Writing Style

Writing Style

The writing process is the series of sequential steps a writer or researcher follows to record experiences, observations, data, and research. The process of writing, by definition, suggests an ongoing commitment to editing, multiple revisions, self-reflection, and the development of characters, scenes, and findings. While the writing process references the journey between producing and revising a text, it also involves the events leading up to writing and the closing stages that follow (Zinsser, 2006).

Writing Stages and Strategies

There are innumerable ways to write effectively, but many experts and seasoned professional writers have the same opinion in regard to the procedures they follow. These procedures are consistent with any writing project, including but not limited to academic articles, books, personal narratives, fiction, poems, ethnographies, and other nonfiction text. The step-by-step approach to writing varies, but these different approaches share the same elements (Richardson, 2007). The writing process can be divided into three distinct stages: brainstorming, writing, and editing.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the initial stage of writing and includes inventing, thinking, imagining, developing, and organizing the writing project. The process of writing begins with planning. During the brainstorming stage, writers begin to formulate and write down ideas for the writing project. Even though this endeavor is usually done independently, some writers engage in discussions with colleagues during this stage to determine the range of potential topics and research questions and to create a project that responds to established scholarship (Lamott, 2005).

This prewriting stage allows writers to consider a plethora of possibilities that will later be narrowed down significantly. Brainstorming can be in the form of an outline, a list, a set of questions, or free writing that will eventually become the first draft. Free writing allows writers to be spontaneous and unstructured, thinking, feeling, seeing, and experiencing new things as they write. This ...