This post was written after I read about the five stages of writing. I discuss what these stages are and their significance in creating a well written text.

Discussion Post 3

The five stages of the writing process are very crucial to creative an effective text. The five stages are planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. Each of these stages are important and play their part in enhancing the final product. Firstly, planning consists of analyzing your writing situation and brainstorming ideas and ways to write the piece. One must think about the audience, purpose, delivery method, setting, and the rest of the writing process during the planning stage. Then, they can use that to think of ideas, research, and devise a schedule to write. The planning stage is significant because it is the first stage. It determines how the rest of the paper will look and without it, the writer will be lost multiple times throughout the paper. In a worse case scenario, one might have to scrap the entire paper after writing a large part of it because they did not plan it out and realized a problem with the text too late. After planning, the next stage of writing is drafting. The drafting stage is quick and can take less time than planning. There are many ways to draft such as outlining, using a template, or simply writing out the paragraphs. One key thing about drafting is that one must not stop, especially in the middle of a section. The point is to just write and worry about the rest later. This stage is significant because this is when a bulk of the writing gets done. This is the stage where the write can just write and not have to think about anything else. After drafting comes revising. This is when the writer will look back at what they wrote down and really analyze if it works. They must look back at the audience, purpose, and subject as well as the original plan and compare it with the draft to see if they hit the mark. This stage is important because it ensures that the paper is actually good. It makes sure that the paper stays on topic, is appropriate for the audience, and conveys the essence of the thesis. Without revising, the paper is just a skeleton. Next, the writer has to edit. Editing is similar to revising because it involves looking back at the text. However, while revising looks at the content of the text, editing focuses on the grammar, punctuation, style, diction, etc. This is significant because a paper with improper grammar and flow is ineffective in converting the underlying message. Also, it can be overlooked if the style just doesn’t fit the topic. The final stage is proofreading. This is when the writer had finished everything but looks back one last time to make sure everything is perfect. This includes fixing errors caused by haste, spelling, etc. Although it may seem like a small stage, proofreading id significant because it elevates the paper from a good to a great paper. Small mistakes can make the paper look bad and it is necessary to do everything one can to fix them before submission. In sum, all five stages of the writing process are important in delivering a perfect final product and each one should be understood by writers.

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