The writing

process
Lesson 4
 Stages in the Writing Process

WRITING – is the process because when one writes, the ideas

go through a series of changes or stages before the written
text is finalized.

Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing

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STAGES IN WRITING PROCESS

1. Prewriting – the writer determines the purpose for writing and the
intended audience, choose a topic, narrows down the topic, gathers
detailed ideas, and develops the controlling idea or thesis of the
piece of writing. Prewriting is all about generating ideas to write.

 Brainstorming – it involves talking in a small group ideas you can

write about. In joining down the ideas, the secretary will give much
attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation or proper organization.
 Free Writing – this involves brainstorming all by yourself. This means
you are secretary. You will keep jotting down whatever comes to your
mind. In free writing you simply write down whatever comes to your
mind without regard to organization, punctuation, spelling, or grammar.

 Clustering – you will need to narrow down your topic so that it

becomes narrow or limited enough for you to write about it.

Example: You cannot write about education because it is too broad. You
will need to narrow it down for you to write several paragraphs about your
new topic. You can do this by clustering. In doing this, you will write your
broad topic in the middle of a piece of paper and lines connected to
bubbles that become narrower as you go outward.
Example of Clustering
 Venn Diagram – is compose of two intersecting circles. You write
in the middle the similarities between the two topics, and write on
the sides their differences. If you write about the similarities
between your two topics, then the article you come up with is
comparison. If you write about the differences between your two
topics, then the article you come up with is called contrast.
Example of Venn Diagram

WHALES FISH
-have hair -Live in water -Lay eggs
-live birth -Have fins -have scales
-breathe air -Can swim -breathe water
 Cause and Effect Tree – When you want to write about the causes
and effects you can use this graphic organizer. First you draw a tree
with roots. You label each root as a cause. Then you draw fruits and
label them as the effects.
 Interviewing – you need to prepare your questions ahead of time. You
also need to write down or record the responses of your interviewees.
After the interview, you need to summarize the responses you gathered.

 Conducting a survey – a survey involves making use of a questionnaire

in which the people you ask are able to write down quick responses to
several questions.

 Coming up with a topic outline – a topic outline is a list of main ideas

and supporting details. They are usually numbered using roman
numerals and capital letters. Your topic outline can help you organize
your thoughts about the ideas you will write about it.
The Writing Process IV. Editing
 Spelling
I. Prewriting  Capitalization
 Generating ideas  Grammar
 Prewriting activities  Organization
 No format yet V. Publishing
II. Drafting  Choice of audience
 Discovery drafts  Places for publishing
 Planned drafts  Online publishing
III. Revising
 Thesis sentence
 Purpose, audience, genre
 Unity, coherence, and flow of ideas
Writing a reflection – it would be good to write your reflection
right after the experience so that it would still be fresh in your
memory. You may also talk about your reflection and record it
using a voice or video recorder and then write it down later.

Purpose, audience, and genre – you need to be settled about the

actual purpose of your writing. You should have only one clear
purpose for writing; otherwise your writing will sound rambling
and your readers will not be clear about what you are trying to
accomplish in your writing.
2. Drafting – in the drafting stage, the previewing notes
and sentences are turned into paragraphs for the first
draft. The draft has three important parts –
introduction, the body, and conclusion. The
introduction must be strong enough to grab the reader’s
attention and must include the thesis or controlling
idea. The body develops the controlling idea and
presents details that elaborate on and supports that
idea. The conclusion, very often, restates the thesis and
summarizes the most important concepts of the paper.
Ideas for drafting
 Make a discovery draft – just start writing and let your
feelings and ideas lead you in developing your topic.
 Make a planned draft – revising is going through the paper
to see how well the issues of purpose, audience, and genre
have been addressed.
3. Revising – revising is going through the paper to see how
well the issues of purpose, audience, and genre have been
addressed. Revising is also checking if there are ways of
improving the style, word choice, figurative language,
sentence variety, and subtlety of meaning.

4. Editing – editing is the process of checking the accuracy of

facts and correcting errors in spelling, grammar, usage,
and mechanics.
5. Publishing is producing a final copy of a piece of writing
and presenting it to an audience. Decisions have to be
made about which form will best reach the intended
audience, and accomplish the intended purpose.

Example: if you want to reach more readers, then you will

want to publish your work online in websites that are visited
by many people. If your intended audience is your
schoolmates, then putting your work up in bulletin boards
across the campus may be enough.
Components of good writing
a. Introduction – presents the thesis statement
b. Paragraphs – is made up of two sentences that works
together to develop an idea.
c. Transitions – transitions are words, phrases, and sentences
that show connections between details.
d. Conclusion – a good conclusion sums up the ideas
presented in the text.
e. Elaboration – is the process of providing specific, relevant,
and appropriate supporting details to the main idea or
thesis statement through the use of;
• Facts and statistics
• Descriptions
• Anecdotes
• Examples
• Quotations
Writing traits – good writing has specific qualities or traits. It is
focused and coherent, well-organized, uses clear ideas,
identifiable voice, and accurate and appropriate language
conventions.
a. Focus and coherence – a piece of writing is focus and
coherent if it keeps to the topic and is clear and supported
by well-chosen details.
b. Organization – a well organized paper has a clearly
recognizable plan, that is the ideas are well connected in
an interesting manner.
c. Development of ideas – in a well written paper, the ideas
are clearly defined, logically developed, supported by
appropriate details, and connected in an interesting
manner.
d. Voice – voice connects the writer to the reader. A
writer’s voice is displayed through his/her personal
writing style and through his or her use of unique words
and phrases.
e. Conventions – refer to the correct use of all spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and
sentence structure rules.