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The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic
steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.
Step 1: Prewriting
Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write
about and do the necessary research.
If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of
what you’ve covered in class—is there a particular area that intrigued, interested,
or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect,
as these are questions you can explore in your writing.
The scope of your topics depends on what type of text you’re writing—for
example, an essay, a research paper or a dissertation. Don’t pick anything too
ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to
say.
Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and
gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of
study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:
Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before
you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to
focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s
okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.
An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:
a. Introduction
Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express
the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park?
e.Conclusion
Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and
the performance of morals
Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full
first draft.
This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin
writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you
have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.
Example of a paragraph
When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use
appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your
ideas.
The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything
perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a
clearer idea of where improvement is needed.
Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of
time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like
a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual
chapters.
Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for
improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while
revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.
Evaluating the first draft
It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after
completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes;
you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.
When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger
issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger
concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something
you end up cutting out anyway.
For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a
supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their
advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need
improvement.
Redrafting and revising
Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes
first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what
your text needs, this step might involve:
You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several
times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.
Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you
have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a
messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most
important changes.
When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and
grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:
Grammatical errors.
Ambiguous phrasings.
Editing example
Spelling errors.
Missing words.
Punctuation errors.
Use your word processor’s built-in spell check, but don’t expect to find
100% of issues in this way. Read through your text line by line, watching out for
problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might
have missed.
For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:
Proofreading example
a.Mery Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny
and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
c.Mery Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both
Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.
There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose
between multiple different standards. For example:
Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice
which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one
standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British
spellings in your paper.