The Writing Process, Essay Example

Writing can be a very difficult task for anyone, even to the most skilled writers that have made a career producing excellent literary works.  It can be a daunting task, but for many students, it helps to begin with the analysis of the Writing Process and the five paragraph essay that help provide structure and organization.  The Writing Process includes the phases of planning, translation and reviewing.  Each phase is crucial for the author to efficiently communicate his or her ideas from the mind to the written page for us all to see.  Upon understanding the steps of the Writing Process, it is important to analyze how the steps are applied to my own writing style and to offer any examination or conclusion on changes that should be made to write more effectively.  Furthermore, the importance of the five paragraph essay will be explained in order to better ascertain the benefits that this writing format can offer to students of all writing backgrounds and proficiencies at any level.  It is the goal of this paper to understand the Writing Process, analyze its importance to my specific style, and explain how a specific writing format can be beneficial to students.

First of all, the Writing Process utilizes a number of different steps to help ensure that the writer has properly planned, organized and reviewed the material that has been written.  The planning stage is by far one of the most crucial steps in the Writing Process.  Within this stage, the writer can create an outline or offer a brainstorming list of items that should be included in the literary work.  In many cases, this is very rough information and it helps if the writer writes as many items as possible so that these can be reviewed later during the steps that follow.  Very little information is being written formally; the goal of this step is only to brainstorm and plan out what pieces of information should be included into the work and begin to create an overall outline to help keep the writer’s work organized.  The translation process takes the work that has been outlined or brainstormed and literally translates it from the notes and the brain onto the piece of paper.  This can be a very difficult task at times, but it helps if the writer has a detailed outline from the previous stage to help guide the translation.  A general rule of thumb is that the better the notes from the planning stage, the better the translation will be onto the actual piece of work.  Within this stage, the writer is attempting to put all of the ideas down on paper in a formal format so that is can be analyzed, critiqued, and reviewed into a final piece of work.  These actions are all performed during the review process.  Reviews can be self-performed, performed by peers, or performed by a professor or tutor.  The goal is to have as many eyes look over the paper to check for spelling and grammatical errors, but also to make sure that the sentences are clear and the writing is efficient.  At times, the writer may be forced to rework many of the portions of the literary work in order to perfect it.  In this phase, the reader should be the main concern to everyone.  If the proposed audience may have difficulty understanding the point, the work should be revised and reworking to become more efficient.

My particular writing style is much different than the Writing Process we have learned about through the course lectures and Writing Center materials.  Occasionally, an outline will be created to help keep thoughts and ideas organized, or to show which important phrases or quotes I want to include in the paper as they correlate with specific points.  However, I usually forego the outline and planning stage and just begin writing.  I start with an overall introduction to help ease my way into the paper and I make a point to include a thesis statement that provides a short outline to the reader and myself for what I am going to include in the paper.  This is much quicker than the lengthy planning stage, but it can also be too short to where the actual work that is translated into the paper does not include everything I want or may leave out crucial pieces of information that help connect interrelated points with the reader.  Finally, once the paper has been written, I usually run a spell check and grammar check within my Microsoft Word program and briefly read through the paper to highlight any areas that I think need to be revised.  Once the paper is quickly revised, it is ready to turn in for a grade.  Because I run through the process very quickly, it often lowers the quality of my writing.  However, the official Writing Process can be very lengthy and time consuming, so my style is much more effective during a limited time frame.

In many cases, it is important for students to utilize the five paragraph writing approach to help organize the paper more effectively.  This approach begins with an introduction paragraph that briefly states the scope of the issue being discussed and usually ends with a thesis statement that includes the premise behind the paper and three main topics that relate to the overall main point of the paper.  These three topics will be the subjects that are discussed within each of the three following body paragraphs.  These body paragraphs can begin with an introductory sentence that helps ease the reader into the next point, while ending with a transitioning sentence to merge with the upcoming paragraph and the new point.  This is very effective for the reader and helps provide a general outline and organization that can easily be followed to avoid confusion.  Finally, the paper ends with a conclusion paragraph that restates the thesis and the main points of the paper and then provides the reader with any concluding statements to bring the paper to a close.  The importance of the five paragraph writing format and the Writing Process are crucial to students in writing effective pieces of work.  I must do my best to incorporate these writing steps into my writing style, so that I do not rush my work.  Although it can be very time consuming, it is worth the time to carefully plan and organize the work in the long run.