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Prewrite
Before actually writing a draft of your paper, you will want to generate ideas for your writing, consider your audience, and map out the structure of your paper. All this happens in the first stage of the writing process, which is known as prewriting.
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Write (Draft)
In your first draft, you are focusing on getting the ideas on paper that you generated during prewriting.
Remember, first drafts don’t have to be perfect – that’s why they are first drafts. You can work out the issues in your draft in the next stage: revision.
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Revise
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This video introduces several strategies for revising your papers that we will cover in more detail in Week 4.
Don’t worry for now if you’re aren’t familiar with all the concepts described in the video. The most basic tips are:
1) Read your paper aloud when revising. This will help you see what is awkward and doesn’t work well to convey your meaning.
2) Take a break and come back to your writing.
3) Ask a friend for advice on how to revise your paper.
Asking your friends for advice is similar to the peer reviews that we will do more formally as part of this course.
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Edit / Proofread
Editing differs from revision because now one’s writing is nearing its final form – the ideas are stated basically in the way you want them. This is when you get out your red pen, welcome your “inner critic” into the process, and make sure that you are following the “rules” of writing – or, at least, the rules as they have been defined by your instructor’s expectations and the style guide you have been asked to follow.
The Skill Builder sections throughout this course, and the quizzes on them, will help you develop the skills needed to edit / proofread effectively.
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Publish
The last step in the writing process is also the simplest: publishing your work. In our courses that’s as simple as posting to the proper forum or uploading a document. Make sure when doing so, though, that you have prepared your document in the proper format, so that your instructor can view it.