Writing Centre Guide: The Writing Process

Whether you're writing a recipe, incident report, business letter, email, resume, or essay, pre-planning is important.

To write well, there are many factors to consider. Start by asking yourself these "journalistic questions":

• Who is your audience?  Who is reading it?  Who are your sources?  
• What do they need to know?  What is your topic?  What is your purpose?  What format is required?
• When does this need to be completed?  When do you need a response from the reader(s) (if applicable)?
• Where is the event?  Where did the incident take place?  Where did your content come from? 
• Why are you writing? Why is the information important?  Why did an incident occur? 
• How is the issue/problem significant?  How can it be addressed/resolved?  How does it affect others/your reader(s)? 

Prewriting Strategies. KW Writing Center. 2017. http://writing.ku.edu/prewriting-strategies

The Writing Process

Following a process, or plan, for writing will help you to focus, write, revise, and create accurate, concise, and effective  writing tasks.  Below is an illustration that explains the steps and process for writing well. 

Enokson. (2011, September 7). The writing process [Image]. CC-BY-2.0