Writing can be intimidating, even if you are an experienced writer. But a process – by breaking it down to simpler steps – can help you write faster and better. After all the way you write affects how well you write.
And a proper writing process can make all the difference.
The goal of this guide is to help you learn how to properly write, whether you are writing a research paper or a blog post for your website.
Read on to
- learn what the writing process is
- see the different writing processes (3-step, 4-step, 5-step, 6-step, and 7-step) that you might have come across before you landed on this page compared next to each other
- understand the proper writing process with each step explained in detail
- find useful templates that you can use throughout to simplify the writing process
Let’s dive right in.
What is the Writing Process?
Let’s start from the very beginning – by clarifying what it is first.
The writing process refers to the steps someone takes to compose text. That said, every individual writer follows his or her own writing process and it usually comes naturally to them.
But there are basic writing process steps that are universally referred to and followed. Understanding them will help you develop your very own writing process more easily.
Still not convinced why you need to follow a process? Following a proper writing process is actually important for a few good reasons
- It will help you write better and faster. By breaking down the task into manageable steps, you can do away with the struggling and procrastinating.
- Since you will be following individual steps, you can focus on each better, which in turn will be reflected in the quality of the final copy.
- Practice makes perfect. The more you follow the process, the more it will improve your writing skills.
- At the end of it, you’ll have something that is well-written, free of grammar or spelling errors, properly formatted and of greater quality.
Many different processesfor writing
If you have already searched the term writing process on the web, you may have come across several different types of it. Some claiming to have 3 steps, 4 steps or even 7 steps. Here’s what we found;
If you look closely, you’ll see that they refer to more or less the same steps. The 3-step process is a generalization of the other process types, while the 7-step process breaks down the sub-steps in the others.
In the 6-step process, marketing and reflecting refer to bringing what you’ve written in front of your audience and assessing the feedback to understand what you could have done better.
The 7-step writing process here is used mostly in schools where teachers guide the children by showing them how to write by planning and drafting a model piece in front of the class. Then they can incorporate the input of the children with a shared piece, which can then be evaluated, revised and edited (with the help of the teacher) before publishing.
The 5 Step Writing Process
For the sake of keeping it simple and effective, we’ll stick to a 5-step writing process that anyone can refer to and use for better results.
Step 1: Prewriting
Many tend to overlook this step completely.
They jump right into writing without taking the time to plan and organize their thoughts. And they end up with a low-quality piece that took a lot more time than they hoped.
Taking time to complete this step is important because it helps with gathering and preparing everything you need for the subsequent writing steps.
In this stage, spend time brainstorming and conducting research to understand your topic better and gather relevant information.
Rely on authoritative sources from experts in the subject area and list them down so you can refer to them when writing your piece later to increase its credibility.
It’s also a best practice to identify your target audience. Understanding your target reader and what they want well will help you narrow down your focus.
Some prewriting strategies you can use here are,
- Freewriting is writing freely without regarding quality or correctness (grammar, spellings, punctuation). The purpose is to get what’s in your head on to paper or screen without stopping. You can consider this as a warmup exercise.
- Clustering is also known as mind mapping, diagramming, bubbling, etc. and is a brainstorming method. This method uses visualization to capture your thoughts. Place your topic in the center and write down related ideas, terms or words that come into your mind around it connected by lines. You can delve further into these subtopics by breaking them down as well.
- Outlining helps with neatly organizing what you have already found out through research and brainstorming. It’ll help fish out the important points that will help you tell your story, from the jumble of ideas you have gathered. And it actually makes drafting a much easier task.
Step 2: Drafting
Now that you have researched the topic and have an outline ready, apply them to create a rough draft. Remember that this is only the first draft, meaning it will be revised and edited in the later steps.
It’s important that you only focus on getting the ideas roughly into sentences without worrying too much about spelling, grammar or vocabulary here.
If you spend time perfecting every sentence and paragraph that you write in the drafting stage, you’ll be more stressed and the quality of the final outcome will be lower.
Instead, work through the outline you’ve prepared earlier as you write. Write complete sentences and paragraphs, and almost as in freewriting don’t stop yourself to look back and edit.
However, try moderately to use proper grammar and put together words in a way that makes sense when you revise.
By the end of this step, you should have written everything you needed to say about the topic.
Step 3: Revising
This is a critical part of the writing process. It’s during this phase that you will revisit the draft and improve it by modifying and rearranging the content. To make it more appealing to the target audience you can add, rewrite or delete sentences or paragraphs.
And as you reread your draft, you will detect areas that need to be improved to reinforce your argument better. It may require you to do a little more thinking, and even in some cases more research, to find the information you need to logically prove your point.
You don’t have to do this step alone. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can help provide new insight that you might have missed; you can ask for help from your colleagues or peers during this stage.
You can revise your draft as many times as you want. However, it’s better to wait at least a few hours if not a day to revise you draft again after the first attempt.
Step 4: Editing
Editing requires you to fix grammar mistakes, spelling or punctuation errors, repetition, and style. This is why you should wait to edit until you are done with revising your piece; for there’s no point in editing something you will later delete or rewrite.
You can make this another chance to ensure that your article delivers what your title promises. It’s better to get someone else to read your piece in this step as well, for they may find errors that you might have gotten too tired to notice after sifting through it for dozens of times.
Step 5: Publishing
Then comes sharing your piece with your audience.
If you are adding it to a website or blog you may have to optimize it for SEO purposes and add visuals. In which case you may also have to consider marketing your piece, which you can do through social media, email newsletters, etc.
Any Tips or Advice?
You may have already developed your own signature writing process, maybe with a few additional steps to what we have covered here. We’d love to hear how you go about it, or any other tips that our readers may find useful.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
FAQs
What makes the 5 stages of writing process important? ›
It will help you write better and faster. By breaking down the task into manageable steps, you can do away with the struggling and procrastinating. Since you will be following individual steps, you can focus on each better, which in turn will be reflected in the quality of the final copy.
What are the 5 things of writing? ›The following is a brief description of five qualities of good writing: focus, development, unity, coherence, and correctness.
What are the five 5 things a writer must consider before writing academic texts? ›In academic writing you must consider many factors. The ones we will briefly discuss here are six general points you should take into consideration while writing academic papers. These are Audience, Purpose, Organization, Style, Flow and Presentation.
What are the 5 prewriting strategies? ›We often call these prewriting strategies “brainstorming techniques.” Five useful strategies are listing, clustering, freewriting, looping, and asking the six journalists' questions.
What are the 5 steps of writing an essay? ›- Step 1: Prewriting. Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you'll write about and do the necessary research. ...
- Step 2: Planning and outlining. ...
- Step 3: Writing a first draft. ...
- Step 4: Redrafting and revising. ...
- Step 5: Editing and proofreading.
The most popular are to inform, to entertain, to explain, or to persuade. However, there are many more including to express feelings, explore an idea, evaluate, mediate, problem solve, or argue for or against an idea. Writers often combine purposes in a single piece of writing.
What are the 5 important parts in writing academic paper? ›- Introduction.
- Body. First Point. Second Point. Third Point.
- Conclusion.
They are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.
What are the main writing strategies? ›Preparing to write
Listen and respond to guidance offered while producing your work. Keep focused on your question or task - keep asking yourself whether any material you plan to include is really relevant. Be clear, concise and to the point in what you write. Present your ideas in a clear and logical way.
Prewriting – in this stage, you plan what you are going to write. You choose your topic, identify your audience and purpose, brainstorm ideas, and organize your information.
What are the 5 main types of essays? ›
- Descriptive - Paint a Mental Picture.
- Expository - Explain Something.
- Narrative - Tell a Story.
- Persuasive - Convince the Audience of Your Point of View (POV)
- Argumentative - Explore a Topic and Establish a Point of View.
- FAQs.
The five-paragraph essay structure consists of, in order: one introductory paragraph that introduces the main topic and states a thesis, three body paragraphs to support the thesis, and one concluding paragraph to wrap up the points made in the essay.
What are 5 elements of a 5 sentence paragraph? ›A good paragraph has five basic elements: a topic, a topic sentence, supporting sentences, unity and coherence.
What are the 5 steps in writing a mail explain each elements? ›- Begin with a greeting.
- Thank the recipient.
- State your purpose.
- Add closing remarks.
- End with a closing salutation.
- Letter of Enquiry.
- Order Letter.
- Letter of Complaint.
- Reply to a Letter of Complaint.
- Promotion Letter.
- Sales Letter.
- Recovery Letter.
Friendly letters have a heading, greeting, body, closing and signature.
What are the 5 C's in report writing? ›All this can be avoided by following the 5 Cs of report writing. For reports to help your team in any situation, they have to be clear, concise, complete, consistent, and courteous.
What are the 5 characteristics of a paragraph? ›- Unity. Unity refers to the extent to which all of the ideas contained within a given paragraph "hang together" in a way that is easy for the reader to understand. ...
- Coherence. ...
- Adequate Development. ...
- Topic Sentences.
The Six Traits of writing are Voice, Ideas, Presentation, Conventions, Organization, Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency. It creates a common vocabulary and guidelines for teachers to use with students so that they become familiar with the terms used in writing.
What are the 5 characteristics of non academic writing? ›They are published quickly and can be written by anyone. Their language is informal, casual and may contain slang. The author may not be provided and will not have any credentials listed. There will be no reference list.
What are the stages of academic writing? ›
The general steps are: discovery\investigation, prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.
What are the five 5 steps in writing a research paper which is the first? ›- Choosing a research topic.
- Gathering research.
- Form a hypothesis or research question.
- Outlining.
- Write and edit.
Most children are typically taught a five-step writing process. These steps are: planning (also called prewriting), drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
What is the fifth step in writing? ›The five steps of the writing process are Planning, Writing the first draft, Revising, Editing and Proofreading, and Publishing.
What are the 4 basic of writing? ›The four main types of writing styles are persuasive, narrative, expository, and descriptive. In this blog post, we'll briefly explore the defining features of these four writing styles. For more help using these writing styles, schedule an appointment at the GWC!
What are the secrets of good writing? ›- Never save your best for last. ...
- The opening paragraph, sentence, line, phrase, word, title—the beginning is the most important part of the work. ...
- The first duty of a writer is to entertain. ...
- Show, don't tell or editorialize. " ...
- Voice is more important than image. " ...
- Story is more important than anything.
An effective writer is able to distill complex thoughts and ideas into simple, clear language that's quickly and easily understood by others. This valuable quality helps them tackle even the densest subject matter by breaking it down into uncomplicated pieces.
What are the 6 steps of the writing process? ›- What Is the Writing Process? ...
- The 6 Stages of the Writing Process. ...
- Prewriting. ...
- Planning. ...
- Drafting. ...
- Revising. ...
- Editing. ...
- Publishing.
"Brainstorming" is one of the most important steps in the writing process which you should never skip. This well-written and informative site introduces you to thirteen helpful and applicable techniques.
What are the 7 stages of writing process? ›The writing process, according to the EEF's 'Improving Literacy In Key Stage 2' guidance report, can be broken down into 7 stages: Planning, Drafting, Sharing, Evaluating,Revising, Editing and Publishing.
Why are the stages of writing important? ›
Reduce anxiety and stress. By knowing that you have a series of separate steps you can follow that break the intimidating task of "WRITING" down into manageable parts, you will feel much less anxiety and struggle in writing.
Why are the steps in the writing process important? ›The writing process—prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, rewriting, publishing—mirrors the way proficient writers write. In using the writing process, your students will be able to break writing into manageable chunks and focus on producing quality material.
Why is it important to know the stages of writing development? ›Young children move through a series of stages as they are learning to write. The stages reflect a child's growing knowledge of the conventions of literacy, including letters, sounds and spacing of words within sentences. Almost every interaction in a child's world is preparing them to become a reader and writer.
What are the steps in writing process and why is it important? ›While no guide can help you find what situations will work best for you to write, there are steps in the writing process that promote a cleaner, better final draft. The general steps are: discovery\investigation, prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.
What is the most important writing process? ›"Brainstorming" is one of the most important steps in the writing process which you should never skip. This well-written and informative site introduces you to thirteen helpful and applicable techniques.
What is the most important part of writing? ›Ideas are really the most important part of a piece of writing. After all, ideas are the reason writers write. If we didn't have any ideas, we wouldn't need any words to express them. And if we didn't need any words — well, you get the idea.
What is the process of writing? ›Writing is a process that can be divided into three stages: Pre-writing, drafting and the final revising stage which includes editing and proofreading. In the first stage you research your topic and make preparatory work before you enter the drafting stage.
What is the most important step in writing an essay? ›Your essay needs a thesis statement
Of these, the most important by far is your thesis, or the crux of what your essay is about. Your thesis, encapsulated in your thesis statement, is the central point you're trying to make.
Order of Importance
The most important idea is described in the writing first, followed by the second most important, then the third, and so on and so forth. This type of pattern is often seen in essays, which focus on a single topic with supporting details.
There are four stages that kids go through when learning to write: preliterate, emergent, transitional, and fluent. Knowing which stage your child is in – whether he's scribbling in the preliterate stage or using "dictionary-level" spelling in the fluent stage – can help you support his writing development.
How do writing skills develop? ›
- Review grammar and spelling basics. Grammar and spelling form the foundation of good writing. ...
- Read what you want to write. Knowing what a finished piece of writing can look like can guide your own. ...
- Proofread. ...
- Get feedback. ...
- Think about structure. ...
- Write. ...
- Know some common fixes.
Writing the first draft of your report is one of the most important stages of constructing a successful one. The purpose of the first draft is not to write a perfect document, but rather to get all the main points of your information out of your head and onto the page.
What is the most important step in the writing process quizlet? ›Students tend to skip over the revising and editing processes, because they feel that it's not needed, or unnecessary. This is a mistake, because these steps are the most important in the Writing Process. Why are revising and editing the most important steps?
What is the first step of the writing process? ›1. Prewriting – in this stage, you plan what you are going to write. You choose your topic, identify your audience and purpose, brainstorm ideas, and organize your information.