The document outlines the steps involved in the college writing process, which include prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. It emphasizes the recursive nature of writing, where writers may need to revisit previous steps to refine their work, and details techniques for brainstorming and developing ideas. The final stages involve receiving feedback, checking for coherence and correctness, and preparing for publication.

1. IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN TTOO
CCOOLLLLEEGGEE WWRRIITTIINNGG
THE WRITING PROCESS

2. It involves steps: prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing and proofreading, and publishing.
It is a recursive process, though, because
sometimes it requires going some steps either
backward or forward in order to appropriately
meet the standards of a writing task.
WWRRIITTIINNGG AASS AA PPRROOCCEESSSS

3. It involves…
◦ finding an idea or topic worth writing about
◦ understanding clearly the writing assignment that we have
been given
◦ being clear about our audience and purpose for writing
(explain, describe, persuade, entertain…)
◦ learning as much about the writing topic as we can
◦ forming a preliminary thesis (a sentence that summarizes
the main idea that we wish to convey)
◦ planning our writing by means of an outline (a hierarchical
list of the topics we wish to develop in the essay).
PPRREEWWRRIITTIINNGG

4. INVENTION TECHNIQUES: freewriting,
quickwriting, and idea mapping
◦ Freewriting is basically taking a blank sheet of paper and
writing down all the ideas that come to our mind in no
organized fashion.
◦ For quickwriting the procedure is basically the same, only
that in quickwriting the ideas we write down must revolve
around either a broad or specific topic, like sports, for
example.
◦ Idea mapping involves narrowing down a topic by building
a concept map that branches out of a broad topic, such as
college education, for instance.
PPRREEWWRRIITTIINNGG

5. FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS
◦ FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES
 INTERVIEWS, SURVEYS, OBSERVATIONS…
◦ FINDING SECONDARY SOURCES
 BOOKS, JOURNALS, MAGAZINES…
◦ EXTENSIVE NOTE TAKING
◦ COMING UP WITH A PRELIMINARY THESIS
STATEMENT AND OUTLINE
PPRREEWWRRIITTIINNGG

6. Using our planning as a guide,
our main concern should be to
get all the ideas down without
concentrating on doing it with
perfect grammar, spelling and
punctuation, among other things.
DDRRAAFFTTIINNGG

7. Keeping in mind our purpose for writing, the
thesis, and the intended audience, we should
add, cut, and/or rearrange ideas as necessary
to obtain a unified, coherent essay.
Have someone, for example a friend, a relative,
your instructor and/or your classmates, read
your work and give you feedback on the content
from their perspective as readers.
RREEVVIISSIIOONN

8. Take into consideration the feedback obtained
during the previous step (or not).
Test your essay for sense and coherence.
Check for errors in usage, mechanics, sentence
structure and grammar.
Prepare a neat, well formatted copy of your
writing, and proofread the final draft for errors
before submitting it.
Now it would be a good time again to have a
few people look at your writing and make
suggestions for improvement.
EEDDIITTIINNGG AANNDD PPRROOOOFFRREEAADDIINNGG

9. After following all the previous steps, either in
order or recursively, we are ready to submit our
work in class or for publication.
PPUUBBLLIICCAATTIIOONN

10. After following all the previous steps, either in
order or recursively, we are ready to submit our
work in class or for publication.
PPUUBBLLIICCAATTIIOONN