Writing as a Process
Or, “From Blank Page to Finished
Product in a Few Simple Steps”

Staring at the blank page…
 Before you write down a single word, you need to
PREWRITE.

Prewriting
This is done before you begin to write your masterpiece. It includes:
 Choosing the topic
 Figuring out your purpose for writing
 Considering the audience who will read your writing
 Selecting a type or style ( genre ) of writing you’re going to do

Now What?
 Once you know the kind of writing you need to do, who will read your writing, and what you will be writing about, you are ready to actually start writing!

There are basic steps when writing

The 5 Basic Steps of the
Writing Process:
1.
Brainstorming
2.
Organizing
3.
Drafting
4.
Reviewing
5.
Publishing

1) Brainstorming
Write down every idea that is related to your topic/purpose/audience/genre; don’t worry about putting things in order.
 You may need to do some
RESEARCH to gather information and ideas
 You may want to use a GRAPHIC
ORGANIZER

2) Organizing

Once you’ve spent a few minutes writing down topic-related ideas, you need to choose the best ideas and put them in some kind of order.
 An OUTLINE can be extremely useful at this point.

3) Drafting

When you draft, you’re writing down
ANY ideas that come to you
 Use your organized brainstorm to help guide your thoughts.
 Write QUICKLY – Don’t stop! Keep the flow going! Don’t worry about mechanics or conventions at this point, just get the ideas down


4) Reviewing
After each draft, the writer needs to review the draft for errors.

A.
There are two separate but equally important ways to review that should be done independently from each other:
Editing
B.
Revising

4A) Editing
Checking the mechanics of your writing. Things to look for:
 Complete sentences
 Spelling
 Capitalization
 Punctuation

EDITING TRICK
 Edit sentence by sentence, but work BACKWARDS through your piece. This will help you notice mistakes your brain automatically fills in for you when you read forward.

4B) Revising
Looking over the ideas you’ve written. It includes checking for:
•Flow
•Order
•Details
•Clarity
•Enough information
•Too much information
•Too many words

Reviewing Trick #1
 Edit your work BEFORE you try to revise your work.
 If you try to revise first, you will keep getting distracted by mechanical errors (misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, etc.), and you won’t be able to concentrate on the FLOW.

REVIEWING TRICK #2:
 Read your writing OUT LOUD to someone else. Humans often hear mistakes more readily than they will see mistakes. This can help with both revising your ideas and editing your errors

Do the Time-Warp!
 Once you have reviewed your draft, redraft (re-write your piece, fixing mistakes and improving flow).
 After you have re-drafted, re-review your work.
 Do this at least twice for every piece of writing – at least 2 drafts, at least 2 reviews.

5) Publishing
Professional writers say they never finish a piece; they just run out of time.
When you have reviewed your work at least twice, it’s time to think about turning in your work.
 Create a clean copy
 Submit