The Writing Process: How to Turn Good Ideas into Amazing Documents

*Percentages and emphases are meant to be used as general guidelines, not to be taken literally. Each writing project will require some variation in timing and emphasis. Turning good ideas into amazing documents requires more than just writing. The Writing Process It requires a process. WORKFLOW | by weighted time and emphasis* FORMAT, DESIGN, & EDIT DEFINE DEVELOP RECEIVE RECEIVE IDEA RESEARCH & DISCOVER PROBLEM & ORGANIZE & OUTLINE WRITE FIRST DRAFT FEEDBACK REVISE RECEIVE FEEDBACK FEEDBACK THESIS 3% 20% 3% 2% 3% 15% 10% 7% 5% 30% 2% Phase 3 | Editing Phase 1 | Prewriting ~ 33% Phase 2 | Writing & Revising | ~55% ~12% Phase 1 should consume about 25% - 35% Phase 2 should consume about 55% - 60% of your project time. In this stage, you're writing, reviewing feedback, and revising-multiple times. Phase 3 should consume about 10% - 15% of your total project time. In this stage, it's all about coming up with good ideas. of your project time. In this stage, you're formatting, editing, and polishing. Spend the most time on research and organization. Put your greatest emphasis on developing a strong, specific, and coherent thesis and problem statement. Spend about 20% of your time on the first draft of your document. Spend the greatest portion of your time and emphasis revising your document. Spend the majority of your time in this phase formatting, designing, and editing. Put your greatest emphasis on your final revision after feedback. 1.1: Develop Idea-Start by exploring your topic ideas. Understand your 2.1: Write First Draft-Follow your outline and fill in the blanks. It's likely, as you develop your content, the outline may shift a bit. But keep it focused and just get your ideas down in a completed draft. 3.1: Format, Design, & Edit-Know which style guide, if any, you are supposed to use and format it appropriately. Work your information design to work with fonts and colors and add any headings, bullets, tables, | figures, columns, or other design elements to help your reader. Conduct a micro-edit of all punctuation, grammar, page numbers, citations, and other important details. project parameters, your audience, and your purpose. Is this a good idea to write about? Will anybody care? What will they want to know? 1.2: Research & Discover-Spend a significant about of time reading. Get to know your topic. Study data and findings. Know your topic well and what others are saying about it. Fit your ideas into that discussion. 2.2: Receive Feedback-Solicit feedback from teachers, supervisors, or peers. While you'll want to play close attention to the feedback, your actual time spent reviewing feedback shouldn't take long. 11 1.3: Define Problem & Thesis-Identify where the problems, controversies, or issues are. Take a position (even if research-driven), and 3.2: Receive Feedback-Once again, solicit feedback, this time on the design, formatting, punctuation, mechanics, grammar, and details of your 2.3: Revise-This is the most important and most time-consuming part of writing projects. Plan in advance to go through multiple iterations and drafts of your work. Be responsive to feedback and know that the best writers rarely get a perfect document the first time. Revise, resubmit, revise, and repeat. document. state your position as a thesis statement. 11 1.4: Organize & Outline-Take your ideas and organize them into an outline, using headings and subheadings. Construct a logical, coherent progression of ideas that connects your thesis/problem to a cohesive 3.3: Revise & Polish-Do one last final edit of your document. At this part of Phase 3, while it may not take you much time to revise (it's mostly surface-level edits at this point), you will want your greatest emphasis on revision, making sure that your document is polished and professional in 2.4: Receive More Feedback-The revision process is cyclical and shouldn't be seen as a linear process. You may have to revise multiple times to get your document where it conclusion. needs to be. Seek feedback as often as it takes. every way. 11 Designed by Curtis Newbold | TheVisualCommunicationGuy.com | Copyright 2019 SCALE OF EMPHASIS REVISE