The Writing Process

Are any of you familiar with this show? All Simpson images were taken from www.thesimpsons.com and #http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/gallery/simpsonspictures.shtml

What is the longest running cartoon show in the history of TV? How many of you watch it? How many of you love it?

How many of you are aware that this television show starts off a story written down on paper? Really? Say it isn't so! No way! Are you nuts?

YES – IT IS TRUE! EVERY TV SHOW YOU WATCH STARTED AS A STORY WRITTEN ON PAPER! (Or a word processor, of course!) AND—GET THIS: EVERY WRITER OF EVERY STORY YOU READ OR TV PROGRAM YOU WATCH OR MOVIE YOU GO TO OR EVEN EVERY VIDEO GAME YOU PLAY USES A SPECIAL PROCESS WHEN THEY ARE CREATING YOUR FAVORITE SHOWS, MOVIES OR GAMES. IT'S CALLED:

So, what is The Writing Process? Well, The Writing Process involves these 5 steps: Publishing Revising ? Pre-Writing ? ? ? Drafting Editing

Step 1: Pre-Writing

Pre-writing is a warm-up stage, where writers prepare to write

To help prepare, used R.A.F.T.S :

R ole – Who am I? What is my role in writing this piece? (reporter, detective, alien, yourself, family member, animal, etc.)

A udience – Who am I writing this for? (Mom & Dad, teacher, friend, sibling). What stance should I take (formal, informal)

F ormat – Which format should I use? (Short story, poem, essay, letter, report, speech, picture book, recount?)

T opic – what is my topic? What do I need to say about it?

S trong Verb (reason for writing) – what am I trying to do in this piece of writing? Convince? Entertain? Request something? Complain? Evaluate? Annoy?

Step 2: Drafting

Drafting is when you actually put words on your paper.

It involves risk-taking! It's hard to get started sometimes!

You need to concentrate and write in a quiet place.

Don't worry about spelling or grammar – just get your ideas down.

You might want to write on every other line, or only on one side of the paper, to give yourself room to add notes or ideas later.

Date or number each draft to show how they have changed and improved from one draft to another.

Step 3: Revising

Revising is taking the time to RE-READ your original drafts – to take a second look. Why? Because even professional writers revise and make their work better – the writers of the Simpsons never take their first draft and create the show – it would be AWFUL!

You may want to add more information to your story, change the order of your paragraphs, or choose some more descriptive, exciting words. Put away the “worn-out” words – words like big, fun, great, nice, pretty, small, very – and try to find other words that do a better job of describing what is happening in your story.

While revising, ask yourself: Is this my best work? Is it boring? Confusing? Does it make sense, or are their big gaps in my story?

Step 4: Editing

What is the difference between editing and revising? Well, editing looks at the grammar and mechanics of a piece of writing.

You need to check your work for spelling errors, punctuation problems, capitalization errors, grammar and sentence structure.

Sometimes it is good to let another set of eyes look at your paper, so let a classmate or parent look it over as well. Just make sure that YOU correct the errors, not your editor – they just need to point out the problem.

Get in the habit of reading and re-reading your work over and over again – you will always be find another way to make your work better.

Step 5: Publishing

Yippee! Finally done! It's the best job I can do!

Also known as a final draft, this piece of writing should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. It should be perfect (or as close to perfect as you can make it). How many times have you found a mistakes in a book you read? Not very often!