THE WRITING PROCESS

Saleem Khan
25 March 2016
WRITING PROCESS
ng is a whole process of discovering ideas, developing
rganizing them, and revising material to achieve the
ffect.

writing takes time and practice.

writer must discover the approach that works best on

articular occasion.
 Experienced writers pass through the
following stages:

1.ASSESSING THE WRITING

SITUATION:
• Subject
• Matter
• Writer’s attitude towards the subject,
• Purpose,
• Audience, and
• Sources of information
 Subject

• Is your subject interesting and important to you?

• Is it too broad or too narrow? Is it appropriate to
the time and space?
 Writer’s Attitude toward the Subject

• What is your overall attitude toward the subject? Is

it positive? Negative? Curious? Indifferent?
• Do you have any preconceptions about the topic?
 Purpose

• What is your main purpose? Is your goal to provide

information, to explain something, to persuade your
readers, to take a certain course of action, or to
entertain the readers?
• What do you want your audience to think or feel
after reading the writing?
 Audience

• Who are your targeted readers? How are you

connected to them?
• What attitude will you take toward your readers, for
example, formal, informal, sarcastic, angry, or
confident?
 Sources of Available Information

• What type of evidence will you use to support and

illustrate your points: personal experience, direct
observation, interviews, questionnaires, library, or
Internet research?
• How will you evaluate the usefulness of your
sources?
2. EXPLORING & PLANNING

• Exploring and planning can help you to discover

ideas, determine which aspect of a subject will be
your focus, and find details to support your points.
• It is a prewriting activity that helps generate ideas
for drafting.
 Exploring and Planning has the following techniques:

a. Brainstorming
b. Free-writing
c. Clustering
d. The Journalist’s Questions
e. Outlining
f. Keeping a Journal
 Brainstorming

• Write a list of everything you can think of-ideas,

impressions, experiences, examples, facts, and
associations-related to a particular topic.
• Don’t be concerned about the order of ideas or how
important they seem.
• Use words and phrases, rather than sentences, to
create your list.
• Read through your list and look for patterns. Try to
make connections among items by grouping them
into categories.
 Freewriting

• Write down your ideas in whatever manner and

order they come. Don’t worry about complete
sentences, grammar, spelling, or punctuation.
• Continue writing for the entire amount of time;
don’t stop at all.
• Read what you’ve written and underline an idea
that you’d like to pursue.
 Clustering
• Write you topic in the middle of an unlined sheet of
paper and draw a circle around it.
• Draw a line from your topic to an idea suggested by it
and circle this idea.
• Continue associating to further ideas, details, and
experiences.
• When you finish with one major division of your topic,
return to the center and start again with another idea.
Repeat the process until you run out of ideas.
• Look over your diagram and decide which chains of
ideas seem the most intriguing.
 The Journalist’s Questions
• Ask the questions journalists use when reporting an
event: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
• Don’t stop until you have considered all six
perspectives.
• After you have written the questions, answer each
one using brief notes.
 Outlining
• An outline is a list of a writer’s main points in the order they will
appear in an essay or other written work.
• There are two types of outlines: informal and formal.
• An informal outline is a brief list of the main points in the order they
will appear and the major supporting details. It is usually written in
phrases, not complete sentences.
• A formal outline is generally more detailed than an informal one
and has a specific pattern of presentation.
• Most writers use an informal outline to help organize their ideas.
• Write a thesis statement at the top of the outline.
• Create a list of the major points you intend to make in the essay.
• Under each point, write the main detail(s) you will use to support it:
examples, statistics, anecdotes, quotations, and/or definitions.
 Keeping a Journal
• A journal is a notebook in which you record your ideas
and reactions to various issues.
• Reflect on personal experiences, observations, feelings,
and opinions about issues, events, and readings.
• Discuss what you like or dislike about an issue or
reading, what you agree or disagree with, or what you
find clear or unclear.
• Explore relationships among people, issues, or readings,
commenting on similarities and differences.
• Reflect on your own writing process: strengths,
weaknesses, challenges, and strategies.
3. Drafting
• When you write a first draft of an essay or research
paper, you express your ideas in rough form.

• There may be many mistakes in grammar, spelling,

punctuation, and mechanics in your first draft.

• Your goal is to discover and express meaning, to

find connections among ideas, and to seek an
effective structure for what you want to say.
• Start by writing an introduction in which you
present your subject and thesis statement, or
sentence stating your main idea and point of view. If
you have problems, move on to the body, or
middle, and return to the introduction later.
• Write the body paragraphs, in which you present
your major points and the details that will support
or illustrate them: examples, facts, quotations,
anecdotes etc.
• Write a conclusion, in which you reflect on your
topic and bring the write-up to a logical close.
4. REVISING
• Revision involves a whole process of “re-vision,” or
seeing again-rethinking and reshaping the content
and structure of a draft to improve it at all levels:
word, sentence, paragraph, and essay.

• To revise an essay, a writer adds, deletes, omits

rearranges, and rewords material.
 Content

• Do I need to add, delete, rearrange, or reword any

material?

• Do I omit any important points or repeat any

material unnecessarily?
 Audience

• Have I taken into account the expectations,

interests, and needs of my readers?

• Are my topic, purpose, and tone appropriate for this

particular audience?
 Purpose

• Is my purpose clear, for exam, to inform, persuade,

or entertain?
• Do I want my audience to think or act in a certain
way after reading the essay? If so, have I
accomplished my purpose?
 Tone

• Is the tone of the essay appropriate for my topic,

audience, and purpose?

• Is the tone consistent throughout the essay? If not,

are the variations intentional?
 Title

• Do I have an effective title that states or suggests

my topic and sparks the readers’ interest?

• Is the title vague, obscure, or inappropriate?

 Clarity

• Is the thesis, or main idea, clear?

• Are all of my points and supporting details clear?

 Unity

• Do all of the sentences in each paragraph clearly

relate to the main idea of the paragraph?
• Do all of the paragraphs clearly support the thesis
of the essay?
 Coherence

• Are all of the sentences, paragraphs, and larger

divisions of my essay logically connected?
• Are there smooth transitions among paragraphs,
and do these connections help to develop my
points?
 Development

• Do I support my thesis and main points with

sufficient detail, such as examples, facts, statistics,
reasons, anecdotes, quotations, and definitions?
• Does each body paragraph explain, clarify, or
illustrate the thesis and make a new point or
expand on a point already made?
 Organization

• Does the introduction give my readers a sense of

the topic and engage their interest?
• Do the body paragraphs and the essay as a whole
have a logical pattern of organization? Should I
rearrange any material?
• Does the conclusion explore the broader
implications of my topic and bring the essay to a
satisfying close?
5. EDITING &
PROOFREADING
• Editing involves looking closely at individual
sentences for technical correctness-grammar,
spelling, punctuation, mechanics-and effective
structure and word choice.
• Your point is not to produce a “perfect” essay but to
make your meaning clearer and your language
more forceful.
Proofreading involves reading the final draft of
the essay for any typing errors.

Editing consists of the following:

a. Word choice-diction
b. Sentence structure
c. Grammar
d. Usage
e. Citation of sources
f. Essay format
Thanks for Active
Participation
!!!