The writing Process

THE STAGES OF THE WRITING PROCESS The 5-step process is made up of the following stages: Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing Submitting

Drafting is when you begin to corral the unruly fruits of the prewriting stage into orderly sentences and paragraphs. When writing is based on solid research and planning, this will be much easier to manage. Do not to get too attached to any ideas that may have been generated in Stage 1.

The most important thing about this stage is to keep moving. A text is written word-by-word, much as a bricklayer builds a wall by laying brick upon brick. Don't get too hung up on stuff like spelling and grammar in these early stages. Don't overthink things. The trick here is to get the ideas down fast – everything else can be polished up later.

The focus for Stage 3 is to refine the work completed in Stage 2 with the reader now firmly at the forefront of the writer’s mind. To revise, you need to cast a critical eye over you're work and ask yourself questions like: Would a reader be able to read this text and make sense of it all? Have I included enough detail to help the reader clearly visualize my subject? Is my writing concise and as accurate as possible? Are my ideas supported by evidence and written in a convincing manner? Have I written in a way that is suitable for my intended audience? Is it written in an interesting way? Are the connections between ideas made explicit? Does it fulfill the criteria of the specific text type? Is the text organized effectively?

Editing is not a different thing than writing, it is itself an essential part of the writing process. During the editing stage, keep an eagle eye out for conventional mistakes such as double spacing between words, spelling errors, and grammar and punctuation mistakes. Are the relevant headings and subheadings in place? Are bold words and captions in the right place? Is there consistency across the fonts used? Have diagrams been labelled correctly? Editing can be a demanding process. There are lots of moving parts in it, and it often helps to break things down into smaller, more manageable chunks.