A General but Functional Writing Process

Helpful Hints to Think of Before You Begin

• Set Reasonable Goals: to hold the reader's interest, tell a compelling story, to include sensory details in a draft, to maintain a focus on what took place, to complete a draft by dinner;
• Do the Easy Parts First;
• Make writing a Habit (as long as it is occasional it will be awkward and hard);
• Find a regular Time and Place;
• Do some Warm-Up Writing before Tackling Your Essay--freewriting;
• Write Fast;
• Reward Yourself with Some Short Breaks;
• If you get stuck, be willing to return to invention strategies to generate more ideas.

Prewriting

1. Decide upon a subject (such as a story about your childhood).
2. Decide upon a topic using some of the prewriting strategies.

When you have a topic:

3. Decide on your purpose (rhetorical goal/controlling idea) for writing on that topic.
4. Gather material, using a prewriting/invention strategy.
5. Select and decide upon best material, which you then organize in the most effective manner possible. This is where audience awareness comes into play.
6. Review your pre-writing materials. After giving them a good look, put them aside, out of sight. This is a bridge between pre-writing and writing.

Drafting

• Start with a working title. Chances are that if you can't come up with some sort of a title you don't know what you want to write about. Move on if you are having trouble coming up with a title.
• You needn't concern yourself with writing the introduction first; go right to the heart of the matter and if you need to, right an introduction later. When you have a better idea what you are saying, it will be easier to introduce the material.
• Once you begin writing, concentrate on the logical smooth flow of ideas and details--move as quickly as possible, with a minimum of judgment, while composing the draft. Imagine speaking your draft to someone as you compose. You are now forging new and meaningful relations among your ideas and information.
• Your goal with the first draft is to get as much information on paper as possible.
• Ignore spelling, sentence structure, grades, messiness and other outside concerns.
• After you have put all of this to paper, you have completed a draft of your essay.

Revision Process

• It is often best to get some distance between yourself and a draft. This entails setting it aside for a day or two. Of course, if you are not working ahead you can't do this.
• Assume new identity: that of reader/editor
• The process then includes reading your paper to other writers. These writers will offer feedback on the strong and weak points they see in your paper. You then take this information and use it to improve your essay. You will also, if you pay attention, come across strong and weak points in the essays that are read to you, and you will be able to use those ideas to improve your essay. Have a goal for your revision: clearer, better detail--

• Make use of the written comments received during peer review.
• Evaluate your essay before and after going over peer responses.

When on Your Own, Use the Following Revision Process.

1. First revise for ideas: clarify the main idea. Read through your draft. Mark any areas which seem unclear, but don't think about fixing them until you've read the whole essay. When finished reading, put the essay aside and see if you can write a sentence containing the main idea. Compare to the existing thesis/controlling idea. Once you have said it as clear as you can, evaluate it for honesty and freshness.
2. Read the draft again. Evaluate the details. Are they concrete and specific? Do they create sensory images? Do they convey the necessary message to your audience.
3. Read the draft again and check the order of your presentation. Is it as effective as possible? This is a good place to use outlining.
4. Revise for word choice. Be sure each word is doing its job and carrying its weight. In general, use Anglo-Saxon root words which are usually one or two syllables. If you can replace a three-plus syllable word with a one or two syllable equivalent, you should do so.
5. Next revise for mechanics. Use a handbook to check any punctuation you are unsure of, or where you commonly make mistakes. This is editing.
6. Do all of the above as many times as needed.

• The more you rewrite now, the better you get at it and the less you will have to do it in the future.
• If introduction seems dull, begin with the second paragraph.
• If you are unsure of your thesis, once you have completed a draft, look in and near your conclusion for a sentence that might work as your thesis. It is common for student writers to better express their main idea in the conclusion because it has been clarified by the writing of the draft. Of course, this means that you move that sentence to your introduction and rework the essay with that revamped thesis in mind. You don't just move one sentence to cover your proverbial back-side.