Prewriting

The prewriting stage involves multiple steps. Each one will help smooth the way to writing your essay.
Decide on a topic or an angle: If you havent already been assigned a topic, do some brainstorming
and select a topic that not only interests you but is also rich in information. That way, youll have
enough to write about. On the other hand, if your teacher has assigned a specific topic, figure out what
angle you want to take on the subject. Find a way to make the topic interesting. Discuss it with people
who might know more about it than you do.
Identify your audience and purpose:
When you select a topic, its important to identify who your target audience is and what kind of
information you want to get across. Once you know your audience, its easier to figure out the tone or
style that you should use in your writing. For example, the tone for an essay directed at your classmates
would be much different from the tone used in an essay for the school board. Understanding your
intended audiences background, such as age and level of education, will also help you choose the kind
of information to include in your essay.
In addition to identifying your audience, think about what you want your essay to accomplish. Are you
writing an essay to convince your audience of something? Or do you want to inform them about certain
issues that are important to you? Your purpose will determine the type of essay that you write:
persuasive, expository, narrative, or descriptive.
Do some research: After youve figured out your topic and put together your initial thoughts and ideas,
you can start the research process. Begin by thinking of some questions that will help you focus on
significant points to cover in your essay. These questions can guide your writing process and help you
maintain a flow in your essay. Start collecting information about your topic to use when you write a
rough draft. You can do some research online, check out books from your local library, and even enlist
the help of someone in your community who is knowledgeable about your topic.
At this stage, you should also define your thesis statement, the "glue" that holds your essay together.
The thesis statement consists of the topic and the central idea of your essay. Say, for example, youre
writing a persuasive essay arguing that the novel Gone with the Wind is among the best literary works
of the twentieth century. Your thesis statement might read Gone with the Wind is one of the best novels
written in the twentieth century.
Organize your research: Once youve collected all the necessary information for your essay, your
next step is to organize that information into more manageable pieces. Notecards are a great tool for
this step. Summarize the information that youve gathered from each source so that you can easily
recall the appropriate details when you start writing the draft of your essay.
Create an outline: Next, create an outline for your essay. This step helps you plan the general flow of
your paper. It doesnt matter if the ideas in your outline are bullet points, thought bubbles in a web, or
sentence fragments. The outline will give you an idea of how the information in your essay will be
organized. When you create an outline, you can also create a map that will help guide the flow of your
essay. The map may note how many paragraphs to include, what type of information to include in these
paragraphs, and which topics will require greater or fewer details.

Drafting
After you've finished the prewriting phase, it's time to start writing a draft of your essay. Use the
outline that you created and refer to the relevant information you gathered as you write your draft.
Your ideas will become clearer and the flow of writing will come to you more easily as you write your
draft. Keep in mind that you might need to revisit the prewriting phase to add more information or
refine the information youve collected.

Revising
Once youve written your draft, take some time away from your essay. When you come back to it,
youll be able to read your writing with a fresh mind.
Start by reading your paper aloud. Did you notice any mistakes that you missed earlier? Sometimes
hearing the paper spoken aloud, instead of just reading it silently, helps you identify areas that dont
sound quite right.
Also, pay close attention to the content of your essay. Check the thesis statement and organization.
Does your thesis make sense? Will readers be able to easily follow the ideas in your essay and
understand how they support the thesis? Does the organization of the paragraphs flow well or do you
need to move information around? Have you included enough details to support your thesis statement
adequately? Always remember to show readers what you want them to know rather than telling them.
You might need to go back to the prewriting stage more than once. Perhaps youll need to find more
information, modify the flow, or even tweak your thesis statement.
In the revising phase, you should also check carefully for unity and clarity.
Does all the information in your essay relate to the main idea or thesis? Are your points clear and
concise? Are there ways to cut unnecessary words out of your essay? Have you used a thesaurus to
avoid repeating the same words as you explain your ideas?
Clarity will help your audience get a better view of your ideas.

Editing
The final stage is to edit your essay. Proofread it for errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and
formatting. Taking notes on the types of errors you make might help you avoid those mistakes in future
writing assignments. Do you often make spelling mistakes? Perhaps you have trouble with subject-verb
agreement. Pay attention to your weak areas and proofread for those errors first.
Subject and verb agreement: Find the main verb in each sentence and match the verb to its subject.
Make sure that the subject and verb agree in number.
Pronoun reference and agreement: Skim your essay, stopping at each pronoun. Look especially at it,
this, they, their, and them. Search for the noun that the pronoun replaces. If you find a noun, be sure
that it agrees in number and person with your pronoun. If you don't find a noun, change the pronoun to
a noun for clarity.

Spelling: Examine each word in the essay individually. Move from the end of each line back to the
beginning. You could even trace each line with a pencil. Pointing with a pencil helps you really see
each word. If necessary, check a dictionary to verify that each word is spelled correctly. Later in the
lesson, youll find out more about how to check that the spelling is correct in your writing.
Capitalization: Check that all proper nouns are capitalized correctly.
Usage Errors: Carefully look over your essay for errors in word usage. Some commonly misused
words include to, too, and two; accept instead of except; and effect in place of affect.

Comma splices: As you go through your essay, stop at every comma. Check whether there is a
complete sentence on each side of the comma. If so, add a coordinating conjunction after the comma,
replace the comma with a semicolon, or break the sentence into two sentences.
Fragments: Look at each sentence in your essay to check whether it contains an independent clause.
Pay special attention to sentences that begin with dependent marker words, such as because, or phrases
such as "for example" or "such as." See if the sentence might be just a piece of the previous sentence
that was mistakenly separated by a period, and fix it if thats the case.
Run-on sentences: Review each sentence to see whether it contains more than one independent clause.
Start with the last sentence of your essay and work your way back to the beginning, sentence by
sentence. Break a sentence into two sentences where necessary.
When you've finished the editing stage, ask someone, such as a parent, sibling, or friend, to read your
essay and check it for mistakes in spelling or grammar and flow issues that make the text unclear. An
extra set of eyes can only help improve your draft.

Focus on Language
Youve seen that its important to edit your essay to elevate the quality of your writing. Editing includes
checking that the spelling and punctuation are correct in your writing. Because a misspelled word or
incorrectly placed punctuation mark could alter the meaning of a sentence, editing is an important step
in the writing process.
Semicolons
A semicolon links two main clauses in the same sentence without using a connector such as but or and.
A semicolon in the middle of a sentence makes you pause before reading the rest of the sentence.
Semicolons indicate that the two clauses are connected.
Jenny sat down to eat lunch; her dog begged for morsels of her sandwich.
You can also use a semicolon before a transitional word, such as however, therefore, or moreover, and
before a transitional expression, such as for example, in addition, or since then.
Thomas plagiarized his term paper; therefore, he will fail the class.

Colons
A colon is used to suggest that a list of items will follow. Here's an example:
To make working out a pleasant experience for everyone, please follow the gym rules:
Wipe down equipment after each use. Towels are provided in the locker room and at the front
desk.
Return weight equipment to its proper place.
Limit use of cardio machines to 30 minutes.
Keep gym bags and belongings in the lockers provided. Personal belongings should not be left on
the floor or on top of a piece of equipment.
The items in a list do not need to be formatted vertically. A colon is also to introduce a list in a
sentence.
Randy told Mandy that these items are must-haves for a road trip: a roadmap, a camera, travel
games, bottled water, and snacks.
A colon is also used after a salutation in a business letter or other formal communication. Here are
some examples:
Dear Mrs. Raleigh:
Dear Speaker of the House:
Dear Jack:
Never use a semicolon after a salutation. In personal letters, use a comma after the salutation. Youll
learn more about how to use semicolons and colons in the video on the next screen.

Spelling
In text messaging and online chat, written conversation sometimes uses abbreviations such as B4 (for
before), bcoz (for because), and so on. This way of writing can affect your ability to spell correctly.
Thats why, when youre writing essays and completing assignments for school, you should be extra
careful to check your spelling. Its always helpful to keep a dictionary handy (an online one or an actual
physical dictionary) or download an app on your phone that can help you easily check your spelling.
Here are some other steps you can take to improve your spelling skills:
1. Whenever you come across a new word, try to analyze it. Find out its meaning, examine the
spelling, and see if you know any of its word parts.
2. Say the word audibly and distinctly. Check whether the pronunciation matches the way that the
word is spelled. Some words that have foreign roots may not be spelled the way that you would
expect from their pronunciation. Also, make note of any silent letters or doubled letters.
3. Spell the word out loud and write it down on a sheet of paper. Make sure you write the word
correctly.
4. Take a new piece of paper and write down the same word without looking at the correct
spelling. Check whether you got it right. If not, try again.