4.0 The Writing Process
This chapter covers steps in the writing process, from start to finish, regardless of the specific type of essay.
The writing process is a series of steps that a writer goes through to move from a blank page to a completed written composition. Understanding and using the steps of the writing process can help you avoid the all-too-common mistake of trying to write a completed final draft from scratch as one single step, which is doomed to produce inferior work. Although experienced writers eventually customize their writing processes, nearly all successful writers, from students to professionals, use some form of this writing process, of which there are five steps:
These are the five steps in the writing process:
- Prewriting
- Outlining
- Drafting
- Revising
- Editing
Of course, you must keep in mind that in every step of the writing process, you must guide your decisions based on your subject, your audience, and your purpose, as noted at the beginning of this textbook.
There are many ways to approach this process. The most important lesson to understand about the writing process is that it is recursive, meaning that you need to move back and forth between some or all of the steps. Additionally, these steps can look different to many writers, and this process changes depending on the writer’s preferences. Allowing yourself enough time to begin the assignment before it is due will give you time to move from one step to the other, and back as needed. Perhaps the easiest way to think about this process is as a series of steps that you can move from one to the other and back again.
