WRITING AS PROCESS
Seven Stages
The journey is just as important as the arrival. (ancient proverb)
NOTE: This writing process is a general outline incorporating behaviors and strategies
many writers experience when writing. Your goal this semester is to experiment with this
process, discover what works best for you, and develop your own writing process.
I.
Analyze and assess the writing project/assignment
A. Define your purpose (What action are you being asked to do? Consider
reflect, express, inform, explain, argue, persuade, criticize, analyze.)
B. Note the genre of writing (memoir, scholarship essay, research paper, critical
analysis, etc.)
C. Consider your audience (age, educational level, gender, occupation, social
class, politics, religion, marital status)
D. Determine your voice/tone (your tone of voice, attitude towards
topic/audience)
II.
Discover and create ideas
A. Brainstorm
B. Make lists
C. Freewrite
D. Cluster
E. Ask journalist’s questions (who, what why, where, when, and how)
III.
Shape and organize ideas
A. Make decisions on strategy (methods of development: narrate, describe,
exemplify, define, classify, compare/contrast, reveal process, give reasons)
B. Develop a tentative thesis
C. Consider basic shape for organizing (introduction, body, and conclusion)
D. Write an informal scratch (or skeletal) outline (optional)
IV.
Draft the essay
A. Set aside time for drafting
B. Review purpose, audience, tone, tentative thesis, and scratch outline
C. Use thesis and scratch outline as guides (or)
D. Jump in and write!
V.
Revise (revision is “re-seeing”) the draft
A. Examine the essay yourself and make deletions, substitutions, additions, reorderings: issues involving underlying meaning and structure of your essay
B. Revise content
C. Revise organization
D. Revise body paragraphs
E. Revise introduction and/or conclusion
F. Obtain peer critique (when the situation permits) on your rough draft
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VI.
Edit (fine tune) the surface features of your essay
A. Edit sentences
B. Edit diction
VII.
Proofread the essay
A. Check for correct spelling
B. Check for correct grammar
C. Check for correct punctuation
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