virginia EOC Writing test: choosing precise, vivid words and an appropriate tone, and varying sentence beginnings, lengths, and structures including combining choppy sentences. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items.
9 min answer →