The Writing Process

Writers write, composers compose, from the time they select something to write/compose about. They go
through a process of putting efforts in the stages of: drafting, revising, and editing; until they send their writing
out into the world. The commonly called writing process also includes strategies that help writers move more
quickly and efficiently these stages.

Thinking about how to write? What to be done? Timing? Conditions/environment? Resources used?

Have you ever thought about how to write? … what do you do when you are assigned to write a paper due in
one week? Do you sit down that day and start writing the introduction: or do you sit down but do something else
instead? If you don’t work on the assignment right away, do you begin two days before deadline, or is your
favorite time the night before the paper is due? Do you write a few pages a day, every day, and let your paper
emerge gradually? Or do you prefer to draft it one day, revise the next, and proofread it just before handing it
in?
What writing conditions do you seek? Do you prefer your own room? Do you like to listen to certain kinds of
music? Do you deliberately go somewhere quiet, such as the library? Or do you prefer a coffee shop, a café’, or
a booth at McDonald’s?
With what do you write? Your own computer with Microsoft software in it, or the school’s computer with
whatever software is available? Or on a typewriter? Or with a pencil on lined paper? Or do you first write with
your favorite pen and then copy the result onto a computer?

Which of the habits or methods described here is the right one? Which technique yields the best results?
They all work!
There is no single best away to write. Different people prefer and tolerate wildly different conditions and still
manage to write well. While there is no best way to write, some ways do seem to work more, on more
occasions, than others.

On one hand writing is, has been, and will always remain a complex, variable, many-faceted process that
refuses to be reduced to a step-by-step procedure or foolproof formula.
On the other hand, people have been writing since the dawn of history, and during that time some habits and
strategies have proved more helpful than others.
Learning writing process saves us all: time, grief, and energy. Perhaps all three!

The five carefully identified yet overlapping and often non-sequential Phases of the Process of Writing are:
1- Planning, 2- Drafting, 3- Researching, 4- Revising, & 5- Editing.

Using your native language when composing in English

One may want to compose in both his/her native language as well as in English when working on a writing assignment. For
e.g. you may brainstorm, make notes, or create outlines in your native language, or you could use native-language words or
phrases when you are not sure of the English equivalents. Using your native language may highly help you avoid writer’s
block and develop fluency in English. Periodically you should evaluate the effectiveness of your composing strategies. For
instance, if you find that using a native language-to-English dictionary often results in unidiomatic constructions, you may
want to become more familiar with a good English-to-English dictionary.
 Planning

Planning involves:
(1) Creating (2) Discovering (3) Locating (4) Developing (5) Organizing & (6) trying out ideas.

Writing doesn’t happen accidently but on purpose. To produce good writing, regardless of who started it, we
need to understand and take control of our own purpose. The 03 broad and overlapping purposes of writing are:
i. Writing to discover;
ii. Writing to communicate; &
iii. Writing to create.

Think first about the range of purposes that writing serves. People write to discover what’s on their minds, figure
things out, vent frustrations, keep records, and remember things. They write to communicate information, ideas,
feelings, experiences, concerns, and questions. And they sometimes write for the pleasure of creating new
forms, imaginary concepts, and various experiences.

Writers plan deliberately when they make notes, turn casual lists into organized outlines, write journal entries,
compose rough drafts, and consult with others. They also plan less deliberately while they walk, jog, eat, read,
browse in libraries, converse with friends, or wake up in the middle of the night thinking.

At its beginning, a writing task has an almost unlimited number of ways of being accomplished, so planning
often involves articulating these possibilities and trying some while discarding others. Planning also involves
limiting those options, locating the best strategy for the occasion at hand, and focusing energy in the most
productive direction.

Planning comes first. It also comes second and third, no matter how careful your first plans, the act of writing
usually necessitates that you keep planning all the way through the writing process, that you continue to think
about why you are writing, what you are writing, and for whom.
When writers are not sure how their ideas will be received by someone else they often write to themselves first,
testing their ideas on a friendly audience, and find good voices for communicating with others in later drafts.

As a teacher, during the planning process for English 1 notes, I was both trying out ideas and exploring broadly
and narrowing my thinking to focus on my purpose as a writer and the purposes that the notes compiled by me
will serve. I had to consider my audience, who all will be using the notes. I had to find my voice not only as an
English 1 teacher but as a compiler / writer / composer. Would I be friendly and casual, authoritative, and
serious?

We spent some time inventing and discovering ideas, figuring out what kind of information I, or my readers
knew, and where to find all what that is not known.

Strategies for Planning

1. Plan to plan. Make planning a first, separate stage in the writing process.
2. Plan to continue planning while you draft, research, revise, and edit.
3. When you plan, write out crazy as well as sane ideas. While the wild ones may not in
themselves prove useful, they may suggest others what to do.
4. When stuck for ideas, try to articulate in writing or speech, how you are stuck, where you are
stuck, and why you think you are stuck. Doing so may help you get unstuck.
Drafting