Mastering the Writing Process: Drafting, Revising, and Prewriting

Posted on Mar 20, 2025 in Translation and Interpreting

Drafting

Step 1: Spend a little time brainstorming, generating ideas related to your topic, before beginning your rough draft. Write these ideas on a sheet of paper.

Step 2: Organize your ideas by clustering them. Write each idea in the center of a page and circle it. Then go to step three.

Step 3: Arrange related ideas around each idea, trying to place ever-more-detailed pieces of information close to one another on the paper. This will give you some idea of how to structure your paper; if you find you have many ideas clustered in one area, you may want to focus there.

Step 4: Make an informal paper outline to provide guidelines for the format and flow of your paper. At first, you can just list points in order. Later, you may want to arrange your information in standard outline form.

Step 5: Do some brief, preliminary research. Consider which authors, books, or quotations might offer you good supporting evidence.

Step 6: Write your thesis statement and a summary of your paper’s objective at the top of a clean sheet of paper.

Step 7: Approach your rough draft in sections. Each section will be a paragraph in your final draft.

Step 8: Start with the first item on your paper outline. Write the title of this item on a sheet of paper and write all relevant ideas beneath it.

Step 9: Write the title of the next item of your outline on a separate sheet of paper with all its relevant ideas beneath it.

Step 10: Continue this process with all sections of the outline.

Step 11: Tie together each item on your outline in a brief conclusion at the end of the draft. This will become the concluding paragraph after revision.

Step 12: After completing your draft, wait a while before returning to revise it. This will give you a fresh approach to the paper.

Revising

Revising is finding and correcting problems with content; changing the ideas in your writing to make them clearer, stronger, and more convincing. Revising looks at the “Big Picture”—the Idea level.

Revision Strategies

  • Look for Unity: Does everything refer back to the main point? Does each topic sentence refer to the thesis? Does each sentence in each body paragraph refer back to the topic sentence?
  • Detail and Support: Does each body paragraph contain at least two examples? Is each example followed by at least one supporting detail?
  • Coherence: Are all points connected to form a whole? Are transitions used to move from one idea to the next?

Revision Tips

  • Take a break from your draft before attempting to revise.
  • Read your draft out loud and listen to your words.
  • Imagine yourself as your reader.
  • Look for consistent problem areas.
  • Get feedback from peers.
  • Get help from a group member!

Editing

Editing is finding and correcting problems with grammar, style, word choice & usage, and punctuation. Editing focuses on the “Little Picture”—Word level.

Editing Strategies

  1. Keep an Error Log to help you identify your problem areas and improve your writing. This would be something to help you grow personally as a writer.
  2. When editing, review your paper for one type of error at a time; don’t try to read through looking for everything at once.

Editing Tips

  1. Work with a clean printed copy, 1.5 spaced to allow room to mark corrections.
  2. Read your essay backwards.
  3. Be cautious of spell-check and grammar-check. USE A DICTIONARY/WRITE SOURCE.
  4. Read your essay out loud.
  5. Get feedback from peers.
  6. Work with a group member!

Self-Review

  1. You should never move to peer review without first completing a self-review (revising & editing); you want your peer to look for mistakes that you were unable to catch yourself.
  2. After you have reviewed your own work, make the necessary corrections and print a clean, revised copy before moving on to peer review.

Peer-Review

It is important to make the peer review process useful. Basics of useful feedback:

  • It is given in a positive way.
  • It is specific.
  • It offers suggestions.
  • It is given both verbally and in writing.

What is Prewriting?

First step of the writing process. Helps get ideas onto paper so you can organize them. A chance to explore ALL your ideas on a topic, even if you don’t use them all.

Why Should I Prewrite?

How do you get somewhere you’ve never been before if you don’t have any directions? You’ll get lost!
Prewriting is your map.

Types of Prewriting Strategies

  1. Brainstorming
  2. Listing
  3. Freewriting
  4. Clustering
  5. Mapping
  6. Drawing

Brainstorming

  1. A way to capture all your ideas, idea fragments, and thoughts on a piece of paper.
  2. Often looks like a list.
  3. Get as many ideas down on your paper as you can.

Brainstorming Example

Seeing family, Go to the mall, fun

Listing

  1. Looks a lot like Brainstorming.
  2. Write as many ideas as you can, even if you think you might not use them.
  3. Look at your list for similarities or opposites or ideas you like.
  4. Write a new list, adding details this time.

Example of Listing

Breakfast (List 1): Eggs and toast

Detail: Crispy bacon, not limp, that’s gross. Imp. b/c gets your brain going. Imp. b/c helps burn calories all day.

Freewriting

Write for a set amount of time (5-10 minutes). Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

Clustering

Like a Web. Start with your topic in a circle in the middle of your paper. Draw lines to other circles with subtopics and ideas on your main idea. Group like information together to keep yourself organized.

Example Clustering

Mapping

Way to organize ideas by importance or order. Shows Main topic, subtopics, and support.

Drawing

A visual image.