The Process of Effective Writing
"The writing process" involves taking a piece of writing from the point of first developing ideas, to organizing those ideas, through writing the first draft in response to those ideas, to editing, revising, and proofreading this draft as many times as necessary in order to produce the best possible, the most effective, finished product. This process is not orderly, or linear. It is messy, and circular, often involving frequent revisiting and revisioning of text already written as well as jumping ahead to text that exists only as short notes or bare outlines. Effective writing results only from the writer's attention to all stages of the writing process and active involvement with their various demands.
The writing process is not mechanical undertaking, working through each stage separately. Each stage overlaps the other and often several will be occurring simultaneously. Throughout each stage, throughout the entire process of writing you must supply the essential emotions, feelings, and passion to make your writing come alive and be effective. You must use all stages in the writing process throughout your writing on a particular subject in order to achieve the desired finished product: good writing.
The stages of the writing process are ultimately for analytical purposes. They help you discover, through your writing, what you really think about a particular subject. The writing process starts with sight (looking at something, exploring it, perceiving what it really means to you) and ends with insight (a better understanding of yourself).
Identifying Audience
Directing your writing toward a specific audience is like writing a letter to a certain person. Audience influences/determines the way you look at, explore, perceive a particular subject. As well as how you present that subject in your writing; the style of your writing, word choice, and voice.
For example, imagine you decide to drop out of school and pursue a job working on a riverboat casino. You have to write a letter to school officials, your parents, and your best friend telling each of your decision. Probably, each letter will be different. The tone, the word choice, the voice, the style of your writing will be different in each.
Each letter is directed to a specific, different audience. Each audience is the eventual, final consumer of your writing. Each audience is the intended target for your writing. Each audience needs details, coherence, and logical flow. Each audience needs to be able to "see" what you are telling about in your writing. Anticipating and providing for your audience's needs helps make your writing more effective.
Exploratory Writing
Exploratory writing (often called prewriting) is a way of looking at the source of your initial response to a writing assignment. Exploratory writing helps focus your ideas, choose points you want to pursue, sharpen your perception. Exploratory writing helps you look for or discover the subject of your writing, if if has not been provided. Using exploratory writing, you can look for patterns and connections. Look at your subject (provided or potential) so that you really see it, "see through it," see all the way to the truth of the subject. Focus on a manageable part of your subject. Don't be overwhelmed by whole thing. Select most important details. Determine the supporting details that will help you develop a full and complete written accounting of your subject. Exploratory writing is like a tuner on a radio. It helps you tune (focus) in on one station (idea) at a time.
There are several methods of exploratory writing. Most involve unstructured searching for and playing with ideas for writing topics.
- Brainstorming
- Listing
- Clustering
- Freewriting
- Journalist's questions
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- When?
- Why?
- How?
- Kenneth Burke's Pentad
- Act = What?
- Scene = Where? and When?
- Agent = Who?
- Agency = How?
- Purpose = Why?
To use Burke's Pentad most effectively, ask yourself how each element affect the others? For example, how does Agent affect Act?
Discovering Form
Discovering form in your writing is a way of ordering chaos. Form determines/disciplines the content of your writing. Form helps you deal with a jumble of subplots, minor details, images, half-formed ideas, sudden flashes of inspiration, sudden discoveries of more information—all of which compete for consideration as the main, central, or controlling idea of your writing.
Discovering form is hard work, and requires sustained effort. One major aspect of form that can help your writing evolve more effectively is the discovery and development of the main point, the controlling idea, the theme, the subject, the nail on which you will hang the rest of your writing—the topic.
The topic quickly defines, and limits, the subject of your writing. The topic suggests an order, a form, an outline. The topic tells your reader what you are going to write about, attracts them into your writing, makes a promise that they will be entertained and educated if they read all the way through your writing. The topic is a statement from you, the writer, saying, "This is what I'm going to write about." The topic directs you, as the writer, to stay on the subject. Once you discover your topic, everything else you write should fall into place, and everything else you write should relate to that topic, not go off on some different tangent.
Drafting or Development
Nobody sits down and writes the perfect paper first time. First they must develop their ideas. Drafting or Development is the process of getting ideas down on paper. It is the primary phase of creativity in writing.
When drafting or developing your ideas, follow hunches, "go with the flow." Don't restrict yourself, don't try to set directions or boundaries. It's okay to make mistakes. Don't worry about grammar, spelling, sense. Don't worry about rules, getting the right word, appearing brilliant. Just write.
Once you have an idea for a topic you can collect information through library research or talking to / interviewing people. When talking to other people, the phrasing of your questions is important. Notice the difference between
"Thirteen rapes were reported on campus last year, do you believe we ought to have a better police force here?"and
"Thirteen rapes were reported on campus last year, what kind of problem do we face here?"The second phrasing would probably get you an answer. The first would probably not.
Listening is also important. Pay attention, hear what is being said.
Q: "Do you feel the United States has an evenhanded policy in the Middle East?"
A: "We've had one of the most biased and misguided policies that could have been devised."
Q: "How important is Saudi Arabian oil?"
A better follow up question might be: "You say 'biased and misguided', could we look at each of those points separately? In what way has our policy been biased? In whose favor? And why?"
Here are several methods for developing your writing once you have selected a topic, and questions to help shape your first draft.
- Analysis
"Should I divide my topic into parts and discuss each part separately, or should I focus on only one part?" - Cause and effect
"Should I explain what caused this topic and what its effects might be?" - Classification
"Should I classify this topic by putting it in a group of similar things?" - Comparison and contrast
"Should I compare this topic to something or contrast it with something in order to better illuminate it?" - Definition
"Should I define this topic?" - Description
"Should I describe the features of this topic?" - Examples
"Should I provide an example of this topic?" - Narration
"Should I tell a story or anecdote about this topic?" - Process
"Should I see this topic as a process and explain how it works?"
The organization of your writing will depend on how you answer these questions. Generally, you can organize your writing in these ways:
- Cause and effect
- Comparison and contrast
- General to specific
- Increasing order of importance
- Chronological (time)
- Spatial
Revising
Revising is the most essential stage of the writing process. Some say that revising is writing. Revising means "revisioning" or "reseeing." At this stage of the writing process you should look at your writing with new eyes. Look for ways to explore your topic more completely, more deeply, to perceive it more clearly. Think of perception, audience needs form, structural ideas. Look for ways to arrange your ideas more effectively, to make smoother transitions between your ideas, to make sure your meaning is apparent—in short, to make sure your writing is as effective as it can possibly be.
Revising is the stage in the writing process where you really begin to work on the process of communication, telling something so that your reader can see, feel, touch, taste, smell, personally experience the subject of your writing. Revising helps bring your writing to the point where your reader receives personal experiences from reading it similar to those you had during the living and exploring of the subject. Revising helps bring your writing to the point where your reader can say, "Yes, I understand that," or "I've done that and felt this way," or "That's exactly how I feel but I never could describe it before."
How to revise
- "Sit on it"
Put your writing aside, come back to it later, after your emotions have cooled. Don't try to revise when you are still emotionally involved with your writing. You will look over too many mistakes, seeing only what you want to see, and you will miss the opportunity to improve the "final" draft of your writing. - Read aloud
This often helps identify rough passages, words, or constructions that your reader might stumble over - Experiment
Try new words, take out words that are not needed, that don't add to what you are telling, that don't support your main idea - Move things around
Rearrange your sentences and paragraphs to make them more effective, to give them a better flow, to make the sense of your writing more logical, more creative
Editing
The last stage of the writing process. This is when you make sure that each each idea leads to the next. Each paragraph relates to the one before and after. Weed out unimportant words/details. Make sure that every word and every detail relates to and supports your topic. Look carefully for spelling, grammar, stylistic, and punctuation mistakes, line by line, word by word, and correct them. These mistakes destroy the effectiveness of your writing. Don't hesitate to use a dictionary, thesaurus, style guide, handbook, or other resources to answer your questions. Ask yourself these questions about your writing
Ideas
- How well does the writing respond to the assignment?
- How novel, original, or well presented is the thesis of the writing?
- Are the arguments or main points of the writing well supported by specific and explanatory material?
- Is the thesis carried to its logical conclusion?
Organization
- Does the writing have a coherent plan?
- Is this plan followed out completely and logically?
- Is the plan balanced, and does it serve the purpose of the writing?
- Are the paragraphs within the writing well developed?
Wording
- Does the writing use words in a relatively standard or delightful/original fashion?
Style
- Is the writing pleasing to the reader?
- Does the writer come across as someone the reader might like and trust?
- Does the writer sound intelligent and knowledgeable?
- Are the sentence structures varied, interesting, and effective?
- Do I use strong verbs, active voice instead of passive voice? Example: (Active Voice) Bill threw the ball. (Passive Voice) The ball was thrown by Bill.
Mechanics
- Is the writing free of mechanical and typographical errors?
- If there are errors, do they adversely affect the readability of the writing?
- If there are errors, do they adversely affect the communication of the main idea?
Remember, you are in control. You decide what your writing will say. Decide on the best. Strive for perfection.