Stages of the Writing Process

This year your child will complete several writing assignments. In order to successfully complete these assignments, it is important that the writing process be used and understood. Below is a description of each stage of the writing process your child will be using in the classroom. If you have any questions about the information provided, please feel free to contact me.

1. Prewriting

This is a very important stage of the writing process. At this stage the student is doing all of the work before they put pencil to paper. I believe that much time should be dedicated to this stage. Here are some of the important parts of the prewriting stage:

• Choosing a topic - The student decides what their topic will be. Students should choose their own topic. As a result of choosing their own topic they will become more invested in their writing. A tip is for students to keep a list of potential topics in their writing folder. This way, if a student is ever stuck and cannot think of a topic, they will be able to refer to their list for ideas.
• Consider purpose - This makes the student think about what the purpose is for their writing. Students will also consider what type of language they will use in this piece of writing.
• Consider audience - The student will think about who is going to be reading their writing.
• Consider form - The student will think about the form the writing will take. Examples of writing forms are letters, poems, journal entries, a story, etc.
• Gathering and organizing ideas for writing - This is when the student thinks about what they will say. Students can talk about their ideas, do quick writes, draw, read, etc.

2. Drafting

The important part of the drafting stage is getting ideas down on paper. Here are some important aspects of the drafting stage:

• Students will write out their ideas with little focus or concern on spelling, punctuation, and other errors.
• Students will skip every other line when writing to leave space for revisions.
• The top of the paper will be labeled as "Rough Draft" to indicate that the paper has not yet been graded for errors.
• The focus is on content.

3. Revising

This stage of the writing process refers to "seeing again." During this part the student is looking at the big ideas to see if they make sense. The student will revisit their writing after an ideal period of three days. Here are some important aspects of the revising stage:

• Rereading the rough draft - After taking a break from their draft of writing, the student will revisit their piece of work and make changes. These changes could include adding, deleting, and moving words.
• Sharing in writing groups - Students meet in writing groups to share their writing with their classmates. During the group meetings, classmates are able to give suggestions to each other about their writing. These groups can be formed by students or be assigned by the teacher.

4. Editing

This is the stage in writing where the student is getting ready to have another person read their work. It is the little things which the student is paying attention to during this part of the writing process. Here are some important aspects of the editing stage:

• Proofreading - The student reads through their writing slowly, and looks for mistakes, such as spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.
• Correcting errors - After proofreading and locating mistakes, the student corrects the mistakes independently.

5. Publishing

This is a time for each student to shine! The student writes their final copy and shares it with an audience. Through sharing their writing with others, students think of themselves as authors. Here are some ways to publish and share students writing with others:

• Making books - Students can make books that are as simple as folding a sheet of paper into sections, or as sophisticated as using cardboard to hold the book together.
• Other ways of sharing writing - There are other ways to share students writing, such as, submitting it to a writing contest, the newspaper, a magazine, etc.