A is for Appalachia! The Alphabet Book of Appalachian Heritage  

The Writing Process


“Write about what you know and what you love.” 

Believe it or not, I followed these same steps when I was writing A is for Appalachia.  The one difference is that I revised and edited almost daily as I was writing. Each day I would review what I had written previously.  When I read my writing out loud, I could really hear the clanging and banging of sentences that didn’t speak to the reader, weren’t written as well as they could be, or perhaps didn’t elaborate on my subject so that the reader could understand.  So… I would rewrite.  Or what we know in the writing process as revise. I would normally edit after I revised because I was writing an entire book and I was working with a section at a time.  You, however, won’t normally want to edit until you are finished with whatever you are writing.

Let’s talk about the writing process:

 

Before you begin:

  • Decide the purpose for your writing.

  • Know your audience.  For whom are you writing?

  • Decide what form your writing will take.  Some forms might include the following:

      1. Letter (there are different purposes)

      2. Essay

      3. Book

      4. Story or Tale

      5. Short Story

      6. Poem

      7. Play

      8. Song

      9. Card

      10. Instructions

      11. Brochure

      12. Advertisement

      13. Informative pamphlet

      14. Article for newspaper or magazine

      15. Written interview

      16. Handout for a presentation of program

      17. Report

      18. Review

      19. Manual

      20. Handbook or guide

         

1. Pre-Writing

This stage includes all of the things you do to get ready to write.  Some of those things might include the following:

      1. Brainstorming

      2. Reading

      3. Observing

      4. Listing

      5. Outlining

      6. Clustering

      7. Visiting a museum, library, or place of interest

      8. Researching

      9. Taking notes from an interview

      10. Watching a video

      11. Discussion

      12. Mapping

2. The Rough Draft

  • Know your audience.

  • Write as if your audience knows absolutely nothing about your topic.  Do not assume anything!

  • Paint a picture with words.  Don’t tell. SHOW!

  • Catch the reader’s attention with your first sentence.

  • State the purpose of your writing in the first few sentences.

  • Just write! Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation.  Just write!  Get your thoughts on paper!  Revision comes later.

  • Organize your writing so that the sequence of events makes sense to your reader.

  • Make sure that your paper has a beginning, middle, and an end.

Beginning       State the purpose of the paper

Middle

End                Restate the purpose of the paper.

  • Skip lines so you will have room to revise and edit.  This is very important!  It will keep you from having to completely write your paper over as your revise.  Skipping lines will allow you to rewrite and edit in the empty space above the sentence you are revising or editing.

 

3. Revise

  • Reread your work.  (Reading aloud to yourself or to a peer partner is a good idea and a great help.)

  • Ask yourself, “What more can I do to make my writing SPEAK to my READER?”

  • Are there details or descriptions you need to add?

  • Is there text that needs to be replaced? 

  • Get rid of words or sentences you don’t need.  (Don’t ramble.)

  • Look at sentence structure.  Change those sentences that make a clanging sound to your ears when you read them aloud.

  • Ask a peer for advice on how your writing might be better for your reader to understand.

  • Revise in the blank space you left above your writing during your rough draft.

  • Use a colored pen to revise and edit.  It makes your revision easier to see and besides, it ‘s just more fun!  I like to edit and revise in pink ink.

 

4. Edit

  • Read your writing aloud again and make sure that it says what you want it to say.

  • Correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization mistakes.

  • Look for problems with subject/verb agreement and correct those.

  • Ask a friend to “edit read” your writing and advise you about any oversights or mistakes you might have missed.

  • Make your editing marks as required and do as much editing as needed in the blank space that you left above your writing during your rough draft.

 

5.  Publish

  • Send your writing to your reader or make your writing available to your reader.  There are many ways in which to do this:

      1. Display your writing.

      2. Mail your letter.

      3. Submit your article to a magazine or newspaper.

      4. Submit your story or poem to a magazine or publisher.

      5. Read your writing to your classmates.

      6. Bind your story into a book then share your book with others. Place it in the school library.

      7. Put your writing on the bulletin board, in the hall at school, or on the fridge at home.

      8. Tape record your writing for others to hear.

      9. Exchange your work with someone else.

      10. Produce your play.

      11. Place your brochure or pamphlet in the community.

      12. Sing your song to an audience or make a recording of it.

      13. Frame your poem and give it as a gift.