I am a big enthusiast of the Writing Process, so much so
that I teach it in every English class that I teach. I feel that it warrants discussion because it
breaks writing up into smaller, manageable pieces that make the task less frightening.
Most students, especially college freshmen freak out when
given a writing assignment. They see
that they have to write 3 pages, and begin to fret & think… “I won’t be
able to write that much.” Then they look
at me like deer caught in headlights. I assure
them that they can do it.
I say… “I had to write a 25 page paper for a class one semester. I was overwhelmed, but I broke it up into
pieces, and I was able to write an “A” paper that the professor raved about.” That usually impresses them and calms them
down at the same time.
The Writing Process has 5 steps… prewriting, writing,
revising, editing, and publication. It is
a process that takes the writer from inception to completion. It makes the writing task easy to do because
you do it step by step.
In pre-writing, you generate ideas and plan out the
task. This is very important, and a step
that most of my students usually don’t do.
You think about your topic, come up with ideas of what to research
(making notes on and about your research so that you can use it when writing
your paper and to avoid plagiarism is important here), what to write about, and
how to organize your essay. You also
write an outline or essay map in this step.
This is vital to the success and quality of your essay. Without an outline or a map, you can ramble
in your essay, creating an essay that has no logical flow.
When you write, that’s just what you do… WRITE! You write out your words, or type out your
words. You do not focus on anything else
other than getting the words on the page… no editing, no revising, no researching… just writing!
(You may want to turn off the grammar/spell checker in your word
processor when writing.) çNote
to self!
As I tell my students… it’s okay to have errors in
your writing at this step of the process.
When you revise, you look at the content… in other words… “Am
I saying what I want to say, in the way that I want to say it?” “Does this make sense?” “Can I use better words?” Revision is making your writing SOUND
better!
Editing is looking for errors. I teach my students the COPS method of
editing… Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling. Editing makes your writing look better!
You have to revise and edit in two different steps. YOU HAVE TO DO IT TWICE!
Publishing is fun. You
may turn in an assignment to a professor, you may post it online, or you may
just read it to yourself. However you
publish, you should be proud of your work.
Using the writing process is beneficial to all levels of
writers. We all need to remember…
WRITING is a process, and we need to RESPECT THE PROCESS!
