The Writing Process

The five steps of the writing process, as taught in the Federal Way Public Schools, are:

(Click a tab to view a topic.)

Key:

The pupil works to organize ideas. (drafting)

The pupil rereads the piece, re-wording ideas to clarify meaning and "spice up" the writing. (revising)

The pupil repairs faulty mechanics to make the piece error free. (editing)

This icon indicates a writing example (below)--click either the icon or the text to view it. Many have areas highlighted to illustrate the points being examined. Use your browser's /back/ feature to return to this page. (If your browser goes back too far, click the model or process link at left that brought you here.)

• Decide on a topic.
• Brainstorm ideas related to the topic.
• Use a graphic organizer to organize ideas.

The writer used a graphic "How-To" organizer to organize his ideas.

• Choose the ideas that most strongly support the topic.

• Write your ideas in an organized way.  (paragraphs, bullets, or chart)

The writer used paragraph format.

• Correct parts that don't make sense or aren't in logical order.
• Add powerful language, figurative language, detail, and description.

The writer added words to make the meaning more clear.

• Vary sentence beginnings and structure.

The writer moved the phrase "on the flyers" from the end of the sentence to the beginning and eliminated the word "Then," to create sentence variety.

• Strengthen voice to show the person behind the words.

The writer shows his personality through word choice.

• Repair mechanical problems.

Note spelling corrections. The writer also reminded himself not to skip lines when indenting paragraphs.

• Produce a neat, error-free final copy.

The writer produced a neat, error-free final copy.