CHAPTER 1

ELEMENTS OF PROCESS WRITING

The topics covered in this chapter are:
1.
The Writing Process.
2.
Process Writing.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
1.
2.

Obtain an overview of the course.

Identify the elements of process writing.

1.1 THE WRITING PROCESS

It has always been a challenge to produce a good
piece of writing that serves the intended purpose.
More often, the writer is more concerned with
putting his or her ideas on paper with little concern on
the readers reaction towards the written piece. It is
important to remember that at the end of the day,
what matter is how the reader will react to the
writing and not what the writer has submitted.
Without a good plan or map to direct your writing
task, there is a danger that you might wander of
topic. Thus, it is important that before you start the
writing, spend time to produce a working plan or
map. With all the ideas already written on a piece of
paper, it also helps to identify your strengths and
weaknesses (knowledge) regarding the topic you
wish to write about. This planning will help you
achieve consistency and achieve your objective
effectively.
1.2

PROCESS WRITING

Often, the writer has many interesting ideas to

convey and these can also be quite complex. However,

the writing that explains them need not be complex.
To fulfill readers understanding of his or her ideas,
there are steps that a writer must follow. The
following chart illustrates the six basic steps of
writing:

Step 1: Explore ideas

The first step involves discovering your ideas. Before
you write an essay, you should focus your exploration
more systematically. As in speaking, you must have
something to say, a reason for saying it, and someone
to say it to. So, ask yourself three questions:

What is my subject?

What is my purpose?

What is my audience?
a)

Subject

If you are given a specific essay question in an

examination, then, of course, what you can write about
is limited. On the other hand, when you are given a

free choice of topics and can write about something

you are interested in, then you must narrow the topic
to a particular aspect of that general subject. The
subject that is most interesting to your audience is
usually those that you find most interesting. Choose a
subject that you care about and know about (or can
find out about). Then you will have something
interesting to say, and will say it more clearly and
confidently.
Ask yourself:
What is my subject?
Is the topic/ title catchy and interesting?
What do I know about the topic?
What do I need to write about?
Suppose your interest is in the mass media. It would
be impossible to cover such a big topic in a paragraph.
You would have to narrow the topic to perhaps
television, if that is your interest. Television, however
is still too broad for a topic, so you might even narrow
the topic further to types of movie genres such as
horror movies. Finally, you might make this topic
narrower by writing only about the efects of horror
movies on kids. The point is you must narrow the
subject of your paragraph to a specific focus so that
you can write about it clearly and complete.
The diagram below illustrates the process of
narrowing a general topic to a specific one.
General topic

MASS MEDIA
T E L E VI S I O N
TYPES OF MOVIE
GENRES

Specific topic
Very specific topic

HORROR MOVIES
EFFECTS ON KIDS

b)
Purpose
Communicating always has a purpose: to inform, to
persuade, or to entertain, or maybe to do all three. You
could inform your university lecturers about the
efects of smoking on students in the college. You
could also persuade your university lecturers to take
action on students when they smoke in the college. Or
you could simply entertain your university lecturers
with examples of odd incidents you have experienced
at while seeing the students smoking in the college.
Now ask yourself:
What is my purpose?
Is it to inform, persuade or entertain?
c)
Reader
Any good writer knows about the impact that reading
can have on his/her writing, so one should know who
will be the most appropriate audience for an essay.
Before you start writing, ask yourself:
Who is my reader (audience)?
Do they have any background knowledge of my
topic?
Subject: The benefits of diets
Audience: a. Overweight adults
b. Athletes
c. Models
d. Actors and actresses
Step 2: Prewrite
After you have chosen a narrowed topic, purpose and
audience, the next step is to prewrite. This step
involves writing your thoughts down on paper or
computer by using one or more of these three
techniques. It is the time to get you started writing
more quickly and save you time in later stages of the
writing process. Three useful techniques are:
brainstorming, clustering and free writing. Learn how
to do each of them and decide which is the most
productive for you.

a)
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a listing technique in which you think
about your topic and quickly make a list of whatever
words or phrases come into your mind. Your purpose is
to produce as many ideas as possible in a short time.
So, ask yourself:
-

What ideas should I list?

Which ideas best suit the topic? (Usually 3 or 4
main points for the whole essay).

Here is an example of the listing thoughts on the

topic of the experiences faced by the students when
they use English language.
Experiences faced by students when use English
Language
New language
International friends
Lack of vocabulary
Friends show unclear
Lack of confidence
expressions
Classroom environment
Dificult to understand
Family life
Poor pronunciation
Use diferent slang and
Feel shy
accent
Speak slowly
Families seldom speak in
Communication problems
English
Friends laugh
Use incomplete sentences Poor verbal skills
Friends ask lots of
questions
Family speaks in their own
mother tongue
Now rewrite your list and group similar ideas
together under the central focus (communication
problems, classroom environment or family life).
Then, choose one list to be the basis for a paragraph.
Experiences faced by students when use English
Language
Group A
(Communication
problems)

Group B
(Classroom
environment)

Group C
(Family life)

New language
Lack of
vocabulary
Lack of
confidence
Dificult to
understand
Poor
pronunciation
Feel shy
Speak slowly
Poor verbal skills
Use incomplete
sentences
b)

International
friends
Friends laugh
Friends ask lots
of questions
Use diferent
slang and
accent
Friends show
unclear
expressions

Families seldom
speak in
English
Family speaks in
their own
mother tongue

Clustering

This is the second technique that you can use to

generate ideas. Heres how to use this technique: In
the center of your paper, write your subject and then
circle around it. Then, write whatever ideas come to
you around the subject circle. Think about each of
these ideas and make circle around them. For
example, suppose you had to describe a person who is
close to you in some way. A completed clustering chart
might look like this:

Always
give
charity

Special
dish
Attends
weekly
Saturda
Morning
Prayer yinnight

Likes
to
cook

mosque
Breakfas
Very
t
religious

A close
person:
MY MOTHER

Sit in
front
lapto
Stays
late
p
at office

Till 10
pm

Boring
life

Works six
days a
week

Cell
phon
e

Read
Wear
books
Tshirt

c)

Workaholi
c

Stay
home

No
Vacatio
n

Freewriting

The third technique to get started is by freewriting, in

which you write freely about a topic. Dont worry
about your grammar, correct word choice, spelling, or
punctuation, because you will probably change your
mind and your wording later. Remember, the more you
freewrite, the more ideas you will have. Dont be
discouraged if your mind seems to run dry. Just keep
your pencil moving. Following is an example of how a
freewriting might begin:

Problems at Cendekiawan Library

What is the biggest problem at the library? Well, I
really dont know. In fact, I cant think of one
particular problem although I know there are
many problems. For one thing, the library is too
small and always crowded with students. At the
beginning of this semester, a few of the seats and
desks were broken. So, not all students really
study in the library. Some students were only
borrowed the books and returned them once they
finish reading. Besides, the library is poorly
maintained. In several places, there are litters on
the floor. Students even leave their dirty cups and
other garbage on the desks. Moreover, sometimes
they talk a lot and this is really quite distracting to
me and other serious students who want a quiet
place to study. We really have a problem.
Therefore, I think the present library should be
expanded or a new library should be built. Oh yes,
I think another problem is parking. Students have
to park their car far away from the library.
Your freewriting may be disorganized and there might
be some mistakes on grammar, punctuation or
spelling, but thats all right. Its just a way to put ideas
into words that you can look at, expand on, change or
omit. You can do this freewriting activity several times
until you satisfied with what you have written.
Step 3: Organize
After you have put your ideas into words, you can
begin to organize them. This process involves
selecting, subtracting and adding ideas and then
outlining them.
a)

Select

Select the ideas that are necessary, delete the ideas

that you do not need and add some new ideas in your

essay. Ask yourself again:

What do I want to say?
Which point do I want to use?
Which points do I want to develop?
Do I need to research some information in completing
the essay?
Return to any of your prewriting and do the following:

Underline or highlight the best ideas in your

prewrite technique. You should cross out any
items that dont belong or that arent useable.
You can also add to the list as more ideas occur
to you.

Then, rewrite the list, putting related ideas

together.

Finally, write a topic sentence. The topic

sentence is the most general sentence in a
paragraph and it expresses the central focus of
the paragraph.
b)

Outline

An outline is a formal plan for a paragraph. In an

outline, you write down the main points and subpoints
in which you plan to write about them. With an
outline, it should be relatively easy to write a
paragraph about communication problems among
local students in Malaysia and International students.
There is a topic sentence, two main points and two
supporting points for the first main point and four
supporting points for the second main point. The
outline of the topic communication problems would
look something like this:
Communication problems
Topic sentence

Local students in Malaysia face

communication
problems
with
International students.

Main point
Supporting
point

1. Local students have poor verbal

skills
a) Lack vocabulary

Supporting
point
Main point
Supporting
point
Supporting
point
Supporting
point
Supporting
point

b) Have poor pronunciation

2. International
students
are
dificult to understand
a) Use incomplete sentences
b) Use unclear expressions
c) Talk too fast
d) Use slang and idioms

Step 4: Write a first Draft

This step is to write your rough draft based on your
outline. It is the time to put your thoughts together in
sentences and paragraphs. Remember that no piece
of writing is ever perfect the first time. Each time you
write a new draft, you will refine and improve your
writing. As always, ask yourself:
Are my thoughts well organised?
Am I making more points than planned?
This is how to proceed:

Write down the topic sentence and start

focusing on the topic.

Write your paragraph, following your outline as

closely as possible. Try writing steadily. Dont
hesitate to add ideas that arent in your outline
if you are certain they are relevant to the topic.

At this point, dont worry about being perfect.

In fact, it wont be because your main goal is to
write down as much information as you can,
following the points in your outline.

While you are writing about one major point,

you might come up with an idea for another
major point. Write it down in the margin of your
paper near where it belongs or click your mouse
at the spot where you want to insert it.

Above all, remember that writing is a

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continuous process of discovery. Therefore, as

you are writing, you will think of new ideas that
may be not on your prewrite list or in your
outline. The important thing is just be sure that
any new ideas are relevant to the topic.
Step 5: Revise the draft
After you write the first draft, the next step is to revise
it. When you revise, you change what you have written
in order to improve it. You check it over for content
and organization, including unity, coherence and logic.
You can change, rearrange, add or delete, all for the
goal of communicating your thoughts more clearly and
in an interesting way. While you are writing, always
ask yourself:
Are my details clear? (Correct terms,
facts or numbers, reasons, anecdotes
and examples)?
Should I add or take out parts?
Is the writing in sensible and logical
order?
Read it aloud - Should I read it aloud?
Here is how to proceed:

After completing your first draft, put it away for

awhile. Its hard to think about changing and
correcting your work immediately after you
finish a draft.

Read over your paragraph carefully and check to

see whether you have achieved your purpose.

Check for unity. Cross out any sentences that do

not support your topic sentence.

Study its organization, word choice and details.

Youll probably find things to omit and think of
some things to add. Be certain that each
paragraph gives readers enough information to
understand the main idea. If the main point lacks
suficient information, make notes in the margin
such as add more details or add an example.

Then, make a clean copy before going any

further. Dont stop revising until you are satisfied
with (or even proud of) what youve produced.

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Step 6: Produce the final copy

Now you are ready to write the final copy to hand in.
Prepare it according to your instructors guidelines.
Before youve finished, however, you need to pay
attention to details youve ignored while getting ideas
on paper and shaping them to fit your purpose and
audiences. You want people to judge your ideas, not
your mistakes. So, be sure that you make all the
corrections that you noted before.
a)

Editing

Now that you have revised your work, you can edit it.
It is a process of selecting and preparing a complete
work through the processes of correction. You can
edit your writing by referring to these questions:
Are the sentences complete (Subject (S) + Verb
(Vb) + Object (Obj)?)
Are
my
language
conventions
correct?
(Spelling, capitalization, punctuation etc.)
Am I using correct grammar and time zone
(present tense, past and future)?
This is how to proceed:

Check and focus on grammar, word choice, verb

forms, punctuation and spelling as it is the real
challenges for people writing in second
language. Use dictionary or other references
material you need.

Read the paper more than once. After

rereading, dont be surprised if you decide to
make a few minor or even changes.

Copy it over or print it out again with all your

corrections. This draft should be neat. Your
instructor will expect it to be written neatly and
legibly in ink or typed.
b)

Proofreading

The next step is to proofread your paper meaning to

carefully examining the final copy. As for the final

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questions, ask yourself:

Are they accurate?
Is the final print neat and meets the
requirements (length, APA referencing etc.)
This is how to proceed:

Read through the paper slowly. Place a ruler

under each line to focus your eyes.

Check over each sentence for correctness and

completeness: no fragments and no run-on
sentences.

Check over each sentence for a subject and a

verb, subject-verb agreement, correct tenses and
also the mechanics (typing errors, capitalization,
spelling and punctuation).

Change vocabulary word as necessary.

Now you are ready to write the final copy to

hand in.

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