The Writing Process

Using

Post-Writing Strategies Prepared by:

Joey F. Valdriz

“All writing is rewriting.”

-Donald Murray

This time, using post-writing strategies!

This part entails looking over your draft critically, paying attention to content, organization, and mechanics by using techniques like, revising, editing, and proofreading.

OBJECTIVE:

• To apply the process of revision on your own paper

RECALL

1. Using Reading Strategies

2. Critical Reading

3. Using Pre-Writing Strategies

4. Writing Thesis Statements

5. Creating Your Outlines

6. Developing Effective Paragraphs

Revision is the general process of going back through your whole draft, from start to end, and improving on or clarifying your subject’s meaning. This includes adding in, taking out, moving around, and polishing certain parts of your draft to make a much more understandable and easier for reading.

Editing (Proofreading) is the more meticulous process of clarifying meaning by revising each word and line of your draft. This includes working on grammatical principles such as subject-verb agreement, verb tense, noun and pronoun usage, prepositions, and sentence transitions; and typographical matters such as punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.

Revision focuses on the bigger picture of your draft.

Editing focuses on its finer details, making sure every word contributes precise meaning to your writing subject.

1. Take a bird’s eye view of your draft, to reread it as a whole.

Reviewing your draft this way lets you do two things:

a. Check if you have attained your writing purpose;

b. Check if you have used the language and tone that best serve your writing purpose.

2. Review your draft portion by portion and adding in, filtering, and re-organizing content according to form and flow.

Do I have a big idea I want to express, an important message to send out? Do I have an audience who will listen to me? Who is my audience?

What is my purpose for writing? Have I achieved it?

What language and tone do I take in my writing? What point of view and voice? Are all these appropriate to my purpose for writing, and the audience I am speaking to?

Do I have enough credibility to speak on my chosen subject? Can I back up all of my discussions on the subject with confidence and sufficient knowledge?

Does my draft make a central point? Have I defined the limits of my draft well, so that only essential information is included?

What form of writing does my draft take? Is it the best venue for my ideas to be expressed?

Does the beginning of my draft draw the reader in? Does it introduce my subject to the reader well?

Do my succeeding points support my beginning statements? Does each idea connect to the next one? Do all the sections of my draft move my discussions on the subject forward, toward the conclusion?

Does the conclusion make the reader think? Does it answer all the reader’s questions on my subject?

Is the pace of my draft just right?

Does the draft read smoothly and coherently overall?

What are the strengths of my draft?

What are the weaknesses of my draft?

Never make the mistake of editing your works before revising the content.

You will be required multiple re-readings of your draft with each re-reading having a different editing focus from the last.

Take as many re-readings as you can until you are sure that all possible errors have been addressed.

Taken from: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/symbols.htm

Go over a draft of any writing assignment given to you in your English class. Use the questions given in this lesson to guide your revisions. Make sure that you provide answers to the questions. Afterward, summarize your draft’s progress using the following categories:

1. Content and Meaning

2. Structure

3. Grammar and mechanics

SOURCE:

Rodriguez, Maxine Rafaella C. and Marella Therese A. Tiongson. 2016. Reading and

Writing Skills. Manila: Rex Book Store, Inc.