The Writing Process Review
English III
I.
Prewriting
A. Audience
1. Who is your audience?
2. Why do you need to know?
a.
b.
c.
d.
B. Purpose
1. What is the purpose of your writing? What do you hope to accomplish?
MAIN TYPES
a.
b.
c.
d.
2. Why do you need to know your purpose?
(KNOWING your purpose helps you decide how to write.)
a.
b.
c.

C.
SHOULDER PARTNERS – How would you promote these? Discuss and write your
answers.
1. Video games – To teens so they will buy the game
To parents so they will buy the game
2.
Talking about the high school -- To your cousin in another state
To the Rotary Club
3.
Review of children’s movie -- What do you say so kids will go see it?
What do you say so parents will TAKE their
children to see it?
What do we do in the prewriting stage?
1.
2.
3.
D. Types of pre-writing
1.
Free writing – whatever comes to mind
 Rarely is your whole thing your essay. It is not the rough draft.
2. Brainstorming – any and all ideas are good
 Later go back and see what you use. You will NOT use it all.)
3. Clustering – (also called mapping or webbing.)
 Start with a main idea in the center and branch out.
4. Asking questions/research – Let YOUR questions guide your research.
II.
Drafting
A. What do you do during drafting?
1.
2.

Hopefully pre-writing gave you a good order. If not, you will make changes in revising
stage.
4. Thesis statement
a. DEFINE –
5. Topic sentence –
a. DEFINE –
b. Relationship of sentences to topic sentence?
c. Number of sentences in a paragraph?
B. Determine your style – your approach or attitude (matches your purpose)
C.
Organization – major decision
1.
Chronological –
2. Spatial –
3. Compare and contrast –
4.
Emphatic order (or Order of Importance)
a. Used for persuasive writing
b. Two orders
1.
2.
5.
III.
Pro can Con
Revising – What kinds of changes are done here?
A. Unity – What is unity?
B. Coherence – What is coherence?
C. Why is revising important? Papers don’t just flow. They take thought.
1. Weed out what doesn’t fit (DELETE sentences)
2. Make what is left flow (ADD sentences)
This is the most important stage. It takes your writing from the first level up to a higher level. YOU AIM TO
IMPROVE YOUR OWN WRITING.
IV.
Editing -- What kinds of changes are done here?
A. What do you look for?
B. Why is proofreading important?
V.
Presenting -- What is presenting?
A. Two types of presentation
1.
2.
B. What should a printed paper be like?
1.
2.
C. Why does this matter?
1.
REMEMBER: Writing is cyclical, not linear. We cycle through the first four stages until
we finally are finished. You have not done a good job if you move straight through.