This is the culmination of several writing stages, such as the drafting stage, the revising stage, the editing stage, and the publishing stage. This process is often viewed as a linear one that results in a successfully written product if followed step by step.
Here’re the five fundamental steps of the writing process.
Prewriting: Before students start writing, they need to decide what exactly they’ll write about and do the required research. If students need to come up with their own topic for an assignment, they should think of what they’ve covered in the class. Students can explore the topics that made them interested or confused. The scope of the topic depends on the type of text students are writing (for example, a research paper or an essay). Once students know the topic, they need to search for relevant, authoritative sources and collect the information they need. This process varies based on the scope of the assignment and a student’s field of study.
Planning and outlining: It’s important to utilize a logical structure to convey information efficiently. It’s better to plan this out in advance than to work out the structure once students have already begun writing. Creating an essay outline is an effective way to plan out the structure before students start writing. This should help them work out the key ideas they want to focus on and how they’ll organize them. Students should use numbering or bullet points to make the structure clear at a glance.
Producing the first draft: Once students have a clear idea of the structure, they need to write a full first draft. They can use the outline as a framework to structure their writing. It’s important to ensure that every paragraph has a clear main focus that relates to the overall argument. When students move onto a new topic, they should start a new paragraph. They need to use appropriate transition phrases and words to establish the connections between the ideas. The goal at this stage is to write a complete draft, not to make everything perfect.
Revising: At this stage, students need to look critically at their first draft and identify potential areas for improvement. It’s best to leave the piece alone for one or two days after finishing the first draft and come back later to review it with fresh eyes. Students should make the major changes first, as they might have knock-on effects on the rest.
Publishing: Students submit the piece to the teacher in this last stage of the writing process.
