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Writing Process Description

When writing a process of preparation, writing, revising and editing if followed. Each of

these stages help to create a final piece of writing that could potentially be published. Each writer

uses these steps in their own ways and in their own order, which makes the writing process

slightly different from person to person. Although some processes may be more effective than

others.

The first phase of the writing process is preparation. In the book Writing about Writing

Brekenkotter and Murray describe a study they conducted which had a focus on the writers

planning abilities. During the study, they collected data that showed up to 45%, 56%, and 35%

of the writers activities were concerned with planning (Berkenkotter, 837). That left the other

55%, 44%, and 65% to be divided between revising, evaluation, and editing activities that the

writers conducted. This shows how for most of the writers that were included in this study that

they spent a good portion of their time planning their writing before starting the writing phase. A

specific activity during the preparation phase that is mentioned by Michael Polanyi is incubation.

She describes incubation as that persistence of heuristic tension through period of time in

which problems are not consciously entertained (Polanyi, 840). Simply it is going away after

looking at a writing prompt and just letting it sit and waiting for ideas to generate with time.

Then after one has thought about it for a while then beginning the writing stage. Berkenkotter

also mentions that these incubation periods dont have to be long, they could be gaps in time

while one is writing. This first phase of the writing process is to plan out the writing so that it can

be written in a more organized and logical manner.

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My process for preparation before I get into writing involves having a print out of the

rubric or a tab with it open as I go through the paper. Recently Ive gotten into the habit of

outlining prior to writing, and by doing this it makes the writing process a lot shorter. This also

helps to keep the papers more organized. Instead of writing about topics as they pop in my head I

can do that in the outlining while Im preparing and then write in a more clear and concise way

that hopefully makes the paper easier to understand.

The second phase of the process is writing. The writing phase of the writing process is

where one would start putting all the ideas they are creating during the planning phase and put it

into a paper format, following heuristic guidelines as well as their own individual writing

process. Pigg, another author in the book writing about writing talks more about the writing

phase. A major theme that Pigg writes about is that the writing process is not actually solitary,

and she specifically looks at a blogger who instead works collaboratively with other writers

through social media (Pigg, 711). She watched Daves writing practices for a week while he

worked on his blog in a coffee shop and talks about some of her observations. She saw the

drafting, editing, and publishing aspects that went into Dave creating his fatherhood blog. She

also noted how he spent a lot of the time looking at his emails, twitter, and other related blog

posts by other people. With writing there are certain rules that everyone has been taught that play

a role in their writing processes. The idea of algorithmic rules and heuristic rules is that

algorithmic rules are rules that must be followed and heuristic are more like guidelines. In early

English classes they are taught as if they were algorithmic rules, such as not writing in first

person or always having five to six sentences in each paragraph. While they are nice rules they

are more guidelines than set in stone rules. Each person will have their own set of heuristic rules
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that they follow while writing and based on what works for them will be an important part of

their writing process.

During my writing process I will put my paper on one side of the screen and the rubric on

the other or in another tab and I will look at it as I go. Most of the time this process works very

well for me. This works really well with outlining because I can then see if I missed an important

point in the outline or if the outline is going off topic from the rubric and I can correct it in this

phase as Im writing. I really like the concept of heuristic rules and not always writing in a linear

fashion. This keeps everything flowing and in the areas where I cant seem to write as much, and

I can move past these sections and go back to them later once Ive completed more of the paper,

which I can then use to help fill in the difficult pieces of the paper.

Revising and editing is the final phase of the writing process. This phase is usually after

the writing has been finished, but it can also be done while one is in the process of writing. This

is different from writer to writer as some may revise sentence by sentence, paragraph by

paragraph or wait until the end and revise the entire essay. Editing is usually done after revising.

Editing, which is local, consists of more specific changes such as fixing grammar or changing

words out to make an idea clearer. Compared to revising, which is global, meaning its a broader

scan of a paper which may lead to off topic paragraphs or sentences being deleted if the author or

editor deemed them unnecessary. Joseph M. Williams also talks about editing and revising in his

section of the book. His section was a lot about form follows function, meaning that while its

important to have good grammar and punctuation, whats much more important is that the idea

gets across to the reader. Williams also picks apart other authors as he points out how they break

their own rules in their writings. An example of this is with E.B. White where Williams points

out a faulty parallelism, and according to his (Whites) rules, are incorrect (Williams, 809).
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In terms of revising and editing I tend to go a trusted friend who has a knack for essays. I

will revise and edit as a go during the writing phase, usually after each paragraph Ill reread what

Ive written and determine if it fits, sounds right, etc. After Ive given my paper to my friend I

will look at their comments and see if they are accurate corrections. At this point it would usually

have been a day at least so Ill look it over again myself being rested, and I may find something I

missed while writing.

Analysis of the writing process effectiveness

Every person has their own version of the writing process. Some processes that people

choose to use may be more effective than others. For me specifically, it isnt the worst, but there

is always room for improvement. When I write I tend to do minimal planning prior, such as with

an outline. Im almost certain that if I were to put more time into the planning phase it would

take a lot of time out of the writing phase and make the writing process much more effective. It

was very helpful going to the writing center and getting help with planning the autoethnography.

Another place of improvement in my process could be in distractions, while writing I easily lose

focus, and once this improves so will the amount of time it takes to write. I tend to revise as a go.

Every few sentences Ill go back and revise, once Ive done this with the entire paper Ill give it

to someone I trust and ask them to check it. Although in the future I wont point out a specific

area as weve learned that sometimes people will point out mistakes that may not be there just

because I bring attention to it. An extremely helpful change to my process is the idea of not

always starting with the introduction. Contrary to how they teach in grade school, as more

algorithmic English rules, looking at the English rules more as suggestions and a guideline

helped the process.

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Overall my writing process works for what I have to do. It can always be more effective

and there are always ways to improve in everything, but currently it gets the job done. There are

plenty of things I have learned and am working on implementing into my writing processes that

will hopefully make things easier and faster when it comes to taking care of essays or any other

writing assignment I may have to do. The way I write and what I write about will always be

changing as well, so as long as I can stay adaptive and be ready and able to pick up new tricks it

should go well.

Conclusion

The writing process is simply a way of determining how people write and actively

considering what specifically people do while they are writing and all the factors that go into a

piece of writing. Factors such as the environment one is in, or the topic and tie limits placed on

the writing all play a role in how effective a persons writing process can be.
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References
Seow, A. (2002). The writing process. J. Richards and W. Renandya. Methodology in language
teaching. (pg315). Cambridge; Cambridge university press. Retrieved from
Ruecker, T. (2010). Writing process. El Paso; University of Texas. Retrieved from
https://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=65691
Pigg, S. (2017). Writing about writing. E. Wardle and D. Downs. Coordinating constant
invention. (pg711). Boston; Bedford/St. Martins
Berkenkotter, C. (2017). Writing about writing. E. Wardle and D. Downs. The planning
strategies of a publishing writer. (pg830). Boston; Bedford/St. Martins
Williams, J. (2017). Writing about writing. E. Wardle and D. Downs. The phenomenology of
error. (pg803). Boston; Bedford/St. Martins
The Writing Process: Capella interactive media. Retrieved from
http://www.capella.edu/interactivemedia/onlineWritingCenter/downloads/TheWritingPro
cess.pdf