As a teacher, you know the effortful task of teaching students about the six steps of the Writing Process. The steps should be taught and repeated so that students will always know how to communicate thoughts and ideas in competent, confident way. Here’s a quick recap and commentary of what’s involved in each step.

Step 1: Prewriting—Writers identify the genre, audience, choose a topic, and gather and organize their ideas. (Most students enjoy using a graphic organizer to help them get organized.)

Step 2: Rough Draft—Writers organize their thoughts into a logical progression of ideas, in paragraph form, that results in their first draft. (It’s rewarding to witness students deep in their imagination, and then see them use the tools of writing to transfer their thoughts onto paper.)

Step 3: Revising—In this step, the writer strengthens and improves the content of the writing piece. Writers get creative with powerful word choice, figurative language, sound devices, and a variety of sentences to share their voice. (In my experience as a teacher and student, this is where many of us struggle. I’ll elaborate on this in a minute.)

Step 4: Editing—Editing requires a writer to correct mistakes in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and usage. (Students seem to enjoy correcting these kinds of mistakes with a writing buddy. Think about it… These skills are practiced daily, unlike the skills it takes for the revision process, so there is a level of confidence students develop when they are faced with a task in which they are competent.)

Step 5: Final Paper—The final paper is a corrected copy of the rough draft. This copy is clean and neat, with no editing or revision marks on it. (Students get excited about writing their final paper in pen or typing it on a computer. It marks the completion of a long and arduous journey for some.)

Step 6: Publishing—The publishing step is the last step. It’s where the writer gets the chance to present his writing piece to an audience. (Sadly, this step often gets left out by many teachers; I’m guilty of it, too. Typically, students will engage more fully in the process of writing if they know their work will be submitted to a contest, hung on the hallway, or shared in front of an audience. The sense of completion and accomplishment is evident when the student is able to share his hard work and effort during this step.)

You can learn more about the value of writing as a process in my previous blog, “Grammar and Writing: It’s a Process!”

Now, I’d like to let you in on a little secret. As a student, I enjoyed the subject of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. I even loved journal writing. But, the truth was that I loathed formal writing. I had most of the pieces of the writing puzzle, but I didn’t know how to fill in the gaps to bring it to completion.

I lacked some of the important skills needed in Step 3 of the Writing Process—Revising. I didn’t really understand how to use a variety of sentences or know that I was using too many gerunds. I only know this now because I continued learning while I was teaching Shurley English. As an adult writer, I’m still learning how to strengthen the content of my writing, and it’s not easy. I’m not alone. For many, the revising step seems to be the roughest part of the Writing Process.

Ruth Culham, a former classroom teacher, has been instrumental in the launch of the writing revolution. She is best known for developing the 6+1 Traits of Writing. In her materials, she describes revising as ‘The Mount Everest of writing instruction.’ I have to agree with her even though I am an adult writer! Like most students, I want my first draft to be my final draft! But, the writing process doesn’t work that way. Revision takes time, and it requires the writer to look at his/her writing again, to re-think it.

Due to my own challenges with the revising process, I did a little research and came across an impactful article by Ruth Culham, EdD, entitled, “Rethinking Revision: The Real Work of Writing.” The article helped me look at the revision process in a new way. In it, Culham says, “Revision requires exploring new techniques, incorporating changes, and moving forward—always pushing toward clarity and the strongest piece possible.”

Yes! We need to take more time in this step to strengthen the content of our writing with the use of figurative language, sound devices, simple, compound, complex sentences, gerunds, participles, infinitives, double checking the flow of transition words, and omitting overused words, etc.

It’s tough work to learn all of the skills necessary to make sure you express your thoughts clearly so that others can understand exactly what you’re saying. Shurley English is a curriculum that can help you teach the steps of the writing process with success! It fills in the gap, and it equips students with the skills needed to scale the ‘Mount Everest of the writing process—Revising.

If you’re open to seeing the revising step from a new perspective, take some time to read Culham’s article; it’s worth the read.

Culham, R (2018, May 16) Rethinking Revision: The Real Work of Writing