Steps in the Writing Process
- Consider your reason for writing.
- Think about your purpose and your audience.
- Generate ideas by freewriting and listing.
- Jot down your ideas, observations, impressions, and facts.
- Review your prewriting notes.
- Look for main ideas, patterns and associations, and striking details.
- Choose and sharpen your focus, adding or deleting as needed.
- Make a tentative writing plan using an idea map, idea clusters, a list, and an informal outline.
- Begin your first draft, guided (but not controlled) by your plan.
- Reworks as you go, letting your writing lead you to new ideas.
- Let your draft cool. Incubate.
- Read you first draft aloud
- Be your own editor. Make changes in organization, content, emphasis, and expression.
- Be your own proofreader. Check for sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
- Prepare the final draft.