The Writing Process Five Steps to Writing it Right Spend time on each step for A great finished product! Middle Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

Do you know how to use all five steps of the writing process? PREWRITING DRAFTING REVISING PROOFREADING PUBLISHING

STEP 1 – PREWRITING Prewriting means jotting down ideas for your story or article before you begin writing it in paragraphs. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

PREWRITING Graphic organizers are great tools to use for prewriting. You might want to use a web, a timeline, or an information chart. You can even make up your own graphic organizer.

YOUR TURN Choose one of the topics below. Then complete a graphic organizer to generate ideas about your topic. My favorite pet The day a medieval knight knocked on my door The perfect ice cream sundae My favorite board game An interesting science experiment How I met the alien from Pluto My favorite outdoor adventure Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

STEP 2 – DRAFTING Drafting means writing a rough copy. Use the ideas from your graphic organizer and write them in the form of one or more paragraphs. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

DRAFTING When you write a rough draft, just keep going. You don’t need to stop to correct things like spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or grammar. You can correct them later. And if your rough draft gets a little unorganized, you can fix that later, too. You can even add or delete sentences later. When you are writing a rough draft – just keep going. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

YOUR TURN Look over the ideas that you wrote in the PREWRITING step. Then use those ideas to write a rough draft of a paragraph. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

STEP 3 – REVISING Revising means improving your writing. It means making major changes such as adding details, deleting parts that don’t fit, and reorganizing. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

REVISING Here are some things that you can do to revise your writing. Add descriptive words. Add descriptive phrases. Add more facts or details (if you are writing non-fiction). Add more action (if you are writing fiction). Delete anything that is repeated by accident. Delete anything that doesn’t stick to your topic. Rearrange any sentences that sound like they are not in the right order. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

YOUR TURN Look over the rough draft that you wrote in the DRAFTING step. Make at least five improvements. You can do this by writing in the margins, crossing out, or whatever you need to do. It doesn’t need to be neat – yet. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

STEP 4 – PROOFREADING Proofreading means correcting errors in your writing. It means checking for and correcting errors in capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling, and format. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

PROOFREADING There are many, many kinds of errors that you can look for when you proofread. Here are just a few. * Does every sentence begin with a capital letter? * Did you capitalize all proper nouns? * Did you use end punctuation correctly to avoid run-on sentences? * Did you use commas for words in a series? * Did you use quotation marks for a speaker’s exact words? * Do you subjects and verbs agree? * Did you check the spelling of any words that you are unsure of? * Did you indent each paragraph? Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

YOUR TURN Look over your improved draft from the REVISING step. Check for and correct each of these kinds of errors – one at a time. Capitalization Punctuation Grammar Spelling Format Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

STEP 5 – PUBLISHING Publishing means presenting your finished product to an audience. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

PUBLISHING There are several ways to publish your work. Here are a few. Hand in a neat final copy to your teacher. Type it in a class magazine or newspaper. Read it aloud to the class. Illustrate it and post it on a bulletin board. Make it into a booklet. Do you have other ideas? Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

YOUR TURN Look over the paper that you corrected in the PROOFREADING step. Create a neat final copy that is ready to be published. Then, decide how you will present it to the class. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

Now, let’s see if you know all of the steps! Revising Predicting Prewriting PublishingDrafting Concluding Spelling Proofreading Choose the five steps of the writing process from the boxes below and put them in the correct order? Check your answers on the next slide. Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

Answer Key Revising Prewriting Publishing Drafting Proofreading

Can you explain what a writer needs to do at each of these steps in the writing process? Check your answers on the next slide. Revising Prewriting Publishing Drafting Proofreading Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

Answer Key Revising -- Make major changes such as reorganizing or adding or deleting parts. Prewriting – Use a graphic organizer to jot down ideas for your paper. Publishing – Write a neat final copy and choose a way to present it to the class. Drafting -- Write a rough copy. Proofreading – Correct capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling, and format.

Now that you know how to use all five steps of the writing process, remember to put them to work in your next piece of writing. PREWRITING DRAFTING REVISING PROOFREADING PUBLISHING Copyright © 2012 Sharon Fabian

More Writing PowerPoint Presentations by Ms Fabian’s Room Prewriting – Tips and exercises help students make better use of this step of the writing process. Revising – Ideas and exercises teach students various ways to revise a piece of writing. Proofreading – Specific suggestions guide students as they improve their proofreading skills. Room