The Writing Process

     You may have found yourself, while staring at a black page, thinking that

you have no idea what to write for your writing project. If you are a student,

you may have begun to believe that you are "an incompetent writer" because,

when you are sitting and staring at the computer screen, you have difficulty

getting started with the writing process (VanDamme 1).

Unfortunately, this difficulty with getting started with the writing process is why

most students who are given writing project assignments on Monday that must

be turned in on the following Monday wait until Sunday night (sometime

between 9 and 11 p.m.) to begin. It is important to keep in mind that there are

three allies and three enemies of the writing process. The allies of the writing

process are Consistency (doing everything the same way, every time) Practice

(writing, writing some more, and doing more writing) and Relaxation (staying

calm and focused despite the fact that "time is constantly marching towards the

deadline") (Alain 1). The enemies of the writing process are Fear

(typically, the result of having no idea what to write), Stress (usually, brought

on by "unreasonably high expectations to write brilliantly" from the first word

to the last), and Procrastination (often, the unrealistic belief that a writing

project will not take up to much time) (Alain 1). The writing process

steps below will present you with a method that is designed to make greater

use of the allies of the writing process, minimize the affect of the enemies of the

writing process, and reduce the anxiety that is often associated with the writing

process.

Step I: Eliminating Fear

     Believe it or not, you actually begin the writing process when your

instructor gives you a writing project assignment. Once you are given the

writing project assignment you begin to internally brainstorm thoughts,

questions, and ideas; unfortunately, the situation that many people find

themselves in is not being able to remember the thoughts, ideas, and questions

that came to mind during their initial internal brainstorming because they did not

take the time to brainstorm externally by writing them down. You must write

down your thoughts, questions and ideas in a notebook, on a legal pad, on

some index cards, on some post-it-notes, or whatever you are comfortable

writing on so you will eliminate the possibility of forgetting anything because

you will have it down. Further, it is important that you get into the habit of

brainstorming externally on paper as soon after your initial internal

brainstorming as is possible; preferably, before you go to sleep that night

because once you go to sleep you begin to forget your thoughts, questions,

and ideas.

     During this stage of the writing process, you should not waste any effort

worrying about any of the mechanical issues of writing (such as grammar and

spelling); after all, you will be the only person reading what you have written

down. Typically, worrying about your writing mechanics during the first stage

of the writing process will only weigh down your thinking process because the

brain tends to block out potential thoughts, questions, and ideas with the fear

of imperfection (Alain 1). At this point, the most important thing is to

get your thoughts, questions, and ideas on paper because, if done correctly,

this step will eliminate the first enemy of the writing process, fear, since you will

already have some thoughts, questions, and ideas on what you are going to

write about.

Step II: Planning and Organization

     After you have collected your thoughts, questions, and ideas, you will need

to organize them so that you are able to develop a clear plan for the research

and development of your writing project. Because your writing project

assignment is easier to organize when it condensed into a single question, you

will first need to determine the question for your writing project (Indiana

University 1). This will serve two purposes: 1) you will know exactly

what information to look for when you are researching the topic of your writing

project and 2) the answer to your question will be the thesis statement for your

writing project (Indiana University 2). For example, if your writing project

assignment is to write about the poetry of Langston Hughes, then your

might ask the question, what elements from the life of Langston Hughes are

reflected in his poetry (Indiana University 1)? If necessary, you should repeat

step one because your question will generate some new thoughts, questions

and ideas about your writing project.

     Next, you should organize your notes from step one into two categories:

items you know and items you do not know. For example, when were

Hughes's poems written, or what historical events may have affected Hughes's

poetry? Note: You will need to research the thoughts, questions and ideas in

the items you do not know category because you are unfamiliar with the

information; likewise, you will also need to research those in the items you do

know category because you will need to provide support for your information.

Once you have your thoughts, questions and ideas from step one categorized,

you should begin to organize your writing project. After you have developed

your thoughts, questions, and ideas and read through the source materials for

your writing project, you will need to use selected information from your

sources to support the argument of your writing project. In your writing

project, your argument is the position that you take on the subject of your

research paper that you support with explanations and evidence from your

sources (Wood 4). The objective of your argument is to convince your reader

that you have an interesting and logical point of view on the subject of your

writing project through the use of persuasion, often referred to as academic

argument (The Writing Center 1). At this point, you will need to generate a

thesis statement that summarizes your argument with three main points and an

outline for your writing project. Note: for shorter writing projects, an outline

may be sufficient; however, for longer writing projects, you should also write

out a completion timetable to keep your writing project on schedule.

     Keeping in mind the previous example of a writing project assignment that

is given on a Monday to be turned in on the following Monday, the examples

below are of a thesis statement and completion timetable are provided to give

you an idea of how consistency, practice, and relaxation can alleviate the fear,

stress, and procrastination of the writing process.

Thesis statement:

The poetry of Langston Hughes reflects elements of the Kansas City Blues

music he heard during his childhood, the African American culture of the

Harlem Renaissance, and the music of the Jazz Age.

Completion timetable:

Tuesday:

Select biography of Langston Hughes; Research Kansas City Blues music

Hughes heard as a child; Select poem from Kansas City Blues period; Write

draft of Kansas City Blues section.

Wednesday:

Research the African American culture of the Harlem Renaissance; Select

poem from Harlem Renaissance period; Write draft of Harlem Renaissance

section;

Thursday:

Research the music of the Jazz Age; Select poem from Jazz Age; Write draft

of Jazz Age section.

Friday:

Review and revise draft of Kansas City Blues section, draft of Harlem

Renaissance section, and draft of Jazz Age section; Write writing project first

draft; Review and revise writing project first draft.

Saturday:

Write writing project second draft; Review and revise writing project second

draft.

Sunday:

Step III: Writing, review, and revision

     As you can see from the completion timetable above, the next step after you

have completed you planning and organization is to write. Since your writing

project must clearly express your point of view (or position) to your reader,

breaking your writing project into sections will help to keep the points of your

thesis statement focused because you will be less likely to include any

unnecessary information (The Writing Center 1). Note: leaving some time

between when you write the first drafts for the sections of your writing project

and when you begin to review and revise them will allow you to have a fresh

perspective on what you have written that may allow you to notice any errors

that you had not noticed before. Additionally, the review of you writing project

should be done by at least two people. You should review your work first, then

have someone else review it and then review it again yourself. As has been

previously stated, your writing project must clearly express your point of view

(or position) to your reader so having another person review your work is very

important. In fact, it is best if the person that you have to review your work does

not know anything about the topic of your writing project because you want to

be able to produce text that is clear in its meaning without the need for further

explanation (Speicher & Bielanski 150). If the person that you ask to review you

writing project is not able to clearly understand what you have  written then you

will need to make some changes so that when your instructor reads it that is not

the case. The good thing about the situation is that you have someone who is

able to point out the parts of your writing project where you need to rephrase,

add, or remove some of your text before you have to turn in your assignment.

Friends are always the best people to ask to review your writing project for

you because they tend to be the most generous with pointing out your

imperfections much like when one of them comments on your fashion choices.

Step IV: Repeat any steps as needed

     Although you have a schedule to keep, you should not forget that part of

the revision process is having an idea of when you might need to start over.

Keep in mind that the writing process is like cooking: you may not mix all of

the ingredients together correctly on your first attempt and end up with a

finished product that has a bitter taste. With this in mind, you should not be

afraid to repeat any of the steps in the process or start over from scratch if

necessary.

Step V: Final draft

     Finishing you writing project can be difficult because of the constant desire

to add this or change that; but, at some point you must print a final draft in

order to turn in assignment. This step is titled final draft because the writing

process never ends; you simply have to stop so that your instructor will be

able to provide you with feedback on how your writing is progressing. Some

instructors may allow you to revise your writing project after they have

returned it to you and some may not; however, you should always review any

comments provided by your instructor to use for future writing projects. The

purpose of the educational process is for each student to develop an

intellectual independence that will allow him or her to continue to learn, through

an insatiable desire for knowledge, without needing to be given continued

instruction on what, when, or how to learn. As a student, the only way for you

to develop clarity of thought on any issue or to harness the power of the

education you gain from your educational career is to "learn, practice, and

master" the writing process (VanDamme 3).

Works Cited

Alain. "Enemies of Dissertation Writers." Article Alley 12 Jun. 2008. 19 Jun.

     2009. Web.

Bellevue College Writing Lab. Bellevue College 22 Apr. 2009. 24 May 2009.

     Web.

Indiana University. "How to Write a Thesis Statement." Writing Tutorial

     Services 1.30 2008. 12 Jun. 2009. Web.

Speicher, Barbara L. and Bielanski, Jessica R. Critical Thoughts on Teaching

     Standard English. Curriculum Inquiry 30.2 2000: 147-169. Web.

The Writing Center. "Thesis Statement." University of North Carolina at

     Chapel Hill 2007. 12 Jun. 2009. Web.

VanDamme, Lisa. "The Writing Process: One Step at a Time." Capitalism

     Magazine 1 Jun. 2007. 19 Jun. 2009. Web.

Weida, Stacy. "Starting the Writing Process." The Writing Lab at Purdue and

     Purdue University 28 Jan. 2007. 19 Jun. 2009. Web.

Wood, Nancy V. Essentials of Argument. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:

     Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.