Writing guide

Establishing a consistent writing process can save you considerable time and headache. It can also make your writing more cohesive and to-the-point. Many writers break down their writing process into multiple steps. Each step serves a specific purpose in the writing process.

A simple writing guide

Step 1:
Brainstorm central ideas, themes and/or messages that you want to get across to your audience. Don’t worry about grammar check, spelling, punctuation or anything else at this point. Focus on your core ideas.

Step 2:
Categorize similar ideas into buckets. These "buckets of ideas" which will eventually serve as paragraphs. Again, don’t worry about grammar check at this point.

Step 3:
Write your first draft without worrying about spelling or doing a grammar check. Just let your mind free to formulate an interweaving story around the central ideas you’ve brainstormed in steps one and two.

Step 4:
Read through your first draft and make sure the core ideas you wanted to get across are covered. If they aren’t, go back and add them. If they are, make sure you’re getting those ideas across in a concise and powerful manner.

Step 5:
Check for grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure, consistency in language, and overall readability and flow.

Step 6:
Take a break. Put away your writing for a few hours. Don’t look at any other piece of writing at this point. Instead, listen to music, draw, work out, or do something that relaxes you. Clear your mind so you can come back to your writing with a fresh set of eyes and a calm mind.

Step 7:
Reread your draft with the grammar check and corrections applied. Make sure your writing is getting the correct message across in the quickest way possible. We live in an internet-age where most people don’t like to read useless jargon. Don’t rely on wordiness to make your writing seem more intelligent. Use simple language and short sentences to get ideas across. Limit your sentence structure and composition to contain only one or two main ideas. Use paragraphs to differentiate major concepts. As you read your writing, check to ensure your grammar and use of language are correct and consistent with the tone you wish to portray.

The writing process most people engage

While this 7-step writing process can be followed for just about any writing task, many people often begin at Step 3 – they subconsciously undergo Steps 1 and 2 while they write their initial draft. This is fine for quick written communications like emails, memos, short documents, etc. If you’re writing something of archival value (like a thesis, manuscript, business plan, research document, etc.), make sure to follow all seven steps.

For example, this web page took three passes to finish. The first pass was to simply get the important points in sentence format. During the second pass, we made sure the language is direct, concise, and powerful. The third pass involved a thorough grammar check, spell check, punctuation check, and a check to make sure sentence and paragraph structure is logically sound.