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Process Writing Steps for Students

Process writing is a structured approach to writing that involves five steps: brainstorming, organizing, drafting, editing/revising, and publishing. This method helps students develop their writing skills by allowing them to plan and refine their work, ultimately leading to higher quality compositions. By following these steps, students can save time and produce more effective writing compared to starting with a first draft.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
16 views3 pages

Process Writing Steps for Students

Process writing is a structured approach to writing that involves five steps: brainstorming, organizing, drafting, editing/revising, and publishing. This method helps students develop their writing skills by allowing them to plan and refine their work, ultimately leading to higher quality compositions. By following these steps, students can save time and produce more effective writing compared to starting with a first draft.

Uploaded by

Asa Hn
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Skillful Process Writing

Using process writing


by Dorothy E. Zemach
Writing ought to be the easiest of the four skills for students. Unlike the
listener or the reader, the writer controls all the words. And unlike the
speaker, the writer can plan what to produce well in advance; then once the
writing is produced, they can go back, check it, and revise it. And yet, many
students struggle with writing more than with the other skills.

Process writing is a method of approaching this skill that allows students


to take advantage of the opportunities writing offers. Process writing is
generally agreed to mean that the writer follows these steps:

1 Brainstorming
2 Organizing
3 Drafting
4 Editing / Revising
5 Publishing
Inexperienced—or unsuccessful—writers, whether they are native or non-
native speakers, are often tempted to begin at Step 3—writing the first draft.
After all, wouldn’t it be faster and more efficient to use three steps instead of
five? However, this often ends up costing the student more time. To see why
this is so, let’s examine the steps in more detail.

1 Brainstorming / Idea gathering


Whether students choose their own topic or work with an assigned one,
they need to figure out what to say; they need some ideas. It is very difficult
to begin a sentence or a paragraph without knowing what they will be
about! Therefore, writers should begin by calling up ideas and noting
them down. They may make lists, freewrite, draw word maps, or talk with
classmates and take notes. At this stage, they are not evaluating the ideas—
every idea, seemingly good or seemingly bad, is noted down.

Students who aren’t used to making this a discrete step might question its
value; however, with repeated practice, they will come to see how useful it
is. Let students practice several times with different methods; then, when
the assignment is complete, have them discuss or write a short reflection on
how well that particular brainstorming method worked for them.

2 Organizing
Now that students have a collection of ideas, they can decide which ones
to use, and in what order to use them. Have them check the original
assignment again, and then their brainstorming notes. They can cross
out ideas they do not wish to use or that are not directly linked to the
assignment, and even add more ideas. They can number the ideas in the
order they wish to use them, and distinguish between main ideas and
supporting details. Students with longer assignments might wish to write
an outline. The more planning they do at this stage, and the more detailed
the outline is, the less work they will have at the drafting stage.

You can now see why these steps save the writer time: once they have
collected ideas and organized them, it’s much easier to begin writing,
include relevant ideas and leave out the irrelevant ones, and keep ideas in
the correct order.

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Skillful Process Writing

3 Drafting
Writers of short texts, such as paragraphs, may only write one or two
drafts; writers of longer compositions or essays might write two or three
drafts. For the first draft, however, the writer is essentially fleshing out
the brainstormed ideas, in the same order in which they’ve already been
organized. During the drafting, the writer may add additional supporting
details, of course; but the basic structure of the piece should already have
been decided.

Students may have the option of beginning their first draft electronically.
This makes future changes much easier. If students begin a composition in
class, they may have to write longhand; however, sometimes the advantage
of being able to make sure they have a good start overrides the extra work
they’ll have to do at home transferring their longhand work to a computer.

4 Editing/Revising
At this stage, students check their work—for content, organization,
grammar, spelling, formatting (including punctuation), and how well it
meets the original assignment. Students can check their own work using a
checklist, or they can exchange compositions with a classmate and check
each other’s work (known as peer reviewing). A significant benefit of peer
editing is for the student reading—this practice allows students to see
how someone of a similar level handled the same assignment. Teachers
can create peer reviewing sheets that ask the reader to find elements such
as topic sentences, supporting details, and target grammar structures and
vocabulary; thus, the composition serves as an additional model of the
teaching points. There is a peer review checklist on page 109 of each Skillful
Reading & Writing Student’s Book that can be used for this.

It is not advisable to ask peers to correct each other’s errors, however. This
can make students feel uncomfortable and embarrassed in front of their
peers, and they may also be unwilling to criticize a classmate. Marking and
grading for accuracy is the instructor’s job. Peer editors, however, are an
excellent testing ground for effective content.

Remind students that any suggestions they may get from a peer editor are
just that—suggestions. It is still the writer’s decision whether or not to
make a suggested change.

Have students mark up their own papers with changes they wish to make,
and then create a subsequent draft. Advanced students working on long
compositions might do one draft in which they concentrate only on ideas
and organization, and then check the next draft for word choice, grammar,
and punctuation.

Note that editing and revising will be a much easier step if enough initial
effort was put into brainstorming and organizing!

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Skillful Process Writing

5 Publishing
When a composition is finished, the writer needs a reader. This might only
be the instructor who set the assignment, who offers feedback or a grade.
Writers can also share their compositions in groups, or even post them to a
class blog.

If the previous steps have been followed diligently, this final step should
be one that brings feelings of pride and success. The writer has created
something personal, polished, and enduring; something that expresses
thoughts, information, and feelings to a broader audience.

After students have used the complete process a few times, they will
doubtless notice that, while it may sound as if it takes more time than
simply beginning a first draft cold, it actually not only saves them time—
because their first draft is so much better—but results in a higher quality
finished product. This five-step process, in fact, is not limited to writers, but
is used by all sorts of artists and developers—anyone who creates, in fact.
Encourage your students to notice and analyze how other professions, from
engineers to chefs, from graphic designers to organizational managers, use
the creative process to accomplish their work.

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Common questions

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Drafting serves as the stage where the organized ideas from brainstorming are expanded into a more complete textual form, serving as an essential bridge to the editing stage. It allows writers to flesh out and develop the ideas into a coherent first version of their text. By structuring the draft according to the outline they have created, students can focus on the flow of ideas while leaving detailed corrections and enhancements for the editing stage .

Process writing enhances critical thinking by encouraging students to actively engage with their ideas, evaluate relevance, organize logically, and refine their arguments. The iterative nature of the process fosters reflective thinking, allowing students to consider feedback and make informed decisions about revisions, which strengthens their analytical and evaluative capabilities .

Peer reviewing is significant because it enables students to receive feedback from someone at a similar comprehension level, providing insight into how their work is perceived by others. It also allows peer reviewers to learn from another's approach. It should be conducted by following a peer review checklist focusing on content elements like topic sentences and supporting details, without correcting peers' errors directly to avoid discomfort or reluctance in criticisms. Suggestions made are to be seen as optional, empowering the writer to decide on changes .

The five-step process writing model can be applied across various professions by adapting brainstorming to ideation phases, organizing to planning stages, drafting to prototyping or development, editing to refining or testing, and publishing to the final presentation or deployment. Engineers can use it to systematically develop solutions, chefs to create balanced recipes, and graphic designers to structure design workflow, ensuring a methodical approach to creativity and problem-solving .

Though it may initially seem that starting directly with a draft is faster, this method often leads to inefficiencies. Writers who skip the process writing steps often spend more time revising and restructuring as the lack of thorough idea development and organization can lead to unclear or unfocused writing. In contrast, process writing, through its structured stages, enables writers to refine their ideas systematically, ultimately producing a more polished and coherent work in less overall time .

Initial effort in brainstorming and organizing helps structure the ideas clearly, allowing writers to focus more on refining content and correcting errors during editing. It reduces the workload in editing as the basic structure and relevant content are already in place, permitting more attention to details such as grammar, punctuation, and style .

Neglecting the brainstorming stage can lead to a lack of clarity and direction in the writing process. Without brainstorming, writers may struggle to generate ideas or determine the relevance and order of their content, potentially resulting in disorganized drafts. This oversight can cause difficulties in drafting, require more extensive revisions, and increase the time and effort needed to produce a coherent and effective piece .

Technology positively impacts the drafting phase by facilitating easier and more efficient revisions through electronic writing. Digital drafting allows students to make changes—such as restructuring sentences or adding details—quickly, supporting greater flexibility and creativity in the composition process compared to traditional longhand writing, which might slow down changes and edits .

Following the complete process writing model, particularly reaching the publishing phase, boosts student confidence and self-esteem by providing a sense of accomplishment. Publishing their completed work allows them to see tangible results of their hard work, fostering a feeling of pride and validating their capability to communicate effectively to an audience, thus encouraging further engagement and improvement in writing .

Process writing is beneficial because it provides a structured approach that helps writers gather and organize their ideas effectively, saving time in the long run and resulting in a higher quality finished product. Inexperienced writers often skip directly to drafting, thinking it is more efficient, but this can lead to more time being spent on revisions due to lack of preparation. Brainstorming and organizing are crucial to set a solid foundation for the draft, making it easier to include relevant ideas and maintain proper order .

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