Writing helps to preserve and clarify thinking. If you were to transcribe a discussion, you would see that it is not the most effective approach to convey lengthy or complex information. In addition, our memory of what we say out loud is not the most trustworthy.
Ideal writing Process
Preparing–> Drafting –> Revising –> Editing and Correcting
During the process, a writer may realize a section a lacking and jump back to a previous step and move up from there.
Preparing
This entails conducting research, deciding on a purpose, identifying the target audience, and planning your writing. Follow this plan to create a draft.
Experienced writers in their specific field would seldom skip this step as they are comfortable with the subject and the task but this forces your brain to do two things: put your thoughts into writing and arrange them in a logical order. This puts the brain under stress.
Research and Notes
Communication can be facilitated or hampered by having access to a wealth of information, which can also contribute to information paralysis. We use purpose and audience to minimize the amount of research required in order to prevent overload. Taking notes while interacting with our material allows us to capture ideas for future writing or ask questions that need to be addressed.
Plagiarism
When someone else intentionally uses the words, ideas, or works of another person without giving due credit to the author, this is called plagiarism. It seriously betrays the audience’s confidence. Furthermore, using verbatim quotes from another source is not permitted, even when citing and acknowledging the source. Paraphrase.
Generating Ideas
Ask questions and talk to people. Those are the best ways to generate ideas. sometimes, the knowledgeable people we find can provide us with content. Be optimistic in your search for content from different places.
Organizing Ideas in a Writing Plan
Group similar points together and arrange them in a suitable order
When you group ideas together, it causes the relationships between them to emerge as those aid you in finding logical order. The format of the outline varies from person to person but the important thing is finding what works for you.
A mind map is a more visual outline or list, it simply aids in the graphical presentation of your thoughts.
Drafting
This is the expression of thoughts in words, sentences and paragraphs. It’s not for the final audience as it is still in the situation of bringing the thoughts together. If you’re working against time, just write you draft to make sure the key points are there and move on. You would tidy up in the final writing.
Writing the Draft
- You don’t have to start at the beginning. Write it how you get it in the right section.
- Don’t be concerned with the small stuff. Correctness comes in later; it messes with your thinking.
- Capture all your thoughts how you get them, you’ll fill in the gaps later
- If your current plan is not working, drop it and rework.
Revising
Why Revising Helps Drafting
This stage is for organization, content and other things that make the final writing ready. The main keys are to read the draft from the POV of the audience and make all necessary changes.
Ask yourself the following question:
- Have I included all the necessary content for my goal?
- Is the length and content adequate for my goal and audience?
- Are there gaps and redundancies in the content?
- Is the logic within the writing easy to follow?
- Do the sentences follow a logical order?
- Is the tone appropriate to audience and occasion?
Ask yourself to make sure you focused on the key points: What would I say if I had only 60 secs to get my point across to the audience?
It is practically impossible to be fully objective in your writing. There is no harm asking for feedback from those around you.
Editing and Correcting
Here we review the tone, sentence style and correct the grammar, spelling and also our treatment of numbers. Make your sentences easy to ready and understandable without losing its meaning.
Ask yourself these:
- Can my reader easily understand my sentences?
- Is the writing style considerate of the reader? (Is it clear and economical?)
- Is the tone suitable for the purpose, audience and topic?
Correcting makes your writing ready for the reader. Incorrect writing distracts readers. Their attention moves from reading and trying to fix the mistakes. More and more of this diverts the readers interest until they are fully disinterested in the what is before them. Correctness gives credibility as it speaks to the writers’ qualifications.
