THE WRITING PROCESS: AN OVERVIEW

[AjAlan]

“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.”
— Chinua Achebe

Writing is an art that is never quite perfected. That does not mean, however, that you should not strive to make each piece of writing the best that it can be. All good writers should follow the steps of the writing process before submitting an assignment. Many of the errors caught by your teachers can be fixed before submission if you pay attention to this process.

Stages of the Writing Process:

Good writing cannot be done without going through the stages of the writing process. Usually, writers start with choosing a topic and brainstorming possible ideas. Then, create an outline which addresses each main topic and the details that go with each point. After that, take the content from the outline and put the ideas into sentences and paragraphs. This is the first draft of writing, typically called a rough draft. After writing a rough draft, start to edit the writing; here spelling and grammatical errors are fixed, sentences that do not make sense or could be clearer are rewritten, and some sentences are added or removed. Further explanations are provided below:

1) Brainstorming
The first step is brainstorming. Brainstorming is when you think about the topic and main ideas you will include in your writing as well as how you will write. You do not need to write sentences at this stage (creating a list of ideas that you came up with, or drawing a map and diagram, or just writing down whatever you can think of without thinking about grammar); only jot down possible topics and ideas relevant to the assignment. As long as the topics and ideas are appropriate, do not worry about whether they are good or bad, just write them down. You can sort out the bad a bit later. Think of brainstorming like a storm; the thunder and lightning that comes from a thunderstorm in the sky is similar to pouring out your random topics and ideas on a piece of paper.

2) Outlining
Next, after brainstorming, sort out the best topics and ideas that you want to put together for your writing assignment. Usually, the best way to outline your ideas is to separate your thoughts into the three main parts of any basic paragraph/essay: topic sentence/introduction, main details/body, and concluding sentence/conclusion. The specific structure of each paragraph/essay may vary from assignment to assignment. Many writers call an outline a “skeleton” because it only includes the essential elements that need “fleshing out.” Here you have an idea on what to say for your introduction and conclusion, your topic sentences and brief descriptions (not sentences) of your main points that relate to and support your topic sentences. Once you have the skeleton in place, you can start thinking about how to add additional details to it, which is the next step.

3) Writing a Rough Draft
Writing a rough draft means you will take the information from your outline and write sentences and paragraphs. This rough draft is a first draft. This rough/first draft should be the complete writing assignment with all the required parts. After you write your complete assignment, you are ready for the final step before submission, editing.

4) Editing Your Writing
The final stage, before submission of your work, is editing; editing typically means that you go over your writing to make sure that you do not have any grammatical errors or strange phrases that make it difficult for your readers to understand what you are trying to say. In other words, editing means that you correct grammatical errors, sentence structure problems, and rewrite sentences that do not make sense. It also means you will add an important sentence if it is needed or delete sentences that are not important. When you edit, you are looking for big and little errors and ways to improve your writing.

If your overall writing is good, only with minor issues to consider, that process is often called “polishing” your writing: We often hear people talk about “polishing” your writing. If you talk about “polishing” writing, it means to improve and clean up minor issues with grammar and structure. If someone tells you to “polish your writing,” it means that you should go over your writing and make sure you do not have any errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and to make sure that all sentences are understandable.


This is the entire writing process. The little extra time and effort it takes to follow this process is well worth it.

KEEP ON WRITING!

[Schicksal]

Dear Ajarn Alan,

It is not easy for a non-native English speaker to follow those steps, but I will try to use it as reference to improve my writing.

Thank you for the great guidelines.

Have a nice day