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- 1. The Writing Process The writing process is made up of five stages: o prewriting o drafting o revising o proofreading o and publishing Before writing, however, writers are usually to: determine their purposes for writing and identify their audience. Determining Purpose Identifying Audience The purposes of writing are as follows: o to entertain o to persuade o to inform o and to explain Knowing who will read the material helps a writer reflect his or her ideas in a way that the audience clearly understands and therefore enjoys what is being read. Stage One: Prewriting Prewriting means gathering information about a subject. It usually takes three forms: Prewriting Interviewing Researching Recording What Is Already Known Listing Drawing a Subject Tree Freewriting (Non-Stop Writing) Brainstorming (Why-When-Where-Who-What) Clustering (Mapping) Stage Two: Drafting When drafting, ideas are written on paper and they develop into: o a title o an introduction (one paragraph) o a middle ( one or several paragraphs) o a conclusion (one paragraph)
- 2. Stage Three: Revising Revising is only concerned with correcting ideas. It is usually applied as it follows: Use a different pen color. Reread the 1st draft. Add/Delete ideas, using a checklist. A Revising Checklist Did I say what I wanted to say? Is any information that should be added missing? Have I taken out any irrelevant information? Does my writing have: a title, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion? Are the events in order? Should some events be switched around? Does each paragraph have: a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence? Are all the details related to the topic sentence? Does each sentence make sense? Have I replaced all dull, unclear words? Are all facts accurate?
- 3. Stage Four: Proofreading Proofreading is mainly concerned with correcting grammar usage, mechanics and spelling errors. A similar checklist is usually helpful: Stage Five: Publishing Following are some ideas for publishing: o Write a 2nd draft neatly. o Draw a picture that relates to the ideas. o Deliver an oral report about the writing itself. o Present the writing in any other creative way: a pop-up book, a magazine, a poster, and such. Sentence Structure and Agreement Are there any run-ons or fragments? Do all verbs agree with their subjects? Do all pronouns agree with their antecedents? Are verb tenses correct? Forms of Words Do adverbs and adjectives describe the correct words? Are comparative and superlative forms of adjectives correct? Are all forms of be and other irregular verbs used correctly? Are pronouns used correctly? C- Capitalization, Punctuation, and Spelling Is any punctuation mark missing or needed? Are all proper nouns and proper adjectives capitalized? Are all words spelled correctly?