Transcript Elements of Literature: Character

The Writing Process
Introduction
Prewriting
Writing
Revising
Publishing
Your Turn: Describe the writing process
Introduction
Have you ever watched someone make pottery?
Build a birdhouse? Cook a fancy meal? Doing these
things well takes time, planning, and concentration.
It’s the same with writing. Good text must be carefully
planned and properly put together.
Introduction
Writing is a process, done in stages or steps, each of
which builds on the ones that came before.
There are four stages to the writing process:
Publishing
Revising
Writing
Prewriting
Prewriting
The Prewriting stage is where you build the
foundation for your writing project. You choose and
explore a topic, consider your purpose and audience,
and generate and organize your ideas.
Putting thought and effort
into this stage will pay off
later when it’s time to draft
your paper.
Prewriting
Sometimes you will choose a topic for your writing;
at other times you’ll be assigned a topic. In either
case, try to find an aspect of your topic that you find
interesting.
If you are interested in your topic
the writing process will be easier
and you will get better results!
Prewriting
Along with your topic, consider the form of your writing.
Are you writing an essay, a letter, a narrative, a
newspaper article?
Each has its own standards and requirements.
Prewriting
Be clear on the purpose of your writing.
Ask yourself some questions:
What am I trying to
accomplish?
Am I writing to convince,
inform, or entertain my
readers?
Understanding your purpose and remembering it as you
write is essential to achieving the goals of your writing.
Prewriting
Identify your audience! The audience is the person
or persons who will be reading what you write.
Ask yourself:
What are they like?
How can I make the best
impression on them through
my writing?
Keep your audience in mind as you select details,
develop support, and choose the language for your
writing. This will ensure that your final product will
appeal to the people for whom it is intended.
Prewriting
Now begin to gather information on your topic. How
you do this will depend on the type of writing you are
doing.
You may need to do research, make observations in
person, jot down details from memory, or interview
people.
Be thorough, but don’t forget that you can gather more
information later if necessary.
Prewriting
Once you’ve collected your information, create a plan
to organize it. Consider creating an outline or graphic
organizer to get your information into shape.
Choose an organizational
method that fits your topic
and form of writing.
Arrange your ideas and
details in the order that will
best present them. Plot the
ways these ideas and
details relate to one
another.
Main Idea
Supporting Detail 1
Supporting Detail 2
Supporting Detail 3
Writing
In the writing (or drafting) stage you take the work
that you did in prewriting and develop the first draft of
your composition.
Writing
First, draft an introduction that will grab your readers’
attention and familiarize them with your subject. Give
whatever background information will be needed for
them to understand the rest of your paper.
Your thesis, or main idea, will often appear in your
introduction.
Writing
Now proceed with the body of your paper. Follow your
organizational plan so that your writing remains
focused, but be prepared to modify your plan as new
ideas and better ways of presenting them occur to you.
Remember: You
don’t have to make
your text perfect the
first time through.
Review and revision
will come later.
Writing
Wrap up your paper with a conclusion. This part of
your text will often include a restatement of your
thesis. You can close your paper with a final image,
thought, or reflection that will leave your reader with
something to think about.
The conclusion is your last
chance to make an
impression on your reader!
Revising
Once you’ve finished your first draft, evaluate and
revise your work. Read your paper at least twice.
During the first reading, consider the content and
organization of your work.
Is your main idea clearly presented?
Have you included enough information on your topic?
Are your ideas in an order that makes sense?
Identify what is good and what needs improvement in
your work, and revise it.
Revising
During your second reading, concentrate on your style—
the word choice and sentence structure in your writing.
Ask yourself:
Is my language specific?
Are my thoughts expressed clearly?
Have I used a variety of types of sentences?
Remember: Even if your ideas are good,
poor style will make your work uninteresting!
Publishing
To publish your writing means to share it with the
audience for whom it was intended.
Prepare for publishing by
proofreading your work
to eliminate mistakes in
grammar, spelling, and
punctuation. Little
mistakes can ruin the
impact of well-crafted
writing.
Publishing
Some writers find it hard to proofread their own
writing. Consider sharing your work with someone else
or finding a “proofreading partner” with whom you can
swap papers.
Publishing
Finally, reflect on your writing experience. Think
about what you wrote and about the writing process
itself. Ask yourself questions such as:
1. What did I learn from this assignment that can help
me in future writing?
2. What mistakes will I avoid next time?
3. What were the strongest and weakest parts of my
paper? What made them the strongest and weakest?
4. What strategies did I use that I might use again in the
future?
Your Turn: Describe the writing process
Describe how you would follow the stages of the writing
process if you were writing each of the following.
1. a persuasive essay
2. an autobiographical narrative
The End