What is the Writing Process? Introduction Prewriting Writing Revising Publishing Your Turn: Describe the writing process

Introduction Imagine that you want to bake a cake. What do you need to do? First, you find a recipe and gather your ingredients. Then you follow the steps in the recipe. Finally, you eat the cake! Baking a cake is a process. Writing is also a process.

Introduction A process means doing something in a series of steps. Each step builds on the ones that came before. There are four stages to the writing process: Publishing Revising Writing Prewriting

Prewriting The prewriting stage is where you do all of the important planning for your writing project. During prewriting, you choose and explore a topic consider your purpose and audience generate and organize your ideas Putting thought and effort into this stage will pay off later when it’s time to write your paper.

Prewriting Sometimes you will choose a topic for your writing; at other times you’ll be assigned a topic. In either case, try to find something about your topic that really interests you. If you are interested in your topic the writing process will be easier— and you will get better results!

Prewriting After you have chosen a topic, think about the form, or type of writing you will do. Are you writing a friendly letter? a newspaper article? a story? Each has its own style and requirements.

Prewriting Be clear on the purpose of your writing. Ask yourself some questions: What do I want my audience to learn from my writing? Am I writing to convince, inform, or entertain my readers? It is important to keep the reason you are writing in mind as you draft. This will help keep you focused.

Prewriting Identify your audience! Your audience is the person or people who will be reading what you write. Ask yourself: Who will read this? What do they want to read about? What style of writing will they relate to? Keep your audience in mind as you select details, develop support, and choose the language for your writing. This will help you make your writing effective.

Prewriting Now begin to gather information on your topic. Depending on the type of writing you are doing, you may need to do research make observations use your imagination interview people Be thorough, but don’t forget that you can gather more information later if necessary.

Prewriting Once you’ve collected your information, create a plan to organize it. Consider creating an outline or graphic organizer to get your information into shape. Choose a graphic organizer that fits your topic and form of writing. Arrange your ideas and details in the order that will best present them. Main Idea Supporting Detail 1 Supporting Detail 2 Supporting Detail 3

Writing In the writing (or drafting) stage, you take the plans you made during prewriting and use them to write the first draft of your composition.

Writing First, write an introduction. Your introduction should: grab the reader’s attention make the reader familiar with your subject state your thesis, or main idea

Writing Now you will write the body of your paper. Follow your outline or organizer so that your writing will stay on track. Remember: You don’t have to make your text perfect the first time through. Review and revision will come later.

Writing Finish your paper with a conclusion. This last part of your writing will often restate the main idea of your writing. You can close your paper with a final message, thought, or question that will leave your reader with something to think about. The conclusion is your last chance to make an impression on your reader!

Revising Once you’ve finished your first draft, evaluate and revise your work. Read your paper at least twice. During the first reading, think about the content and organization of your work. Is your main idea clearly presented? Have you included enough information on your topic? Are your ideas in an order that makes sense?

Revising During your second reading, pay attention to your word choice and sentence structure. Ask yourself: Is my language specific? Are my thoughts expressed clearly? Have I used a variety of types of sentences?

Publishing To publish your writing means to share it with the audience you wrote it for. Prepare for publishing by proofreading your work. When you proofread, you correct mistakes in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Little mistakes can ruin the impact of well-crafted writing.

Publishing Some writers find it hard to proofread their own writing. Try sharing your work with someone else or finding a “proofreading partner” with whom you can swap papers.

Publishing Finally, reflect on your writing experience. Think about what you learned from the writing process itself. Ask yourself questions such as: What did I learn from this assignment? What strategies were helpful? What were the strongest and weakest parts of my paper? What mistakes will I avoid next time?

Your Turn: Describe the writing process Describe how you would follow the stages of the writing process if you were writing each of the following: 1. a persuasive letter 2. a biographical essay about someone you admire

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