the process of writing

Rearranging

Even when you've planned your piece, sections may need rearranging. Perhaps as you wrote your essay, you found that the argument would flow better if you reordered your paragraphs. Maybe you noticed that your conclusion really is your intro, or vice versa.

Prewriting: The Brainstorming Part

Have you ever sat staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank document on your computer screen? You might have skipped the vital first stage of the writing process: prewriting. This covers everything you do before starting your rough draft. As a minimum, prewriting means coming up with an idea!

Ideas and Inspiration

Ideas are all around you. If you want to write but you don't have any ideas, try: • Using a writing prompt to get you started. • Writing about incidents from your daily life, or childhood. • Keeping a notebook of ideas - jotting down those thoughts that occur throughout the day.

Free writing

Open a new document or start a new page, and write everything that comes into your head about your chosen topic. Don't stop to edit, even if you make mistakes

Revising

Revising your work is about making "big picture" changes. You might remove whole sections, rewrite entire paragraphs, and add in information which you've realized the reader will need. Everyone needs to revise - even talented writers. The revision stage is sometimes summed up with the A.R.R.R. (Adding, Rearranging, Removing, Replacing) approach:

Writing

See how actually WRITING is the THIRD step in the process???! Sit down with your plan beside you, and start your first draft (also known as the rough draft or rough copy). At this stage, do NOT think about word-count, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Don't worry if you've gone off-topic, or if some sections of your plan don't fit too well. Just keep writing! You might be surprised that professional authors go through multiple drafts before they're happy with their work. This is a normal part of the writing process - no one gets it right first time. Some things that many writers find helpful when working on the first draft include: • Setting aside at least thirty minutes to concentrate: it's hard to establish a writing flow if you're just snatching a few minutes here and there. Make sure you are alone, with no one and nothing (cell phones! Internet! TV!) distracting you. • Going somewhere without interruptions: a library or coffee shop can work well, if you don't have anywhere quiet to write at home or in your dorm. • Switching off distracting programs: if you write your first draft on a computer, you might find that turning off your Internet connection does wonders for your concentration levels!

Mapping: Planning and Structure

Some pieces of writing will require more planning than others. Typically, longer pieces and academic papers need a lot of thought at this stage.

Removing

Sometimes, one of your ideas doesn't work out. Perhaps you've gone over the word count, and you need to take out a few paragraphs. Maybe that funny story doesn't really fit with the rest of your article. And, more important, maybe you have a lot of instances of repetition, which is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad thing. Avoid repeating words, phrases and ideas. Writing the same idea three different ways is not a good approach.

Editing

The editing stage is distinct from revision, and needs to be done after revising. Editing involves the close-up view of individual sentences and words. It needs to be done after you've made revisions on a big scale: or else you could agonize over a perfect sentence, only to end up cutting that whole paragraph from your piece.

Proofreading

The final step of the writing proofreading. When you completed the revision and the editing, let the paper sit for at least 24 hours. DO NOT LOOK AT IT. Then, before you hand it in or present it, read it over again by reading it OUT LOUD to yourself. You will be surprised that you will find at least one mistake this way. Often there are typos or missing words that you couldn't see before.

Adding

What else does the reader need to know? If you haven't met the required word- or page-count, what areas could you expand on? This is a good point to go back to your prewriting notes - look for ideas which you didn't use.

Replacing

Would more vivid details help bring your piece to life? Do you need to look for stronger examples and quotations to support your argument? If a particular paragraph isn't working, try rewriting it. Tip: If you're not sure what's working and what isn't, show your writing to someone else. This might be a classmate, family member, writing center tutor, or just a friend who's good with words. Ask them for feedback. It's best if you can show your work to several people, so that you can get more than one opinion.

Brainstorming

Write the idea or topic in the center of your page. Jot down ideas that arise from it - sub-topics or directions you could take with the article. There are many different ways to brainstorm. You can brainstorm off one idea or word, or brainstorm off each subsequent word.