Finding Your Focus: The Writing Process
Everyone has a writing process.
Why do you need a writing process? It can help writers to organize their thoughts. It can help writers to avoid frustration and procrastination. It can help writers to use their time productively and efficiently.
Steps of the Writing Process Prewriting Drafting Revising Self Revising Peer Revising Editing Publishing
Prewriting: coming up with your topic Brainstorming: Getting your ideas on paper so you can give yourself the widest range of topics possible
Listing Political apathy Animal abuse NFL instant replay Air pollution Telemarketing scams Internet censorship NBA salary caps Paper Topics Brainstorming
Mapping Out Ideas ME Internet censorship telemar- keting scams NFL instant replay NBA political apathy three-party system salary caps sportsmanship animal abuse First Amendment Flag Burning Amend- ment
Data Collection Gathering ideas Locating and evaluating research Conducting interviews
Drafting: getting your ideas on paper in an organized way. Give yourself ample time to work on your project. Find a comfortable place to do your writing. Avoid distractions. Take breaks.
Revising: reviewing ideas and making changes Review higher-order concerns: Clear communication of ideas Organization of paper Paragraph structure Strong introduction and conclusion
Editing: checking for correctness Review later- order concerns: Spelling Punctuation Capitalization Grammar Format
Editing Tips Slowly read your paper aloud. Read your paper backwards. Exchange papers with a friend. NOTE: Spell check will not catch everything, and grammar checks are often wrong!
Publishing: creating a final copy that celebrates your work Format: Final Draft (minimum: 1 ½ pages written, 1 page typed) Final drafts must be written in ink or typed Typed: double spaced, times new roman, font size 12 Written: legible, black ink, no skipping lines
The Writing Process: Find Your Focus Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing Publishing