The Writing Process USING THE STRATEGIES OF EXPERIENCED WRITERS COPYRIGHT LISA MCNEILLEY, 2010 The Steps in the Process Idea Generation/Prewriting Planning/Organizing Drafting Revising and Editing Proofreading Recursive Process Use steps in any order Backtrack to previous steps as needed Develop a strategy Your style Audience Writing task Idea Generation/Prewriting Purpose: Find ideas for topics Develop ideas for content Test validity of topic Determine areas for further development Strategies Clustering Asking Questions Brainstorming Free writing Talking Planning/Organizing Purpose Make decisions about the development of text Organize ideas Achieve coherence Organizing Strategies Develop a working thesis Develop a strategy/plan/writing approach Write an outline Planning Make final decisions about audience and rhetorical situations Audience Purpose Style/tone Drafting Purpose Get ideas onto the page Develop a starting point to shape into final product Create the first version of the essay Drafting Strategies Write individual sections from your outline Write in any orderstart with easier sections and do more difficult ones as you build confidence More Drafting Strategies Dont worry about end productlet yourself write garbage because you can fix it during revision Pull together sections into the form of the text you want Develop paragraphs Revising and Editing Perform each step separately Revise first Edit last Use peer responseother people will catch things you didnt Revising Relate points to thesiseverything should be relevant Focus on content and clarity of ideas Provide enough specific support and evidence Make sure organization is logical Add, delete, move, rewriteyour revised draft should be significantly different from your first draft Editing Look at sentence level issues Correct grammar and punctuation errors Check spelling Pay close attention to names, dates, numbers and quotes Dont rely on computer programs they make mistakes Last, But Most Important Read your paper out loud!