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The Writing Process: Myths and Misconceptions
The writing process is not linear nor is it sequential; therefore, teachers should not approach writing instruction with the mindset that they must teach writing and students must learn how to write in the order the writing process outlines (i.e., Prewriting/Brainstorming to Drafting, Drafting to Conferencing, Conferencing to Revision, Revision to Editing, and Editing to Publishing). The goal of the writing process is to teach students how to apply and transfer their knowledge and understanding of the writing skills they acquired during classroom instruction into a written product that may be their “best, final” draft. This is not to say that teachers should not hold the academic expectations of students writing or producing a polished written product free of or with limited grammatical or convention errors. It is, on the other hand, a recognition and admission that writing is a messy and difficult skill to master without substantial instructional time, consistent and targeted practice, and the patience to allow students to find their voice, discover their style, and make authorial choices that reflects their individual creativity, thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Writing is a form of communication and expression. It is universal in its concept and evolutionary in its application. Therefore, teachers should help students see writing as a process that will help them communicate across diverse cultures, genres, and modalities, and not solely as an assignment to regurgitate what they have read, learned about a topic, or to meet a particular standard.
Activity: Analyzing How The Writing Process is Taught in Classrooms
Step One: Examine the image below. Then, reflect upon the following questions:
- What does the writing process look like in your classroom?
- Does it mirror the image? Why or why not?
There are various ways to display the messiness of the writing process. The idea here is to remind teachers that students can, for example, submit a rough draft of their writing. After conferencing, they may need to return to the Planning Stage and re-work or completely change topics and their purpose. The goal is to have students experience the process in its entirety. Meaning, the ease, discomfort, and sometimes the challenge that comes with taking the parts of writing (i.e., words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs), making decisions regarding purpose and audience to determine style which of the literary devices, figurative language, and/or rhetorical appeals to include, and then, transferring all of the above into their version of a written masterpiece (i.e., essays, poems, short stories, etc.).
Step Two: The Prewriting/Planning Stage. How do you and your students approach writing? Are you allowing students to brainstorm their writing ideas? Do they brainstorm individually, with partners, in small groups, whole class, or with you as the teacher? What strategies, tools, or practices do you have in place to support student brainstorming? The Prewriting/Planning stage is where students will and do wrestle with ideas, thoughts on how to approach their writing, and what details and/or evidence should be included in written work. The may
Remember, writing is messy, so allow students to organize their thinking organically. Students, like many authors, may not opt to create an organized outline or map of what they intend to write. Teachers may provide different organizers according to grade levels, such as seen above and below.
Step Three: Responding/Conferencing Stage. How are you building in time for teacher/peer conferencing and peer/self-evaluation in your classroom? Does conferencing (i.e., teacher-to-student and student-to-student) and peer/self-evaluation occur consistently throughout the writing process? Teacher/peer conferencing should focus on one, maybe two skills. Refrain from focusing on grammar, punctuation, and spelling until students have a strong topic, clear and specific details, and development of their narrative or informational writing.
Step Four: The Drafting Stage. Are you writing alongside your students? Why of why not? How are you modeling writing for your students? Demonstrating writing in real-time in which students can see your process—how you brainstorm/gather ideas, how you begin drafting, and revisions to your writing—builds confidence, reduces the pressure, and inspires risk taking.
Step Five: Revision. Do you have a revision process in place for your students? If so, how often are students given the opportunity to revise their writing? Does it only occur after they have submitted their first rough draft? How many drafts are students permitted to submit and revise? Writing is iterative! Therefore, students should be permitted to revise their drafts as often as needed in order to turn in their “best” draft. Teachers should place more value on the process than the final product. This does not preclude or negate requiring student submission of what we call a final draft but understanding that even the “best” so-called writers submit their best drafts for publishing.
Essentially, the writing process requires:
- Commitment from teachers across all content areas and grade levels.
- Consistency in practice, because practice makes permanent.
- Flexibility. Writing is not a linear process.
- Conferencing in each stage
- Modeling writing for students
- Acceptance of the best draft as the final product.
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Next page: Designating Time for Writing and Writing Instruction Across the School Day