Do I Make Myself Clear?

Mastery of the art of writing is essential to success in all scholastic endeavors. Every sphere of academics requires the knowledge of writing, and as such, in order to properly transmit one’s thoughts on to paper it is important to be cognizant of the different processes that can be applied to help prepare and familiarize oneself with a topic. For a class assignment I wrote four essays, each using different preparatory and editing techniques. After completing this mini experiment I feel that each process has its benefits, but that there are certainly some approaches to writing that are more advantageous than others. The most useful methodology enables a student to make stimulating arguments and prompts sophisticated thought, while others don’t necessarily enable a student to fully test and develop his assumptions.
One very popular writing process is to begin with an outline and include multiple drafts. In order to write an optimal paper, one’s ideas and opinions need to be expressed very clearly. Once a rough draft is formed, it needs to be dissected, read a number of times, and then put back together. An outline allows one to clarify and gauge his ideas, and rereading a draft a number of times allows for a perfect product to be formed. There are generally a number of important points to stress in a paper, but one may not be as pertinent as another. An outline puts into focus the most relevant ideas, and scrutinizing a rough draft generates a pristine final product. There is a flaw with this process however, as an outline limits the writer to his own opinions. Everybody is biased towards their own thoughts, and as such, it is important that in preparation for writing a paper we require ourselves to think critically about our ideas and allow our thoughts to be challenged. While it is true that an outline helps to clarify ideas, it is restrictive in that it doesn’t expose the writer to alternate points of view.
I feel that the most beneficial writing process is