writing


 * A writing process utilizes multiple writing strategies.**

** The writer begins ** ** prewriting/brainstorming ** **:** **freewriting, conversing with others, listening to read alouds, webbing ideas to connect or categorize information, or engaging in other activities that inspire ideas for composing a text.**

** The writer ** drafts **:** ** composing a first attempt of the writing, allowing ideas to flow forth without stopping or making large changes to the text. The goal is writing whatever comes to mind. Drafting ideas may evolve through a few brainstorming sessions and several written copies. **


 * The writer revises reviews, re-visions ****:**
 * to create clarity, increase interest, and support smooth flow of ideas. Authors cannot work alone in this pursuit. Through questions and suggestions, a teacher or other writers become involved in the process of making writing interesting to readers. Feedback from readers and listeners is guides changes that produce a final draft with improved communication between ** **the writer and the audience**.


 * The writer edits ****:**
 * after a draft is revised to clarify the meaning of the text. Editing is necessary now to check the structure from a reader’s viewpoint. Standard punctuation and spelling make reading easier, and that is why the conventions exist. To ensure that editing is something young writers learn how to do, someone knowledgeable of the rules of printed text should be the editor-in-chief, providing the expertise and support to add conventions without endless labor or confusion on the part of the writer. **


 * The writer publishes **** : **
 * a complete, but not necessarily completed, text. Perhaps later the author will return to do more revisions but the writing is ready for an audience. Publishing may involve many different formats, from a read aloud to a performance to a display of the writing in a public place, with the goal of making the writing available for audiences to read and to hear. **

//**A Writing Process Fit to Young Writers**// creates a match between writing and writers to inspire students to express their ideas creatively while learning how and when to use the conventions of written language such as **book spelling** (standard spelling), **stop signs for readers** (punctuation) and **maps to the destination** (paragraphs). (Edwards, et. al., 2003).

Writers generate ideas, compose initial versions, read and change their material, and share what they have done with readers and listeners. Throughout, the writer is not alone, but in constant conversation with other people (often teachers, but also other students) who offer new perspectives, thoughtful comments, and appreciative support.

Pushing young writers to write before they are ready, making them edit a text too quickly, or rushing them from first draft to publication, all create a sense of writing as a race to the finish line with the goal of getting something done as quickly as possible.

Leaving the audience out of the process is also counterproductive. Writers need to have readers comment on their drafts in order to revise them and receive new reader responses as the work evolves. In this way everyone becomes a writer, always working through part of the process. Otherwise writing is viewed as a singular activity that only a special few have the talent and mental resolve to do well.


 * // The essence of the process is the flow of ideas that dynamically connects each element to the others. If any of the ingredients of the writing process are missing or are shortchanged, then the writer and the writing suffer. //**

Process Approaches to Writing has been at the center of writing instruction in schools for more than 30 years. (Graves, 1991; Calkins, 1986; Mermelstein, 2005).