What is meant by the writing process?

• Writing process means the steps and methods used to produce a finished piece of writing.

• Describes the series of physical and mental actions that people perform in the course of producing any type of text.

7 steps of the writing process

1) Pre-writing: This is the first stage of the writing process that encourages students to write. It stimulates thoughts for getting started. In fact, it moves students away from having to face a blank page towards generating tentative ideas and gathering information for writing.

2) Drafting: Drafting is the first attempt at writing. At this stage, writers are focused on the fluency of writing and are not worried about grammar accuracy or neatness of the draft. In this stage, the importance is to transform thoughts into paragraphs that can be later edited grammatically correct.

3) Responding: It’s the teacher’s quick initial reaction to students’ drafts. Response can be oral or in writing, after students have produced the first draft and just before they proceed to revise.

4) Revising: When students revise, they review their texts on the basis of the feedback given in the responding stage and reexamine what was written to see how effectively they have communicated their meanings to the reader. Revising is done to improve global content and the organization of ideas.

5) Editing: At this stage, students are engaged in arranging neatly their texts as they prepare the final draft for evaluation by the teacher. They edit their own or their peer’s work for grammar, spelling, punctuation, diction, sentence structure and accuracy of supportive textual material, such as quotations, examples and the like.

6) Evaluating: This includes the overall interpretation of the task, sense of audience, relevance, development and organization of ideas, format or layout, grammar and structure, spelling and punctuation, range and appropriateness of vocabulary, and clarity of communication.

7) Post-writing: This final stage constitutes any classroom activity that the teacher and the students can do with the completed pieces of writing. This includes publishing, sharing, reading aloud, transforming texts for stage performance, or merely displaying texts on notice boards.