Roane State Community College

The writing process generally consists of 4 steps (although, as we discuss later, these steps don't have to occur in this exact order, and in fact, many find themselves moving forward and backward at multiple stages in the writing process).

• Pre-writing
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing/proofreading

Pre-writing and Drafting

• Pre-writing is anything that you do before you "officially" begin writing/drafting your paper, speech, presentation, etc. This can include a variety of techniques, like freewriting, listing, mapping, webbing, or outlining. One of the most effective pre-writing strategies is talking through your topic with someone else (like a Learning Center tutor!).
• Drafting is when you start to put pen to paper/curser to screen and write out your paper. 

Revising, Editing, and Proofreading

• Revision, as the name suggests, is quite literally a re-visioning or re-viewing of your paper. When you revise, you are looking at your paper with new eyes to determine what will make it more effective. Rather than looking at things like grammar and punctuation, revision involves interrogating your line of argument, analyzing your paper from the point of view of your audience, and thinking carefully about your organization, among other things.
• Editing and proofreading are the points in the writing process when you step away from the bigger things, like argument and organization, and consider things like word choice, sentence structure, punctuation, and formatting.

Finding your own writing process

When we talk about the writing process, we often present it as a list of things that you should do in a particular order. However, for most people, that is not the case.

Everyone writes differently. Some people need lots of time to pre-write/think through their ideas before they begin drafting. Others find it more effective to just sit down at a computer and start typing. Similarly, some people revise, edit, and proofread as they go along, frequently checking the overall composition (thesis/argument, organization, attention to audience), while others just want to get everything down on the page before returning to revise, edit, and proofread. There is no one right way to write! Find what works for you and go with it.