ELA 101: The Writing Process (Inspired by Junhee Kim)

​ELA 5th-8th Grade

The Writing Process

Poll

How do you feel about writing?

• It's so difficult!

• It's pretty tough.

• Not too challenging.

• It's easy!

✏️Let's Discuss📄

Based on the poll results...

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Writing is not always easy, but there are some steps we can take to make it fun, help you feel more confident in the process, and improve our writing overall.

​What makes writing difficult?

What makes it

enjoyable?

The Writing Process: Idea vs. Reality

The biggest and most common mistake people make about writing is thinking that it should be a smooth process. This is not true at all! In fact, there is a lot of reviewing, thinking, editing, and rewriting involved in the writing process. Let's take a look at what's involved:

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The 7 Steps of the Writing Process​

1. Brainstorming

2. Planning

3. Drafting

4. Editing

5. Rewriting

6. Proofreading

7. Publishing

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Fill in the Blank

There are #______ steps to the writing process.

1. Brainstorming

• The first step of any writing process

• Write down all possible ideas

• Use mind maps, lists, free-writes, or whatever you feel comfortable using

• Research your topic for more information

Multiple Choice

The brainstorming step of the writing process should take about ten minutes.

• True

• False

Brainstorming Answer Explanation

Are you surprised that the answer is FALSE?

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Brainstorming is not a step that you can finish in a given amount of time.

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You might spend 10 minutes writing down ideas, but you might also spend a few days thinking of your topic as you eat, exercise, sleep, or talk with friends and family.

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This is all part of brainstorming, and it doesn't have a set time.

2. Planning

• Choose a topic, purpose, and audience

• Select your ideas and information carefully

• Organize your ideas and information

• What will be the best way to answer the prompt, and show your ideas to your readers?

• If required, decided which sources to pull research from, and gather your specific evidence.​

3. Drafting

• Start writing according to your plan

• Explore new ideas as you write

• This is not the end of the writing process!

4. Editing

• Take a good look at your writing

• Focus on content and information, not grammar or mechanics (yet)

• Ask other people to read your writing: friends, classmates, teacher, family members

• Ask questions about how you can make your writing more clear, more interesting, more logical.

Multiple Choice

In the editing step of the writing process, we should look for spelling mistakes and punctuation errors.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

In the editing step of the writing process, we should look at our word choice, sentence variety, and whether our evidence strongly proves the point we're trying to make.

• True

• False

5. Rewriting (Revising)

• Make changes to your draft

• Go back to your research to add new information that will make your writing stronger

• Remove information you don't need

6. Proofreading

• This is almost the last step

• Focus on accuracy

• Check your grammar, spelling, and mechanics here

• Ask other people for help: friends, classmates, teachers, family members

7. Publishing

• Officially the last step of the writing process!

• Submit it to your teacher and celebrate your achievement!

Multiple Choice

At which step of the writing process would you create a plan or outline to help write your first draft?

• brainstorming

• planning

• drafting

• editing

Multiple Choice

At which step of the writing process would you add more details?

• brainstorming

• planning

• drafting

• revising

Multiple Choice

At which step of the writing process would you check for sentences that don't make sense or are confusing?

• drafting

• editing

• revising

• proofreading

Multiple Select

At which two steps of the writing process would you research your topic?

• brainstorming

• planning

• revising

• publishing

Multiple Choice

At which step of the writing process would you check your sentences for grammar mistakes?

• drafting

• editing

• revising

• proofreading

Multiple Choice

At which step of your writing process would you submit your work so that your teacher can read it?

• planning

• drafting

• revising

• publishing

Writing can also be a process of many different paths

The last thing to remember about the writing process is that it is a recursive process. That means the steps are repeated, and it is not always a perfect step-by-step process every time. The linear model to the right doesn't usually happen for most writers. Writing is more flexible so the accurate model is more often the case.

Multiple Select

Which of the following is true about the writing process?

• The entire writing process can be finished in one day.

• Sometimes, you can skip steps in the writing process.

• The editing and proofreading steps of the writing process are basically the same thing.

• The writing process is not linear and you will go back and forth and repeat steps.

Great job!

Now we'll check out our first writing assignment of the school year & start to brainstorm.