Pfeiffer Library: The Writing Process: What Is the Writing Process?

Definitions

The Writing Process is a cycle of activities that you complete as you generate ideas, compose those ideas into a document or presentation, and refine those ideas. It is a recursive process, meaning that at any one stage in the process, you may find that you have to return to previous steps to review and refine your methods.

To read more about the elements of the Writing Process, we recommend the following resource:

Dziak, M. (2018). Writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing). Salem Press Encyclopedia.
The writing process is the series of actions taken by writers to produce a finished work. Writers, educators, and theorists have defined the writing process in many different ways, but it generally involves prewriting tasks, writing tasks, and post-writing tasks. More specifically, these tasks include planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, in approximately that order.

Benefits

Benefits of following the Writing Process include:

The ability to revisit previous work completed to find new ideas or refine existing ones.
A more organized finished product.
A less stressful experience, which is one cause of Writer's Block.
Less time spent in the drafting stage.