enumerate stages of writing an essay

Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, the ultimate blueprint: a research-driven deep dive into the 13 steps of the writing process.

• © 2023 by Joseph M. Moxley - University of South Florida

This article provides a comprehensive, research-based introduction to the major steps , or strategies , that writers work through as they endeavor to communicate with audiences . Since the 1960s, the writing process has been defined to be a series of steps , stages, or strategies. Most simply, the writing process is conceptualized as four major steps: prewriting , drafting , revising , editing . That model works really well for many occasions. Yet sometimes you'll face really challenging writing tasks that will force you to engage in additional steps, including, prewriting , inventing , drafting , collaborating , researching , planning , organizing , designing , rereading , revising , editing , proofreading , sharing or publishing . Expand your composing repertoire -- your ability to respond with authority , clarity , and persuasiveness -- by learning about the dispositions and strategies of successful, professional writers.

Like water cascading to the sea, flow feels inevitable, natural, purposeful. Yet achieving flow is a state of mind that can be difficult to achieve. It requires full commitment to the believing gam e (as opposed to the doubting game ).

What are the Steps of the Writing Process?

Since the 1960s, it has been popular to describe the writing process as a series of steps or stages . For simple projects, the writing process is typically defined as four major steps:

• drafting  

This simplified approach to writing is quite appropriate for many exigencies–many calls to write . Often, e.g., we might read an email quickly, write a response, and then send it: write, revise, send.

However, in the real world, for more demanding projects — especially in high-stakes workplace writing or academic writing at the high school and college level — the writing process involve additional  steps,  or  strategies , such as 

• collaboration
• researching
• proofreading
• sharing or publishing.  

Related Concepts: Mindset ; Self Regulation

Summary – Writing Process Steps

The summary below outlines the major steps writers work through as they endeavor to develop an idea for an audience .

1. Prewriting

Prewriting refers to all the work a writer does on a writing project before they actually begin writing .

Acts of prewriting include

• Prior to writing a first draft, analyze the context for the work. For instance, in school settings students may analyze how much of their grade will be determined by a particular assignment. They may question how many and what sources are required and what the grading criteria will be used for critiquing the work.
• To further their understanding of the assignment, writers will question who the audience is for their work, what their purpose is for writing, what style of writing their audience expects them to employ, and what rhetorical stance is appropriate for them to develop given the rhetorical situation they are addressing. (See the document planner heuristic for more on this)
• consider employing rhetorical appeals ( ethos , pathos , and logos ), rhetorical devices , and rhetorical modes they want to develop once they begin writing
• reflect on the voice , tone , and persona they want to develop
• Following rhetorical analysis and rhetorical reasoning , writers decide on the persona ; point of view ; tone , voice and style of writing they hope to develop, such as an academic writing prose style or a professional writing prose style
• making a plan, an outline, for what to do next.

2. Invention

Invention is traditionally defined as an initial stage of the writing process when writers are more focused on discovery and creative play. During the early stages of a project, writers brainstorm; they explore various topics and perspectives before committing to a specific direction for their discourse .

In practice, invention can be an ongoing concern throughout the writing process. People who are focused on solving problems and developing original ideas, arguments , artifacts, products, services, applications, and  texts are open to acts of invention at any time during the writing process.

Writers have many different ways to engage in acts of invention, including

• What is the exigency, the call to write ?
• What are the ongoing scholarly debates in the peer-review literature?
• What is the problem ?
• What do they read? watch? say? What do they know about the topic? Why do they believe what they do? What are their beliefs, values, and expectations ?
• What rhetorical appeals — ethos (credibility) , pathos (emotion) , and logos (logic) — should I explore to develop the best response to this exigency , this call to write?
• What does peer-reviewed research say about the subject?
• What are the current debates about the subject?
• Embrace multiple viewpoints and consider various approaches to encourage the generation of original ideas.
• How can I experiment with different media , genres , writing styles , personas , voices , tone
• Experiment with new research methods
• Write whatever ideas occur to you. Focus on generating ideas as opposed to writing grammatically correct sentences. Get your thoughts down as fully and quickly as you can without critiquing them.
• Use heuristics to inspire discovery and creative thinking: Burke’s Pentad ; Document Planner , Journalistic Questions , The Business Model Canvas
• Embrace the uncertainty that comes with creative exploration.
• Listen to your intuition — your felt sense — when composing
• Experiment with different writing styles , genres , writing tools, and rhetorical stances
• Play the believing game early in the writing process

3. Researching

Research refers to systematic investigations that investigators carry out to discover new  knowledge , test knowledge claims , solve  problems , or develop new texts , products, apps, and services.

During the research stage of the writing process, writers may engage in

• Engage in customer discovery interviews and  survey research  in order to better understand the  problem space . Use  surveys , interviews, focus groups, etc., to understand the stakeholder’s s (e.g., clients, suppliers, partners) problems and needs
• What can you recall from your memory about the subject?
• What can you learn from informal observation?
• What can you learn from strategic searching of the archive on the topic that interests you?
• Who are the thought leaders?
• What were the major turns to the conversation ?
• What are the current debates on the topic ?
• Mixed research methods , qualitative research methods , quantitative research methods , usability and user experience research ?
• What citation style is required by the audience and discourse community you’re addressing? APA | MLA .

4. Collaboration

Collaboration  refers to the act of working with others to exchange ideas, solve problems, investigate subjects ,  coauthor   texts , and develop products and services.

Collaboration can play a major role in the writing process, especially when authors coauthor documents with peers and teams , or critique the works of others .

Acts of collaboration include

• Paying close attention to what others are saying, acknowledging their input, and asking clarifying questions to ensure understanding.
• Expressing ideas, thoughts, and opinions in a concise and understandable manner, both verbally and in writing.
• Being receptive to new ideas and perspectives, and considering alternative approaches to problem-solving.
• Adapting to changes in project goals, timelines, or team dynamics, and being willing to modify plans when needed.
• Distributing tasks and responsibilities fairly among team members, and holding oneself accountable for assigned work.
• valuing and appreciating the unique backgrounds, skills, and perspectives of all team members, and leveraging this diversity to enhance collaboration.
• Addressing disagreements or conflicts constructively and diplomatically, working towards mutually beneficial solutions.
• Providing constructive feedback to help others improve their work, and being open to receiving feedback to refine one’s own ideas and contributions.
• Understanding and responding to the emotions, needs, and concerns of team members, and fostering a supportive and inclusive environment .
• Acknowledging and appreciating the achievements of the team and individual members, and using successes as a foundation for continued collaboration and growth.

5. Planning

Planning refers to

• the process of planning how to organize a document
• the process of managing your writing processes

6. Organizing

Following rhetorical analysis , following prewriting , writers question how they should organize their texts. For instance, should they adopt the organizational strategies of academic discourse or workplace-writing discourse ?

Writing-Process Plans

• What is your Purpose? – Aims of Discourse
• What steps, or strategies, need to be completed next?
• set a schedule to complete goals

Planning Exercises

• Document Planner
• Team Charter

7. Designing

Designing refers to efforts on the part of the writer

• to leverage the power of visual language to convey meaning
• to create a visually appealing text

During the designing stage of the writing process, writers explore how they can use the  elements of design  and  visual language to signify , clarify , and simplify the message.

Examples of the designing step of the writing process:

• Establishing a clear hierarchy of visual elements, such as headings, subheadings, and bullet points, to guide the reader’s attention and facilitate understanding.
• Selecting appropriate fonts, sizes, and styles to ensure readability and convey the intended tone and emphasis.
• Organizing text and visual elements on the page or screen in a manner that is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and supports the intended message.
• Using color schemes and contrasts effectively to create a visually engaging experience, while also ensuring readability and accessibility for all readers.
• Incorporating images, illustrations, charts, graphs, and videos to support and enrich the written content, and to convey complex ideas in a more accessible format.
• Designing content that is easily accessible to a wide range of readers, including those with visual impairments, by adhering to accessibility guidelines and best practices.
• Maintaining a consistent style and design throughout the text, which includes the use of visuals, formatting, and typography, to create a cohesive and professional appearance.
• Integrating interactive elements, such as hyperlinks, buttons, and multimedia, to encourage reader engagement and foster deeper understanding of the content.

8. Drafting

Drafting refers to the act of writing a preliminary version of a document — a sloppy first draft. Writers engage in exploratory writing early in the writing process. During drafting, writers focus on freewriting: they write in short bursts of writing without stopping and without concern for grammatical correctness or stylistic matters.

When composing, writers move back and forth between drafting new material, revising drafts, and other steps in the writing process.

9. Rereading

Rereading refers to the process of carefully reviewing a written text. When writers reread texts, they look in between each word, phrase, sentence, paragraph. They look for gaps in content, reasoning, organization, design, diction, style–and more.

When engaged in the physical act of writing — during moments of composing — writers will often pause from drafting to reread what they wrote or to reread some other text they are referencing.

10. Revising

Revision  — the process of revisiting, rethinking, and refining written work to improve its  content ,  clarity  and overall effectiveness — is such an important part of  the writing process  that experienced writers often say  “writing is revision” or “all writing is revision.”  

For many writers, revision processes are deeply intertwined with writing, invention, and reasoning strategies:

• “Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what one is saying.” — John Updike
• “How do I know what I think until I see what I say.” — E.M. Forster

Acts of revision include

• Pivoting: trashing earlier work and moving in a new direction
• Identifying Rhetorical Problems
• Identifying Structural Problems
• Identifying Language Problems
• Identifying Critical & Analytical Thinking Problems

11. Editing

Editing  refers to the act of  critically reviewing  a  text  with the goal of identifying and rectifying sentence and word-level problems.

When  editing , writers tend to focus on  local concerns  as opposed to  global concerns . For instance, they may look for

• problems weaving sources into your argument or analysis
• problems establishing  the authority of sources
• problems using the required  citation style
• mechanical errors  ( capitalization ,  punctuation ,  spelling )
• sentence errors ,  sentence structure errors
• problems with  diction ,  brevity ,  clarity ,  flow ,  inclusivity , register, and  simplicity

12. Proofreading

Proofreading refers to last time you’ll look at a document before sharing or publishing the work with its intended audience(s). At this point in the writing process, it’s too late to add in some new evidence you’ve found to support your position. Now you don’t want to add any new content. Instead, your goal during proofreading is to do a final check on word-level errors, problems with diction , punctuation , or syntax.

13. Sharing or Publishing

Sharing refers to the last step in the writing process: the moment when the writer delivers the message — the text — to the target audience .

Writers may think it makes sense to wait to share their work later in the process, after the project is fairly complete. However, that’s not always the case. Sometimes you can save yourself a lot of trouble by bringing in collaborators and critics earlier in the writing process.

Doherty, M. (2016, September 4). 10 things you need to know about banyan trees. Under the Banyan. https://underthebanyan.blog/2016/09/04/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-banyan-trees/

Emig, J. (1967). On teaching composition: Some hypotheses as definitions. Research in The Teaching of English, 1(2), 127-135. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED022783.pdf

Emig, J. (1971). The composing processes of twelfth graders (Research Report No. 13). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Emig, J. (1983). The web of meaning: Essays on writing, teaching, learning and thinking. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc.

Ghiselin, B. (Ed.). (1985). The Creative Process: Reflections on the Invention in the Arts and Sciences . University of California Press.

Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. (1980). Identifying the Organization of Writing Processes. In L. W. Gregg, & E. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Cognitive Processes in Writing: An Interdisciplinary Approach (pp. 3-30). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.  

Hayes, J. R. (2012). Modeling and remodeling writing. Written Communication, 29(3), 369-388. https://doi: 10.1177/0741088312451260

Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1986). Writing research and the writer. American Psychologist, 41(10), 1106-1113. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.41.10.1106

Leijten, Van Waes, L., Schriver, K., & Hayes, J. R. (2014). Writing in the workplace: Constructing documents using multiple digital sources. Journal of Writing Research, 5(3), 285–337. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2014.05.03.3

Lundstrom, K., Babcock, R. D., & McAlister, K. (2023). Collaboration in writing: Examining the role of experience in successful team writing projects. Journal of Writing Research, 15(1), 89-115. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2023.15.01.05

National Research Council. (2012). Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.https://doi.org/10.17226/13398.

North, S. M. (1987). The making of knowledge in composition: Portrait of an emerging field. Boynton/Cook Publishers.

Murray, Donald M. (1980). Writing as process: How writing finds its own meaning. In Timothy R. Donovan & Ben McClelland (Eds.), Eight approaches to teaching composition (pp. 3–20). National Council of Teachers of English.

Murray, Donald M. (1972). “Teach Writing as a Process Not Product.” The Leaflet, 11-14

Perry, S. K. (1996).  When time stops: How creative writers experience entry into the flow state  (Order No. 9805789). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304288035). https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/when-time-stops-how-creative-writers-experience/docview/304288035/se-2

Rohman, D.G., & Wlecke, A. O. (1964). Pre-writing: The construction and application of models for concept formation in writing (Cooperative Research Project No. 2174). East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University.

Rohman, D. G., & Wlecke, A. O. (1975). Pre-writing: The construction and application of models for concept formation in writing (Cooperative Research Project No. 2174). U.S. Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Sommers, N. (1980). Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers. College Composition and Communication, 31(4), 378-388. doi: 10.2307/356600

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

Suggested Edits

• Please select the purpose of your message. * - Corrections, Typos, or Edits Technical Support/Problems using the site Advertising with Writing Commons Copyright Issues I am contacting you about something else
• Your full name
• Your email address *
• Page URL needing edits *
• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Other Topics:

Citation - Definition - Introduction to Citation in Academic & Professional Writing

• Joseph M. Moxley

Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.

Collaboration - What is the Role of Collaboration in Academic & Professional Writing?

Collaboration refers to the act of working with others or AI to solve problems, coauthor texts, and develop products and services. Collaboration is a highly prized workplace competency in academic...

Genre may reference a type of writing, art, or musical composition; socially-agreed upon expectations about how writers and speakers should respond to particular rhetorical situations; the cultural values; the epistemological assumptions...

Grammar refers to the rules that inform how people and discourse communities use language (e.g., written or spoken English, body language, or visual language) to communicate. Learn about the rhetorical...

Information Literacy - Discerning Quality Information from Noise

Information Literacy refers to the competencies associated with locating, evaluating, using, and archiving information. In order to thrive, much less survive in a global information economy — an economy where information functions as a...

Mindset refers to a person or community’s way of feeling, thinking, and acting about a topic. The mindsets you hold, consciously or subconsciously, shape how you feel, think, and act–and...

Rhetoric: Exploring Its Definition and Impact on Modern Communication

Learn about rhetoric and rhetorical practices (e.g., rhetorical analysis, rhetorical reasoning,  rhetorical situation, and rhetorical stance) so that you can strategically manage how you compose and subsequently produce a text...

Style, most simply, refers to how you say something as opposed to what you say. The style of your writing matters because audiences are unlikely to read your work or...

The Writing Process - Research on Composing

The writing process refers to everything you do in order to complete a writing project. Over the last six decades, researchers have studied and theorized about how writers go about...

Writing Studies

Writing studies refers to an interdisciplinary community of scholars and researchers who study writing. Writing studies also refers to an academic, interdisciplinary discipline – a subject of study. Students in...

Featured Articles

Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community

Professional Writing – How to Write for the Professional World

Authority – How to Establish Credibility in Speech & Writing

• Enroll & Pay
• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Degree Programs

The Writing Process

The writing process is something that no two people do the same way. There is no "right way" or "wrong way" to write. It can be a very messy and fluid process, and the following is only a representation of commonly used steps. Remember you can come to the Writing Center for assistance at any stage in this process. 

Steps of the Writing Process

Step 1: Prewriting

Think and Decide

• Make sure you understand your assignment. See  Research Papers  or  Essays
• Decide on a topic to write about. See   Prewriting Strategies  and  Narrow your Topic
• Consider who will read your work. See  Audience and Voice
• Brainstorm ideas about the subject and how those ideas can be organized. Make an outline. See  Outlines

Step 2: Research (if needed) 

• List places where you can find information.
• Do your research. See the many KU Libraries resources and helpful guides
• Evaluate your sources. See  Evaluating Sources  and  Primary vs. Secondary Sources
• Make an outline to help organize your research. See  Outlines

Step 3: Drafting

• Write sentences and paragraphs even if they are not perfect.
• Create a thesis statement with your main idea. See  Thesis Statements
• Put the information you researched into your essay accurately without plagiarizing. Remember to include both in-text citations and a bibliographic page. See  Incorporating References and Paraphrase and Summary  
• Read what you have written and judge if it says what you mean. Write some more.
• Read it again.
• Write some more.
• Write until you have said everything you want to say about the topic.

Step 4: Revising

Make it Better

• Read what you have written again. See  Revising Content  and  Revising Organization
• Rearrange words, sentences, or paragraphs into a clear and logical order. 
• Take out or add parts.
• Do more research if you think you should.
• Replace overused or unclear words.
• Read your writing aloud to be sure it flows smoothly. Add transitions.

Step 5: Editing and Proofreading

Make it Correct

• Be sure all sentences are complete. See  Editing and Proofreading
• Correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
• Change words that are not used correctly or are unclear.
• APA Formatting
• Chicago Style Formatting
• MLA Formatting  
• Have someone else check your work.

The Writing Process

• What Is the Writing Process?
• Strategies for Good Writing

Citation Resources

Writing and citation go hand-in-hand. Check out this list of guides covering some aspect of citation:

• Academic Writer Tutorial by Pfeiffer Library Last Updated May 22, 2023 19199 views this year
• AIR: Academic Integrity Remediation by ~ Academic Support ~ Last Updated Feb 1, 2024 7 views this year
• APA Style Help by Pfeiffer Library Last Updated May 22, 2023 1228 views this year
• Copyright by Luann Edwards Last Updated Aug 30, 2021 11 views this year
• Creating an Annotated Bibliography in APA Style by Luann Edwards Last Updated May 22, 2023 1826 views this year
• Creating an Annotated Bibliography in MLA Style by Luann Edwards Last Updated May 22, 2023 131 views this year
• Grammarly Tutorial by Luann Edwards Last Updated May 22, 2023 627 views this year
• MLA Style Help by Pfeiffer Library Last Updated May 23, 2023 51 views this year
• Plagiarism & Academic Integrity by Pfeiffer Library Last Updated May 23, 2023 61 views this year
• Predatory Publishing by Pfeiffer Library Last Updated Aug 2, 2023 341 views this year

There are several stages of the Writing Process. The following list of guides provides you with information on each of these stages:

• Brainstorming Library guide for generating ideas.
• Drafting Library guide discussing tips for essay construction.
• Editing and Revising Library tutorial covering edit and revision strategies.

You might also be interested in these tutorials covering specific writing activities and assignments:

• Conducting Effective Peer Reviews A guide for effectively participating in the peer review process
• Creating an Annotated Bibliography (APA) Resources to help you write an Annotated Bibliography in APA Style.
• Creating an Annotated Bibliography (MLA) Resources to help you write an Annotated Bibliography in MLA Style.
• Creating Effective Presentations Guide discussing tools and techniques for building effective presentations.
• Creating Outlines Guide for planning the layout of an essay prior to the drafting process.
• Literature Reviews Tutorial for locating and writing literature reviews.
• Writing Effective Thesis Statements Guide for writing an effective thesis statement for an essay.
• << Previous: What Is the Writing Process?
• Next: Strategies for Good Writing >>
• Last Updated: May 22, 2023 10:46 AM
• URL: https://library.tiffin.edu/writingprocess

• Virtual Classroom
• Privacy Policy

The 4 Steps in the Writing Process

~ There Is No Magic Pencil ~

When I was in school, the boy who sat next to me said he believed my pencil was magic. From the moment my pencil hit the paper, the words would flow. Meanwhile, he would stare at the page for what seemed like eternity before finally writing his own piece.

He may have thought my pencil was magic, but in retrospect, he was the more advanced writer. The time he spent staring while I hastily scrawled, erased, and rewrote, was time he spent reflecting on the story he wanted to tell. He didn’t make it up as he went along — he carefully crafted it in his mind before ever committing a single word to print. The result? His erasers remained intact and my work rambled, often off topic.

WHAT IS THE WRITING PROCESS?

A great essay, blog post, novel, or even a tweet doesn’t just happen . There is no magic pencil. Like any process, writing has multiple steps: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, and Editing. It takes practice, and every time you do it, it starts with an idea.

Prewriting, as the name implies, happens BEFORE you write and it’s the step I skipped in school. Prewriting is when brainstorming and outlining happens.

All writers need to brainstorm, talk to others, and take inspiration from the world around them. Whether it be music, a political statement, a photograph, a childhood story or memory, even a blade of grass, the world around us can provide the spark needed to write.  Brainstorming allows writers to think and observe before putting pen to page.

Once writers find that inspiration, the next step is to create an outline. Outlines are important for reasons beyond the fact that every English teacher says so — outlines act as a roadmap for what you are about to write.

Drafting is the “first pass” or “brain dump” of everything developed during prewriting. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar while in this drafting stage, but instead focus on turning ideas into sentences and paragraphs. The outline created in the prewriting stage, if followed, can help create a clear path for the writing.  This stage might take only a few minutes or several hours, but it’s important to get as much written as possible in this initial draft.

The revision stage is often incorrectly used synonymously with editing. Large changes happen in this stage. Entire sections may be added or deleted, the focus of the piece may change, and supporting evidence may be elaborated on or even added or removed completely. In the simplest of implementations, it’s like when you reread a text message right before you send it, and then quickly delete half of it.

Although editing is involved, revising includes much more than just fixing the spelling mistakes. This stage is often a good opportunity for writers to get a second opinion on their work.  Having someone else look at your work allows you to see if you’re taken a reader’s needs into consideration with your piece. Does it make sense to him? Does it answer her questions? Perhaps he has a suggestion for a more compelling introduction.

Once all the heavy lifting is done in the revision stage, and the piece has the foundation to make it structurally sound, it’s time to edit. Word by word, sentence by sentence, spelling and grammar should be reviewed. Spellcheck doesn’t catch everything (their/there/they’re) so it’s important to know your own weaknesses with editing. It takes practice to become a good editor, and it’s often very difficult to edit your own work. It’s ok to seek out a grammar guardian to assist you in the editing process. Some writers even keep a list of their most troublesome words or phrases.

FOUR STEPS AND DONE? EASY.

It’s not that simple.  Most people don’t dart through all four steps once quickly and then they are done. For large, academic pieces, novels, and reports, a writer may cycle through all the steps more than once. If more people review the work, more ideas are shared and the piece may undergo more than one major revision.

First time writers, or those less comfortable with it, may require additional time to complete their work. But one thing is certain, the more time that is spent up front, in the prewriting and drafting stages, the easier revisions and editing become.

I’ve retired my not-so-magical pencil, preferring digital these days, and I still love to write. But looking back at my second-grade short story, I’m glad I’ve refined my process…and I’m glad I have a team of awesome writers to redline my work and brainstorm ideas.

RELATED READING

Step 1 – Prewriting: What is Prewriting and How Is It Done?

Step 2 – Drafting: 5 Tips for Writing a First Draft

Step 3 – Revisions: 4 Tips for Revising Your Writing

Step 4 – Editing: A Checklist to Add Polish

Extended Response Rubric: What You Need to Know to Pass the Essay

RESPONSE TO COVID

LOCATIONS & PARKING CONTACT US MISSION, VISION, & VALUES HISTORY BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF EMPLOYMENT / CAREERS PRESS ROOM RECENT MEDIA COVERAGE MARGO HUDSON

GET INVOLVED

TUTORS VOLUNTEER TUTOR APPLICATION

DONATE ATTEND EVENTS & FUNDRAISERS TELL OTHERS

FACTS & RESOURCES

FACTS & LITERACY STATISTICS 66% THE SOURCE OF THE STATISTIC RESOURCES HIGH SCHOOL EQUIVALENCY (HSE) TEST OPTIONS GED® TEST INFORMATION HISET® TEST INFORMATION

BECOME A STUDENT

WHY ENROLL HOW TO REGISTER REGISTRATION FORM CLASSES

CURRENT STUDENTS & TUTORS

HOLIDAY CLOSURES – No Tutoring Days

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

CURRENT TUTORS

• Virtual Tutors – log and scheduler
• Tutor Forum
• Behaviors and Expectations

CURRENT STUDENTS

• Student Texting Program
• Learn HSE Subjects on Your Own, Improve Your Computer Skills, Practice Reading Fluency, Watch Recorded Lessons Created by Seeds Tutors, Digital Literacy Assessments
• Student Successes
• Rules of Conduct, Statement of Expectations, & Release of Information

Would you like to switch from a one-time donation to a recurring one?

When you give monthly, you help to ensure the sustainability of the program. Please consider ongoing support for our students.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

8.3 Drafting

Learning objectives.

• Identify drafting strategies that improve writing.
• Use drafting strategies to prepare the first draft of an essay.

Drafting is the stage of the writing process in which you develop a complete first version of a piece of writing.

Even professional writers admit that an empty page scares them because they feel they need to come up with something fresh and original every time they open a blank document on their computers. Because you have completed the first two steps in the writing process, you have already recovered from empty page syndrome. You have hours of prewriting and planning already done. You know what will go on that blank page: what you wrote in your outline.

Getting Started: Strategies For Drafting

Your objective for this portion of Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” is to draft the body paragraphs of a standard five-paragraph essay. A five-paragraph essay contains an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. If you are more comfortable starting on paper than on the computer, you can start on paper and then type it before you revise. You can also use a voice recorder to get yourself started, dictating a paragraph or two to get you thinking. In this lesson, Mariah does all her work on the computer, but you may use pen and paper or the computer to write a rough draft.

Making the Writing Process Work for You

What makes the writing process so beneficial to writers is that it encourages alternatives to standard practices while motivating you to develop your best ideas. For instance, the following approaches, done alone or in combination with others, may improve your writing and help you move forward in the writing process:

• Begin writing with the part you know the most about. You can start with the third paragraph in your outline if ideas come easily to mind. You can start with the second paragraph or the first paragraph, too. Although paragraphs may vary in length, keep in mind that short paragraphs may contain insufficient support. Readers may also think the writing is abrupt. Long paragraphs may be wordy and may lose your reader’s interest. As a guideline, try to write paragraphs longer than one sentence but shorter than the length of an entire double-spaced page.
• Write one paragraph at a time and then stop. As long as you complete the assignment on time, you may choose how many paragraphs you complete in one sitting. Pace yourself. On the other hand, try not to procrastinate. Writers should always meet their deadlines.
• Take short breaks to refresh your mind. This tip might be most useful if you are writing a multipage report or essay. Still, if you are antsy or cannot concentrate, take a break to let your mind rest. But do not let breaks extend too long. If you spend too much time away from your essay, you may have trouble starting again. You may forget key points or lose momentum. Try setting an alarm to limit your break, and when the time is up, return to your desk to write.
• Be reasonable with your goals. If you decide to take ten-minute breaks, try to stick to that goal. If you told yourself that you need more facts, then commit to finding them. Holding yourself to your own goals will create successful writing assignments.
• Keep your audience and purpose in mind as you write. These aspects of writing are just as important when you are writing a single paragraph for your essay as when you are considering the direction of the entire essay.

Of all of these considerations, keeping your purpose and your audience at the front of your mind is the most important key to writing success. If your purpose is to persuade, for example, you will present your facts and details in the most logical and convincing way you can.

Your purpose will guide your mind as you compose your sentences. Your audience will guide word choice. Are you writing for experts, for a general audience, for other college students, or for people who know very little about your topic? Keep asking yourself what your readers, with their background and experience, need to be told in order to understand your ideas. How can you best express your ideas so they are totally clear and your communication is effective?

You may want to identify your purpose and audience on an index card that you clip to your paper (or keep next to your computer). On that card, you may want to write notes to yourself—perhaps about what that audience might not know or what it needs to know—so that you will be sure to address those issues when you write. It may be a good idea to also state exactly what you want to explain to that audience, or to inform them of, or to persuade them about.

Writing at Work

Many of the documents you produce at work target a particular audience for a particular purpose. You may find that it is highly advantageous to know as much as you can about your target audience and to prepare your message to reach that audience, even if the audience is a coworker or your boss. Menu language is a common example. Descriptions like “organic romaine” and “free-range chicken” are intended to appeal to a certain type of customer though perhaps not to the same customer who craves a thick steak. Similarly, mail-order companies research the demographics of the people who buy their merchandise. Successful vendors customize product descriptions in catalogs to appeal to their buyers’ tastes. For example, the product descriptions in a skateboarder catalog will differ from the descriptions in a clothing catalog for mature adults.

Using the topic for the essay that you outlined in Section 8.2 “Outlining” , describe your purpose and your audience as specifically as you can. Use your own sheet of paper to record your responses. Then keep these responses near you during future stages of the writing process.

My purpose: ____________________________________________

____________________________________________

My audience: ____________________________________________

Setting Goals for Your First Draft

A draft is a complete version of a piece of writing, but it is not the final version. The step in the writing process after drafting, as you may remember, is revising. During revising, you will have the opportunity to make changes to your first draft before you put the finishing touches on it during the editing and proofreading stage. A first draft gives you a working version that you can later improve.

Workplace writing in certain environments is done by teams of writers who collaborate on the planning, writing, and revising of documents, such as long reports, technical manuals, and the results of scientific research. Collaborators do not need to be in the same room, the same building, or even the same city. Many collaborations are conducted over the Internet.

In a perfect collaboration, each contributor has the right to add, edit, and delete text. Strong communication skills, in addition to strong writing skills, are important in this kind of writing situation because disagreements over style, content, process, emphasis, and other issues may arise.

The collaborative software, or document management systems, that groups use to work on common projects is sometimes called groupware or workgroup support systems.

The reviewing tool on some word-processing programs also gives you access to a collaborative tool that many smaller workgroups use when they exchange documents. You can also use it to leave comments to yourself.

If you invest some time now to investigate how the reviewing tool in your word processor works, you will be able to use it with confidence during the revision stage of the writing process. Then, when you start to revise, set your reviewing tool to track any changes you make, so you will be able to tinker with text and commit only those final changes you want to keep.

Discovering the Basic Elements of a First Draft

If you have been using the information in this chapter step by step to help you develop an assignment, you already have both a formal topic outline and a formal sentence outline to direct your writing. Knowing what a first draft looks like will help you make the creative leap from the outline to the first draft. A first draft should include the following elements:

• An introduction that piques the audience’s interest, tells what the essay is about, and motivates readers to keep reading.
• A thesis statement that presents the main point, or controlling idea, of the entire piece of writing.
• A topic sentence in each paragraph that states the main idea of the paragraph and implies how that main idea connects to the thesis statement.
• Supporting sentences in each paragraph that develop or explain the topic sentence. These can be specific facts, examples, anecdotes, or other details that elaborate on the topic sentence.
• A conclusion that reinforces the thesis statement and leaves the audience with a feeling of completion.

These elements follow the standard five-paragraph essay format, which you probably first encountered in high school. This basic format is valid for most essays you will write in college, even much longer ones. For now, however, Mariah focuses on writing the three body paragraphs from her outline. Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” covers writing introductions and conclusions, and you will read Mariah’s introduction and conclusion in Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” .

The Role of Topic Sentences

Topic sentences make the structure of a text and the writer’s basic arguments easy to locate and comprehend. In college writing, using a topic sentence in each paragraph of the essay is the standard rule. However, the topic sentence does not always have to be the first sentence in your paragraph even if it the first item in your formal outline.

When you begin to draft your paragraphs, you should follow your outline fairly closely. After all, you spent valuable time developing those ideas. However, as you begin to express your ideas in complete sentences, it might strike you that the topic sentence might work better at the end of the paragraph or in the middle. Try it. Writing a draft, by its nature, is a good time for experimentation.

The topic sentence can be the first, middle, or final sentence in a paragraph. The assignment’s audience and purpose will often determine where a topic sentence belongs. When the purpose of the assignment is to persuade, for example, the topic sentence should be the first sentence in a paragraph. In a persuasive essay, the writer’s point of view should be clearly expressed at the beginning of each paragraph.

Choosing where to position the topic sentence depends not only on your audience and purpose but also on the essay’s arrangement, or order. When you organize information according to order of importance, the topic sentence may be the final sentence in a paragraph. All the supporting sentences build up to the topic sentence. Chronological order may also position the topic sentence as the final sentence because the controlling idea of the paragraph may make the most sense at the end of a sequence.

When you organize information according to spatial order, a topic sentence may appear as the middle sentence in a paragraph. An essay arranged by spatial order often contains paragraphs that begin with descriptions. A reader may first need a visual in his or her mind before understanding the development of the paragraph. When the topic sentence is in the middle, it unites the details that come before it with the ones that come after it.

As you read critically throughout the writing process, keep topic sentences in mind. You may discover topic sentences that are not always located at the beginning of a paragraph. For example, fiction writers customarily use topic ideas, either expressed or implied, to move readers through their texts. In nonfiction writing, such as popular magazines, topic sentences are often used when the author thinks it is appropriate (based on the audience and the purpose, of course). A single topic sentence might even control the development of a number of paragraphs. For more information on topic sentences, please see Chapter 6 “Writing Paragraphs: Separating Ideas and Shaping Content” .

Developing topic sentences and thinking about their placement in a paragraph will prepare you to write the rest of the paragraph.

The paragraph is the main structural component of an essay as well as other forms of writing. Each paragraph of an essay adds another related main idea to support the writer’s thesis, or controlling idea. Each related main idea is supported and developed with facts, examples, and other details that explain it. By exploring and refining one main idea at a time, writers build a strong case for their thesis.

Paragraph Length

How long should a paragraph be?

One answer to this important question may be “long enough”—long enough for you to address your points and explain your main idea. To grab attention or to present succinct supporting ideas, a paragraph can be fairly short and consist of two to three sentences. A paragraph in a complex essay about some abstract point in philosophy or archaeology can be three-quarters of a page or more in length. As long as the writer maintains close focus on the topic and does not ramble, a long paragraph is acceptable in college-level writing. In general, try to keep the paragraphs longer than one sentence but shorter than one full page of double-spaced text.

Journalistic style often calls for brief two- or three-sentence paragraphs because of how people read the news, both online and in print. Blogs and other online information sources often adopt this paragraphing style, too. Readers often skim the first paragraphs of a great many articles before settling on the handful of stories they want to read in detail.

You may find that a particular paragraph you write may be longer than one that will hold your audience’s interest. In such cases, you should divide the paragraph into two or more shorter paragraphs, adding a topic statement or some kind of transitional word or phrase at the start of the new paragraph. Transition words or phrases show the connection between the two ideas.

In all cases, however, be guided by what you instructor wants and expects to find in your draft. Many instructors will expect you to develop a mature college-level style as you progress through the semester’s assignments.

To build your sense of appropriate paragraph length, use the Internet to find examples of the following items. Copy them into a file, identify your sources, and present them to your instructor with your annotations, or notes.

• A news article written in short paragraphs. Take notes on, or annotate, your selection with your observations about the effect of combining paragraphs that develop the same topic idea. Explain how effective those paragraphs would be.
• A long paragraph from a scholarly work that you identify through an academic search engine. Annotate it with your observations about the author’s paragraphing style.

Starting Your First Draft

Now we are finally ready to look over Mariah’s shoulder as she begins to write her essay about digital technology and the confusing choices that consumers face. As she does, you should have in front of you your outline, with its thesis statement and topic sentences, and the notes you wrote earlier in this lesson on your purpose and audience. Reviewing these will put both you and Mariah in the proper mind-set to start.

The following is Mariah’s thesis statement.

Here are the notes that Mariah wrote to herself to characterize her purpose and audience.

Mariah chose to begin by writing a quick introduction based on her thesis statement. She knew that she would want to improve her introduction significantly when she revised. Right now, she just wanted to give herself a starting point. You will read her introduction again in Section 8.4 “Revising and Editing” when she revises it.

Remember Mariah’s other options. She could have started directly with any of the body paragraphs.

You will learn more about writing attention-getting introductions and effective conclusions in Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” .

With her thesis statement and her purpose and audience notes in front of her, Mariah then looked at her sentence outline. She chose to use that outline because it includes the topic sentences. The following is the portion of her outline for the first body paragraph. The roman numeral II identifies the topic sentence for the paragraph, capital letters indicate supporting details, and arabic numerals label subpoints.

Mariah then began to expand the ideas in her outline into a paragraph. Notice how the outline helped her guarantee that all her sentences in the body of the paragraph develop the topic sentence.

If you write your first draft on the computer, consider creating a new file folder for each course with a set of subfolders inside the course folders for each assignment you are given. Label the folders clearly with the course names, and label each assignment folder and word processing document with a title that you will easily recognize. The assignment name is a good choice for the document. Then use that subfolder to store all the drafts you create. When you start each new draft, do not just write over the last one. Instead, save the draft with a new tag after the title—draft 1, draft 2, and so on—so that you will have a complete history of drafts in case your instructor wishes you to submit them.

In your documents, observe any formatting requirements—for margins, headers, placement of page numbers, and other layout matters—that your instructor requires.

Study how Mariah made the transition from her sentence outline to her first draft. First, copy her outline onto your own sheet of paper. Leave a few spaces between each part of the outline. Then copy sentences from Mariah’s paragraph to align each sentence with its corresponding entry in her outline.

Continuing the First Draft

Mariah continued writing her essay, moving to the second and third body paragraphs. She had supporting details but no numbered subpoints in her outline, so she had to consult her prewriting notes for specific information to include.

If you decide to take a break between finishing your first body paragraph and starting the next one, do not start writing immediately when you return to your work. Put yourself back in context and in the mood by rereading what you have already written. This is what Mariah did. If she had stopped writing in the middle of writing the paragraph, she could have jotted down some quick notes to herself about what she would write next.

Preceding each body paragraph that Mariah wrote is the appropriate section of her sentence outline. Notice how she expanded roman numeral III from her outline into a first draft of the second body paragraph. As you read, ask yourself how closely she stayed on purpose and how well she paid attention to the needs of her audience.

Mariah then began her third and final body paragraph using roman numeral IV from her outline.

Reread body paragraphs two and three of the essay that Mariah is writing. Then answer the questions on your own sheet of paper.

• In body paragraph two, Mariah decided to develop her paragraph as a nonfiction narrative. Do you agree with her decision? Explain. How else could she have chosen to develop the paragraph? Why is that better?
• Compare the writing styles of paragraphs two and three. What evidence do you have that Mariah was getting tired or running out of steam? What advice would you give her? Why?
• Choose one of these two body paragraphs. Write a version of your own that you think better fits Mariah’s audience and purpose.

Writing a Title

A writer’s best choice for a title is one that alludes to the main point of the entire essay. Like the headline in a newspaper or the big, bold title in a magazine, an essay’s title gives the audience a first peek at the content. If readers like the title, they are likely to keep reading.

Following her outline carefully, Mariah crafted each paragraph of her essay. Moving step by step in the writing process, Mariah finished the draft and even included a brief concluding paragraph (you will read her conclusion in Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” ). She then decided, as the final touch for her writing session, to add an engaging title.

Writing Your Own First Draft

Now you may begin your own first draft, if you have not already done so. Follow the suggestions and the guidelines presented in this section.

Key Takeaways

• Make the writing process work for you. Use any and all of the strategies that help you move forward in the writing process.
• Always be aware of your purpose for writing and the needs of your audience. Cater to those needs in every sensible way.
• Remember to include all the key structural parts of an essay: a thesis statement that is part of your introductory paragraph, three or more body paragraphs as described in your outline, and a concluding paragraph. Then add an engaging title to draw in readers.
• Write paragraphs of an appropriate length for your writing assignment. Paragraphs in college-level writing can be a page long, as long as they cover the main topics in your outline.
• Use your topic outline or your sentence outline to guide the development of your paragraphs and the elaboration of your ideas. Each main idea, indicated by a roman numeral in your outline, becomes the topic of a new paragraph. Develop it with the supporting details and the subpoints of those details that you included in your outline.
• Generally speaking, write your introduction and conclusion last, after you have fleshed out the body paragraphs.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Part Two Paragraph Writing Skills and Essay Introduction

Unit 4 Enumerative Paragraphs

Learning Objectives

• To understand what an enumerative paragraph focuses on
• To learn to write topic sentences, supporting sentences with details, conclusion, and transitions in enumerative paragraphs through multiple examples
• To apply the writing process to plan and write enumerative paragraphs

Read Paragraph “Public Laundromats in the U.S.A.” and do the activities that follow.

Public Laundromats in the U.S.A.

          When I moved to Chicago, I was shocked because I had to use a public laundromat. Most people living in the apartments do not have their own washer and dryer, but I think this situation creates some problems for them. The transportation of dirty linen and clothes is the first problem. People need to collect everything and go down to the apartment basement where the machines are. Sometimes, they have to drive to the nearest laundromat if all washing machines are occupied by their neighbors. They may wait even half a day for a free washer or dryer. The second problem is having the exact change. Each washing costs $2.75 to $3.50. People need to frequently collect quarters or change money in the bank. The problems do not end here. The biggest problem of using public laundromats is hygiene. No one knows what kind of things people have washed in the same machines: underwear, linen, cloth diapers, even shoes. One day, while waiting for an available washer, I decided to take out a neighbor’s laundry from the washing machine because the laundry had been there for a long time. When I did this, I felt sorry and angry. I found different things which could not be washed together because it was not hygienic to do so. Of course, for eight months in America, I had to use the public laundromat more than a few times because I did not have another choice. Imagine my happiness and relief [1] when I finally bought my own first washing machine!

By E. Yugay (student), ESL Writing III, Harper College. U sed with permission.

1. Color code the paragraph:

Title – pink         Topic sentence – red       Supporting sentences – green

Supporting details – blue       Transitions – yellow         Concluding sentence(s) – red

2. Discuss:

• Have you had similar experiences or witnessed similar situations as described in this paragraph?
• Does the writer focus on telling a story, arguing for a controversial [2] issue, or listing points to explain an idea?
• What types of supporting ideas and details are used to explain the main idea?
• Does the paragraph have unity?
• What information is included in the conclusion?
• Is the paragraph complete?
• Is the title centered on the topic line? Is the first sentence indented?
• What do you like about this paragraph?
• How would you improve the paragraph?
• If you could ask the writer a question, what would you ask?

II. Focus of Enumerative Paragraphs

To enumerate is to list or to count. It focuses on explaining some points to support a main idea. You have actually studied many enumerative paragraphs in Unit 2 and Unit 3, in addition to Paragraph “Public Laundromats in the U.S.A.” above.

• Unit 2 The Benefits of NSNT for Me
• Unit 3 Missing My Childhood Days
• Unit 3 Difficulties in English Writing
• Unit 3 My Special Place
• Unit 3 Good Roommates
• Unit 3 The Best Exercise
• Unit 3 Unleashed Dogs
• Unit 3 Three Benefits of Online Classes for College Students

Review those paragraphs for ideas, organization, language use, and format. In this unit, you are going to learn from more examples and to write your own enumerative paragraphs. Here are some more topics typical [3] of enumerative paragraphs:

• Communication barriers [4] among family members
• Characteristics of a good boss
• Benefits of owning a dog
• Reasons for coming to the U.S.

Advice to new international students

III. Topic Sentence in Enumerative Paragraphs

For detailed explanations and examples of topic sentences, open Unit 3 here.

The same topic can produce many different topic sentences if the controlling idea is changed. Of course, the paragraph will be different as a result. This shows that you have the flexibility to decide on your focus based on your interests.  Write from your heart!

Study the following topic sentences and discuss how writers focus on different areas of the same topic. You will notice that some topic sentences are more formal/academic in nature and some are more personal.

Exercise 1. Try different controlling ideas and write at least two different topic sentences with each of the following topics.

Example :   

Topic sentence 1:  New international students will adapt to a new environment better if they prepare themselves well before leaving their native country.

Topic sentence 2:  Finding a caring host family, working closely with professors and counsellors, and joining student clubs are the best ways for new international students to succeed.

• Ways to improve grades in this writing class
• Advantages of technology for elderly people
• Disadvantages of technology for young children
• The best kitchen appliance for you
• Your least favorite store

IV. Supporting Ideas in Enumerative Paragraphs

For detailed explanations and examples of supporting sentences, open Unit 3 here.

The Joy of Having My Three Children

      It is a blessing that I have three children, aged 15, 11, and 6. First, they are not lonely anymore. When I had two children, they complained to me many times. My son wanted a younger brother, and my daughter wanted a baby sister. They also fought for toys. After my third child was born, their life changed a lot. Most times, they played with her and even taught her how to use chopsticks. Now all three children are very happy together. As a result, I am delighted.  However, with three children, I feel really old sometimes, but they make me feel young. Each of my children has many activities, and I am very involved in their lives. Last month, when my second child participated in a cross-country competition [9] organized by the school district, I ran next to her and cheered her on.  I felt young and energetic as if I were 16 years old again. The part I love the most is that they help me become a better person. Each child has a different personality. Sometimes, I cannot understand why they act in a certain way, but I find out that they are trying to imitate [10] my husband and me. “Children are mirrors of their parents”. This saying is so true. I can see my own problem through them because their action reflects my behavior. Now I am more careful when they are around.  I do not yell, I do not judge other people, and I always say “Thank you”. I want to set a good example for them.  Even though I am often physically tired, I love them because love makes miracles happen. My children are the joy of my life.

By D. Kim (student), ESL Writing III, Harper College. U sed with permission.

Exercise 2. Use two of the topic sentences you have developed from Exercise 1  to make a paragraph outline for each. Check to see that the ideas support the topic sentence.

Exercise 3. Use Paragraph “The Joy of Having My Three Children” as an example. Add relevant information to make Paragraph “Ways to Reduce Stress” more interesting.

Ways to Reduce Stress

          Modern life creates a lot of anxieties in people, but there are different ways to control stress. Physical exercises are a common solution. ( Add some details here about how physical exercises help reduce stress.)  Another idea is talking to a friend or family member. Someone says that sharing feelings and experiences with others is like releasing at least half the burdens. (Add some more details here about how talking helps reduce stress.) Besides working out and sharing, doing some chores will help relieve stress for some people. Many people do not like housework, but they do not know that household work may bring a sense of calm and normalcy. (Add some more details here about how doing chores helps reduce stress.) Stress has become an integral part of modern life. Isn’t it time for each person to find a way to handle it?

V. Conclusion in Enumerative Paragraphs

For detailed explanations and examples of concluding sentences, open Unit 3 here.

•  Public Laundromats in the U.S.A.:

Of course, for eight months in America, I had to use the public laundromat more than a few times because I did not have another choice. Imagine my happiness and relief when I finally bought my own first washing machine!

• The Joy of Having My Three Children:

Even though I am often physically tired, I love them because love makes miracles happen. My children are the joy of my life.

Exercise 4. Read the following paragraph. Fill in the missing information as instructed.

Transportation in the Suburbs

      (Start the paragraph with a topic sentence here.) To begin with, the buses run very infrequently [11] . Some buses come once an hour, even during the rush hours. If people miss the bus, they will have to wait for an hour for the next one.  In that case, they will be late for their work or school. Additionally, it is not healthy to wait for a long time in winter. Winters can be very harsh, with heavy snow and biting winds. People can easily catch cold. The worst part is that the buses do not cover all the areas. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ (Add some details here about what inconveniences this situation may cause. )   (Add a conclusion here to complete the paragraph.)

VI. More Enumerative Paragraph Examples

Read each of the paragraph examples below and do the following activities:

Title – pink       Topic sentence – red     Supporting sentences – green

Supporting details – blue       Transitions – yellow     Concluding sentence(s) – red

• Does the writer focus on telling a story, arguing for a controversial issue, or listing points to explain an idea?
• How do you improve the paragraph?
• If the writer were here, what question would you ask him/her about the paragraph?

Click for each paragraph:

Exercise 5. Read the following paragraph. Is there a topic sentence? If not, add one. Is the paragraph unified? If not, cross out the irrelevant information.  Can you add more interesting supporting details?

Winter Fun at Home

          Winters in some areas of America are very cold. Many people have to stay indoors. The first interesting thing they can do is make home a fun zone. For example, they can set up a simple but comfortable home theatre with just a TV and a couch. A bag of popcorn and a cup of hot chocolate can add to a feeling of warmth and relaxation no matter how heavily it is snowing outside. A home theater like this is also fun in other seasons, so they can enjoy it year round. Second, they can make household chores into a competition, with prizes. For instance, they have a cleaning game every week. The older child will vacuum the carpet, the younger child will dust the furniture, and the parents will mow the lawn. They can rotate being the judge and deciding on the prizes. Children are usually happier to do housework when it is fun. Lastly, they can continue with physical activities at home. Gyms can be expensive, and people have to drive there. If they have a treadmill or stationary bike at home, that will be great. However, it is still fine without them. On the Internet, there are many training videos with no equipment needed, so everyone can choose what he or she likes to do including aerobics and tai chi. Winters can be long, but they do not have to be boring.

VII. Transitions in Enumerative Paragraphs

For detailed explanations and examples of transitions, open Unit 3 here.

You already know very well how to use transitions like “first, second, next, in addition, finally”. They are very useful expressions but not the only ones. Take a look at a variety of transitions used in the paragraphs in this unit. Notice the punctuation as well.

Exercise 6. The following paragraph is adapted from one in Unit 3. The transition before each supporting sentence is missing. Add an appropriate transition. The three supporting sentences are underlined, and you can combine each supporting idea with a transition. Try at least two transitions for each blank. Be careful with punctuation.  The first one is an example.

__________(transition) The balcony has a beautiful lake view.

First, the balcony has a beautiful lake view.

 The first reason I like the balcony is that it has a lake view.

      My Special Place

          Most people have their own special place in the house, and mine is my balcony. It is a wooden structure about 2 meters wide and 8 meters long. __________(transition) The balcony has a beautiful lake view. The balcony faces a small lake, and sometimes I see ducks swimming there. In the evening, the fountain in the middle of the lake lights up with soft music in the background. I always feel serene and mysterious with the night sky enveloping around me. __________ (transition) The balcony is a place where I rest after a day of hard study. No one bothers me there, and the noise from the house feels far away. My three young children often play in the living room, but they make an effort to play quietly when they see me in the balcony. They know it is “mommy time”. __________ (transition) It is a place where I reflect on my life. There are 2 pots of geranium flowers and 2 pots of cacti, a perfect harmony of pink and green, round and thorny, soft and spiky – just like life itself, I think about my life experiences while admiring the plants. I love my balcony!

VIII. Unit Review Practice: Writing Assignments

Now you are ready to write your own enumerative paragraph! As you have learned in Unit 2 The Writing Process ( Open Unit 2 here ) , the best way to plan a paragraph is to follow the proper steps.

Enumerative P aragraph Writing Assignments

You will be writing two at-home enumerative paragraphs. The second one will start after the first one is complete. For both assignments, follow the instructions below.

Purpose : To show your understanding of planning and writing an enumerative paragraph. Use the writing process to help you.

Topic :   Choose from the list below.

Brainstorm and Outline : Brainstorm for ideas. Then organize the ideas by using one the outline templates below. Your outline is due on _________. Bring it to class.

Paragraph : Your paragraph should have a title, a topic sentence, three supporting ideas with details, and a conclusion. Use proper transitions to connect ideas.

Format : Type your paragraph, double spaced, font size 12, with 1-inch margins on four sides of the page. Type your name, class, and date on the upper right-hand corner of the page. The first line of your paragraph should be indented. Save your paragraph in a Word file.

Self Checklist : When you finish writing, use the Self Checklist below. Put a checkmark beside each item if you think you did a good job in that area.  Otherwise, improve your paragraph until you can check off the item. Save your work again.

Submission : Submit your paragraph on the Blackboard.  Go to your Blackboard course site and follow the instructions there.  Due by __________.

Choose one of the following topics.  If you wish to write about a topic of your own, discuss with your professor first.

• What is the most significant change you have experienced in your life since you turned sixteen? Explain three reasons why it is so important. (not three changes)
• What are three advantages (or disadvantages) of Internet dating?
• What are three advantages (or disadvantages) of social media?
• What are the three reasons some people hold prejudices against some other people?
• What are the three difficulties ESL students (or you) have in reading?
• What are three good qualities of _____(a leader)? (Name a specific leader)
• What are the three words to describe your personality?
• What is an American custom you like very much? Explain three reasons why you like it. (Just one custom, not three)
• What is an American custom you do not like? Explain three reasons why you do not like it. (Just one custom, not three)
• What is one custom that you are the most proud of from your native country? What are the three reasons? (Just one custom, not three)

Enumerative Paragraph Outline Template #1

Enumerative Paragraph Outline Template #2

Enumerative Paragraph Self Checklist

Note:  #7 – #10 may include more specific aspects of grammar depending on how many editing units you have already studied.

  NSNT Practice

Go to The NSNT Free Writing Approach and Additional Weekly Prompts for Writing in Appendix A. ( Open Appendix A here. ) Choose two topics to write a paragraph each. You may start with the NSNT approach and then revise and edit the paragraphs using the Self Checklist above. You are encouraged to share your writing with your partner and help each other improve.

Vocabulary Review

The words here have appeared in this unit.  The best way to learn them is to guess the meaning of each word from the context.  Then hover your computer mouse over the number beside each word to check its meaning and part of speech. These words are also listed in the footnote area at the end of each unit.

Here, you can use the flashcards below to review these words.

• An enumerative paragraph focuses on explaining a few points (reasons, ways, approaches, aspects, etc.) to support a main idea.
• An enumerative paragraph should have a title, a topic sentence, 2-4 supporting ideas with details, a conclusion, and transitions.
• Following the writing process (pre-writing, writing, and post-writing) can ensure a well – organized and well – supported paragraph.

Media Attributions

• washing machines and dryers in a laundromat © Photo by Marshall Williams on Unsplash
• a red pencil writing the word “stress” © Photo by Pedro Figueras from Pexels
• a man waiting at a bus stop © Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels
• athletic shoes, weights, jumping rope © Photo by Alexandra Tran on Unsplash
• a balcony with a table, two chairs, and some plants © Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash
• hamburger paragraph © Chris Dobson is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license
• a pen writing in a notebook © Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
• a page in a dictionary © Pixabay
• relief: noun, a feeling when the worry disappeared ↵
• controversial: adjective, causing argument because of different opinions ↵
• typical: adjective, common, showing the nature of something ↵
• barrier: noun, a challenge or a difficulty that stops people from doing something ↵
• flexibility: noun, the quality of being willing to change ↵
• humility: noun, the quality of being humble, not proud ↵
• generosity: noun, the quality of being willing to give things to others or sharing things with others ↵
• prospect: noun, something about future ↵
• cross-country competition: noun phrase, a sport of running long and different paths ↵
• imitate: verb, follow or copy someone else's behavior ↵
• infrequently: adverb, not often ↵

Building Academic Writing Skills Copyright © 2022 by Cui, Lin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

2.3: An Overview of the Writing Process

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 48070

Learning Objectives

• Explain how writing takes both time and effort, and discuss effective ways to go about it.
• Discuss how the writing process is not linear but recursive, moving back and forth from invention to revision.
• Reveal how learning to write analytically can lead to success in many areas of life outside of the classroom.

Once you’ve chosen a subject, initially considered how your beliefs, culture, and experiences might influence how you see it, and consulted other sources for background information and differing perspectives, you can begin to draft your essay. But before you can actually sit down to formally write your essay, you have to actually, well, sit down and write. Be careful not to try to produce a formal draft too soon because sometimes you can get writer’s block when you haven’t taken the time to thoroughly explore your ideas. If you get stuck and do not know where to begin your analysis, go back and write out your thoughts less formally. This will help you to think (and get more excited) about what you want to write. At the same time, don’t wait too long to get started, because motivation usually comes after you’ve begun the process. Often when you force yourself to start writing you will discover new insights that will ignite your desire to find even more. Personally, I seldom feel like sitting in front of the computer and wracking my brain for another writing session, but once I get started and become excited by what I produce, several hours may just zoom by without me even noticing.

Of course, this happens only when I get into the act of writing itself and shut off the voices of self-doubt. Like most of you, I carry a committee of past teachers and critics in my head, a committee that constantly questions every word I write: “Can’t you find a better way to put that? You’re an English Professor, so you should know exactly what to say the first time through! This piece of writing is terrible and it will prove to everyone that you were an imposter all of these years.” Thoughts like these do not, of course, motivate me, but instead make me want to exit my writing program and switch to a more relaxing file like Spider Solitaire. To get anything accomplished, therefore, I first have to make a deal with these voices of self-doubt — if they will be quiet long enough to let me get out a draft, then I will review my essay with a more critical eye later.

I don’t want to give the impression, however, that writing is a linear procedure, moving steadily from invention to writing to revising. Instead, writing is a recursive process in which all of these functions may go on simultaneously. I see writing more as an increasingly complicated discussion between writers and their words. As I put the words down on paper or on the computer screen, I take a step back, consider their implications, and add, delete, rearrange, or modify them until they express my view in a clear, precise, and thorough manner. This often takes several drafts. Writing is not a skill (something you can master after a few lessons), but an art, and, like any art, you can never perfect it. In fact, the better you get at it, the more time and effort you need to devote to it. Any child can learn to play “Chopsticks” on the piano before even having a formal lesson; however, a concert pianist must spend hours practicing everyday before being satisfied with a performance. Likewise, when I was in high school, I would write only one draft of my essay before handing it in, but now I often produce as many as thirty drafts before I submit a book or article for publication.

To help your writing go more smoothly, find a good place to work, relatively free of distraction, and set aside a certain amount of time you plan to devote to the assignment. Ideally, I like to spend between two to three hours a day writing because less than that does not give my ideas adequate time to develop, but more than that tends to make me feel like I’ve exerted my analytical muscles too hard (which is another reason not to wait to begin the essay until the day before the assignment is due). I also try to break the writing into smaller tasks, focusing on one section of my analysis at a time, to avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project, reminding myself that the section I work on might appear anywhere in the finished draft and that I do not have to write the essay in the same sequence that it will later be read. I can always change the order after I have a chance to articulate my thoughts more fully.

By this I do not mean that you should write in the exact manner that I or anyone else does. Some writers like to outline their papers before they begin; others like to discover their ideas while composing. Some like to begin their assignments early, and others get added inspiration from the adrenaline of a looming deadline. Additionally, your composing process may vary, depending on your subject and the nature of the assignment. For instance, if you know a subject well, you may not need to do as much additional background reading as you would when tackling one that’s less familiar, and if the assignment does not allow you to hand in additional revisions, you might want to start it earlier to make certain that you have the time to fully develop your main ideas.

Having said all this, there is a common way that most of us go about forming an analysis, at least initially. As you will see in Chapter 3, once you’ve learned something about a subject and considered your general feelings toward it, you can carefully examine the key examples to establish your main perspective or working theses. Afterward, as you will see in Chapter 4, you can modify and justify these perspectives by explaining how you derived them and by considering their broader implications. Finally, as you will see in Chapter 5, you can structure your thoughts into a deliberate and effective essay. Of course, as you go through this process, you may continue to examine and even question your own beliefs and consult additional sources. As Burke implies in his parlor parable, the process is never ending, but eventually we all leave the discussion of our subjects to concentrate on other concerns. Yet at the same time, be careful not to give up too quickly and merely throw out the most obvious statements that occur to you. To contribute something worthwhile to this ongoing discussion, you need to slow down the process of analysis to fully consider the relevance of each of its features. Doing so will not only help you to understand and appreciate the subjects you analyze for your classes, but also can make you more successful in your future endeavors.

Whether you go into business, medicine, law, or any other profession, you will be expected to develop, present, and defend your opinions. Simply having a wealth of factual knowledge will continue to have less and less importance in this information age, where people can get basic answers by picking up their cell phones or searching with Google. More significantly, when people cease to think critically and analyze established knowledge, both social and academic progress stagnates. Just imagine what the world would be like today if teachers had given up on analysis five hundred years ago and continued to allow students only to memorize what we knew then about all academic subjects. We’d still be living in a feudal society, riding around on horses, and facing a life expectancy of around thirty-five.

Furthermore, analysis can also help us to understand and change those parts of our lives that often matter more to us than our careers and contributions to academic knowledge. We don’t have to take Socrates’ phrase “the unexamined life is not worth living” as seriously as Thoreau did and escape to a cabin in the woods to look at ourselves without distraction. Yet we can all benefit from slowing down from time to time to think about our daily activities, key relationships, and future goals and consider how we might make each more fulfilling. If we learn to examine and avoid the mistakes we made in the past, we are more likely to take control of the present and move toward a more promising future.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Think of a social issue or personal concern that has been troubling you as of late. Write down all your thoughts without stopping and don't be concerned if your writing seems scattered or informal because you can fix these problems at a later stage. Now look over what you just wrote and underline the five most important words. Next, write a sentence in which you use all five of those words, perhaps in a different order and manner than they initially came out. Now write a paragraph based on that sentence. In the process, how did your writing evolve? Did any sections become clearer? Did your perspective change? Consider how writing is a process that constantly moves you in directions you might not have anticipated.

Key takeaways

• Writer’s block occurs when we become too critical of our thoughts and expressions before we have a chance to develop them.
• Writing is a recursive process of forming, developing, and clarifying our ideas, causing them to evolve in unexpected directions.
• To produce ideas worth sharing, we need to slow down the process of analysis, taking the time to carefully examine each of its components.

The Prewriting Stage of the Writing Process

• Tips & Strategies
• An Introduction to Teaching
• Policies & Discipline
• Community Involvement
• School Administration
• Technology in the Classroom
• Teaching Adult Learners
• Issues In Education
• Teaching Resources
• Becoming A Teacher
• Assessments & Tests
• Elementary Education
• Secondary Education
• Special Education
• Homeschooling
• M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Florida
• B.A., History, University of Florida

The writing process consists of different stages: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. Prewriting is the most important of these steps. Prewriting is the "generating ideas" part of the writing process when the student works to determine the topic and the position or point-of-view for a target audience. Pre-writing should be offered with the time necessary for a student to create a plan or develop an outline to organize materials for the final product.

Why Prewrite?

The pre-writing stage could also be dubbed the "talking stage" of writing. Researchers have determined that talking plays an important role in literacy. Andrew Wilkinson (1965) coined the phrase oracy, defining it as "the ability to express oneself coherently and to communicate freely with others by word of mouth." Wilkinson explained how oracy leads to increased skill in reading and writing. In other words, talking about a topic will improve the writing. This connection between talk and writing is best expressed by the author James Britton (1970) who stated: "talk is the sea upon which all else floats.”

Prewriting Methods

There are a number of ways that students can tackle the prewriting stage of the writing process. Following are a few of the most common methods and strategies that students can use. 

• Brainstorming - Brainstorming is the process of coming up with as many ideas as possible about a topic without being worried about the feasibility or whether an idea is realistic or not. A list format is often the easiest to organize. This can be done individually and then shared with the class or done as a group. Access to this list during the writing process can help students make connections they may want to use later in their writing.
• Freewriting - The free write strategy is when your students write whatever comes into their mind about the topic at hand for a specific amount of time, like 10 or 15 minutes. In a free write, students should not worry about grammar, punctuation, or spelling. Instead, they should try and come up with as many ideas as they possibly can to help them when they get to the writing process. 
• Mind Maps - Concept maps or mind-mapping are great strategies to use during the pre-writing stage. Both are visual ways to outline information. There are many varieties of mind maps that can be quite useful as students work in the prewriting stage. Webbing is a great tool that has students write a word in the middle of a sheet of paper. Related words or phrases are then connected by lines to this original word in the center. They build on the idea so that, in the end, the student has a wealth of ideas that are connected to this central idea. For example, if the topic for a paper were the role of the US President , the student would write this in the center of the paper. Then as they thought of each role that the president fulfills, they could write this down in a circle connected by a line to this original idea. From these terms, the student could then add supporting details. In the end, they would have a nice roadmap for an essay on this topic. 
• Drawing/Doodling - Some students respond well to the idea of being able to combine words with drawings as they think about what they want to write in the prewriting stage. This can open up creative lines of thought. 
• Asking Questions - Students often come up with more creative ideas through the use of questioning. For example, if the student has to write about Heathcliff's role in Wuthering Heights , they might begin by asking themselves some questions about him and the causes of his hatred. They might ask how a 'normal' person might react to better understand the depths of Heathcliff's malevolence. The point is that these questions can help the student uncover a deeper understanding of the topic before they begin writing the essay.
• Outlining - Students can employ traditional outlines to help them organize their thoughts in a logical manner. The student would start with the overall topic and then list out their ideas with supporting details. It is helpful to point out to students that the more detailed their outline is from the beginning, the easier it will be for them write their paper. 

Teachers should recognize that prewriting that begins in a "sea of talk" will engage students. Many students will find that combining a couple of these strategies may work well to provide them with a great basis for their final product. They may find that if they ask questions as they brainstorm, free write, mind-map, or doodle, they will organize their ideas for the topic. In short, the time put in up front in the pre-writing stage will make the writing stage much easier.

• Prewriting for Composition
• How to Explore Ideas Through Clustering
• The Use of Listing in Composition
• The Whys and How-tos for Group Writing in All Content Areas
• Focusing in Composition
• Brainstorming Techniques for Students
• Explore and Evaluate Your Writing Process
• Discover Ideas Through Brainstorming
• How to Take Better Notes During Lectures, Discussions, and Interviews
• Discovery Strategy for Freewriting
• How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph
• 6 Steps to Writing the Perfect Personal Essay
• 6 Traits of Writing
• How to Outline and Organize an Essay
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Outlines for Every Type of Writing Composition