The Writing Process

Prewriting: Before you begin writing, it is a good idea to generate ideas around your topic. Writers use different strategies to gather ideas.

A few strategies you might try are:

• Brainstorming: Write as many words or phrases that are associated with your topic. Give yourself a limited amount of time (5 minutes) to come up with as many ideas as possible. No idea is too silly. Record everything that comes to mind. Click here to see an example
• Free Writing: You will need a blank sheet of paper and a pen. There are four simple rules: 1. Fill the page. 2. The pen does not stop. 3. No crossing out or correcting. 4. Write whatever comes into your head. Click here to see an example
• Web mapping: This is similar to brainstorming, but each of the ideas that is connected to another idea is drawn with circles connected to other circles ( see example) a lot like a spider web. Click here to see an example
• Point form notes: Some writers simply record as many ideas as possible using point form notes on one page. Click here to see an example

Planning: Think about the purpose and audience for your writing.

• Purpose: The purpose of writing a paragraph may be to inform, to instruct, to describe, to tell a story, or to entertain. You will be writing paragraphs in both descriptive and narrative formats, which means that you will be be writing one paragraph to describe something, and one paragraph to tell a story.
• Audience: Think about who you are writing for. Your word choice should reflect the intended audience.

Drafting:

Writers generally don't get the results they want with the first draft. On rare occasions, everything works in the first draft, but most of the time more than one draft is needed to shape the writing. Have a look at some examples of first drafts

Revising: ( Editing and Proofreading)

It is important to be confident that your message accomplishes what you hope it will do. Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone from your intended audience, and read through your writing. How would they respond? Does your paragraph say what you intended?