Sometimes students will struggle with one step or another in the process of writing, but maybe they have a friend who seems to write effortlessly. Is the friend, perhaps, following a particular process that helps her draft her essay? What steps should students reasonably expect to take when writing an essay?
The Writing Process in a Nutshell
Decades of studying the writing process have led many scholars to believe that the writing process is not a neat, linear, step-by-step procedure; instead, the process is recursive. That is, steps in the process recur one or many times. It all depends upon the writer and the needs of his writing project.
That said, there are basic steps that have been identified that most, if not all, writers follow, whether deliberately or subconsciously. These steps include prewriting, drafting, and revising and proofreading.
Prewriting: The First Step in the Writing Process
Sometimes one might think beginning to write is the first step in the writing process, but actually it's not. Instead, people engage in prewriting, whether formally or informally, and prewriting consists of generating ideas about which to write. Prewriting can, but does not always, involve some or all of these activities:
- generating ideas (many students will perform activities such as freewriting, brainstorming, or clustering to come up with topics or ideas around those topics)
- conducting research (to find or expand ideas)
- organizing ideas (creating an outline is one way to organize ideas, but sometimes a student will simply jot down a "timeline" of "events" that will occur in her paper)
- anything else writers find helpful when preparing to write
Even though the natural next step is beginning to write, many writers will return to this step for multiple reasons, whether it's because an idea isn't working out as they thought and they want to start over or to dig deeper for more information about their original topic.
Drafting: Writing a Rough Draft
Obviously, the writing process must eventually involve a writing step, and, of course, it does. At some point, a student must begin writing. Again, though, writing does not need to be done in a linear manner. In other words, some students don't want to begin by writing the introduction of their paper, and that's okay. If the student is fascinated by the body of his paper or one particular section, he should begin there first.
Why? Well, writing can be difficult. If part of the project is easy (or at least more interesting), it makes sense to start there first. Once the project is started, it's easier to see the essay through to completion.
Finally, a rough draft doesn't need to be perfect; that's why it's called a rough draft. It becomes better through the final writing steps.
Working Toward a Final Draft: Revising and Proofreading
The final steps of the writing process involve a two-pronged approach to perfecting an essay. The first part is revision. Revision is when a student (sometimes with help from a tutor, another student in peer review, or from an instructor) takes a long, hard look at his essay from a global perspective and decides what changes he needs to make. He asks if his essay makes sense, transitions well, flows well, reads well; he decides if he needs to change the order of paragraphs, delete information, or add more.
Proofreading (also known as " editing ") is not as exciting. Sometimes, in fact, it can be dull. That doesn't mean that it's not important. Proofreading is the process whereby a student "cleans up" her essay; she must correct spelling errors, problems with punctuation and grammar, and correct typos. This is the process where the student makes sure there is nothing distracting in her paper, nothing to take away from what her message is.
It's important to distinguish these two processes, because revision often involves creativity and thinking on one's feet, whereas proofreading involves a more deliberate, methodical process. While the two processes can be done together, it's much easier to do them separately and often more productive to do them separately as well.
The Writing Process is Not Always Nice and Neat
So what if a student begins to revise his essay and realizes that it's just not what he wanted to say? Well, he can go back to prewriting or drafting again. The main thing to keep in mind is that there's nothing wrong with not moving from one step to the next in a fluid motion. Remember, the writing process is not linear, so students shouldn't feel bad if they don't work neatly from one step to the next.
Writing is a sometimes messy process, but it can help students learn what they think about something. It can help students solidify their opinions and feelings, or it can simply help them discover new ideas as they write for understanding. And when a student discovers a particular technique that works for her, she should keep doing it, no matter what it is. If it works, it's effective writing.
Cynthia Jones-Shoeman - Cynthia (“Cindy”) Jones-Shoeman earned her MA in English from Colorado State University in 2007; her thesis was "Toni ...
