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Writing is a process
that involves at least four distinct steps: prewriting, drafting,
revising, and editing. It is known as a recursive process. While
you are revising, you might have to return to the prewriting step
to develop and expand your ideas.
- Prewriting is anything
you do before you write a draft of your document. It includes
thinking, taking notes, talking to others, brainstorming, outlining,
and gathering information (e.g., interviewing people, researching
in the library, assessing data).
- Although prewriting
is the first activity you engage in, generating ideas is an activity
that occurs throughout the writing process.
- Drafting occurs when
you put your ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Here you concentrate
upon explaining and supporting your ideas fully. Here you also
begin to connect your ideas. Regardless of how much thinking and
planning you do, the process of putting your ideas in words changes
them; often the very words you select evoke additional ideas or
implications.
- Don't pay attention
to such things as spelling at this stage.
- This draft tends
to be writer-centered: it is you telling yourself what
you know and think about the topic.
- Revision is the key
to effective documents. Here you think more deeply about your
readers' needs and expectations. The document becomes reader-centered.
How much support will each idea need to convince your readers?
Which terms should be defined for these particular readers? Is
your organization effective? Do readers need to know X before
they can understand Y?
- At this stage you
also refine your prose, making each sentence as concise and accurate
as possible. Make connections between ideas explicit and clear.
- Check for such things
as grammar, mechanics, and spelling. The last thing you should
do before printing your document is to spell check it.
- Don't edit your writing
until the other steps in the writing process are complete.
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