Writing Information

The writing process begins the minute you get a writing assignment—whether you are writing a book, an essay, or a single paragraph. It involves all the activities you do, from choosing a topic to turning in a final draft. The phases, or stages, of the writing process are prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.
Prewriting
Prewriting refers to all activities that help you explore a subject, generate ideas about it, choose a specific topic, establish a purpose, and analyze the audience for your paragraph or essay. Your mission at this stage is to stimulate your thinking before and during the act of writing. Every time you think of a new idea during the writing process, you are prewriting.
Drafting
When you have lots of ideas to work with, you are ready to start drafting. Drafting involves writing down your thoughts, developing or expanding some ideas, organizing your thoughts to reflect your purpose, and writing a first version of your paragraph or essay. To start on your draft, you may want to spread out your class notes, journal entries, and other prewriting notes so that you can start to string your ideas together. This is the time to keep your thoughts flowing without worrying too much about grammar, punctuation, mechanics, or spelling.
Revising
As you may suspect, the process of writing is not finished with your first draft. You should always revise your work to make it stronger and better. Revising involves rethinking your content and organization so that your writing says exactly what you want it to. (Editing, the last step, focuses on correcting grammar and spelling.) Your main goal in revising is to make sure that the purpose of your writing is clear to your audience and that your main ideas are supported with details and examples. In addition, you should check that your organization is logical.
Editing
The final step in the writing process is editing. In this stage, you should read your paragraph or essay slowly and carefully to make sure no