6 The Writing Process

In addition to helping us read rhetorically, classical theory has given us some useful concepts for the writing process. Many of these concepts have been supported and refined by modern composition research, as well as research from related fields, like education and cognitive psychology.

The writing process described below, though roughly in order from beginning to end, is not linear. The idea that we first have an idea, then write down that idea, and finally, rewrite to make sure we’ve expressed the idea clearly and correctly, is a dramatic oversimplification of how our brains engage with writing. We often imagine that the words are in our heads, and all we have to do is write those words down. If that were the case, writing would be a lot easier than it actually is!

Writing is a cognitive process, and the act of writing down our ideas can help us refine those ideas. Actually putting something into words requires us to think about it differently. You may have experienced this if you’ve ever had a great idea for a story and then couldn’t figure out how to actually put it down on the page. The chasm between the idea itself and the words to express that idea is wider than we think!

Writing is also a social process; imagining an audience for our writing and/or receiving feedback from a real audience also helps us refine our ideas. Experienced, successful writers are always listening to their imagined audience, reconsidering their work as they try to placate the hecklers and appease the critics.

What this means is that the reality of the writing process is not at all linear. We have an idea, start to write it down, change that idea, write down the new idea, and that process can go on and on. Successful writers embrace that messiness by not letting themselves become too attached to their original ideas or words, while also not expecting their final product to be perfect.

Invention

Invention is step one of the writing process; it’s the process of coming up with and fleshing out an idea.

Finding a Topic

We first need to clarify that word, “topic.” The word comes to us from Greek, like so much of classical rhetorical theory. The Greek word topoi (singular, topos) is the same as the root word for the English word “topic,” which we might use interchangeably with the word “subject” when we’re talking about an essay. You might say, for example, your essay’s topic is “the education system of the United States.” In common usage, that makes perfect sense; however, when we use the word “topic” in a rhetorical context, the meaning is much more specific.

A topos is a specifically defined place, and the underlying rhetorical principle is about staking out the precise areas of agreement and disagreement on a given issue. To describe the topic of an argument, you must identify the actual question or disagreement being addressed. “The education system of the United States” thus is not really a topic, because there are many different ideas that could be argued on that subject. Perhaps the actual topic is “whether access to public education should be enshrined as a constitutional right at the federal level” or “whether public high schools are adequately preparing students for college” or “whether the common system of using property taxes for education is ethical.” In other words, your topic is a much more precise description of the subject matter of your argument. From here through the rest of the book, the word “topic” has this more specific meaning.

Why Topics Are Important

When engaged in an argument or debate, it’s common for both parties to make assumptions about what the other person already understands or believes regarding the issue at hand. However, these assumptions are often incorrect, leading to a situation where you end up talking past each other, addressing different aspects of the issue entirely. It feels futile and frustrating because you’re not actually engaging with the core disagreement or divergence in perspectives. If you think back to a frustrating argument you’ve had, you might realize that this was indeed at least part of the problem.

The ancient Roman rhetorician Quintilian used a helpful metaphor to describe the importance of properly identifying the true topic of debate. He likened topics to the specific places experienced hunters know they can reliably find their quarry. Just as a hunter doesn’t waste time scouring the entire forest, a skilled rhetor pinpoints the precise point of disagreement that needs to be addressed and focuses their attention there.

Identifying this true topic involves peeling back layers and digging deeper into the initial broad issue. You have to analyze where exactly you and your audience’s viewpoints splinter and diverge. What is the root cause of the disagreement? What specific claim or stance do you want to argue for or against?

Once you locate that critical point of divergence, it becomes much clearer what type of argument you are trying to make – whether it’s a factual claim, a value judgment, or a policy recommendation. Knowing the precise argument type then illuminates what kinds of evidence and support will be most effective and relevant for that claim. (You can refer to the later chapters in this textbook for details on each of the main types of argument.)

Rather than blindly talking past each other, pinpointing the true topic allows you to engage directly with the heart of the disagreement in a precise and productive way. Your evidence and reasoning can be targeted appropriately, increasing your chance of actually changing minds or reaching mutual understanding.

Choosing a Valid and Useable Topic

It can also be useful to think of topics as questions. Good questions for academic argument have answers that are arguable and tenable. 

Arguable means that reasonable people can and do disagree about how to answer these questions. Although technically, you can always find someone who will disagree with anything, we use the qualifier “reasonable” to mean “able to be reasoned with.” That is, arguable issues have people with various perspectives, but most people are willing and able to change their minds about them, if provided with sufficient reason to do so. If you choose a topic that isn’t arguable, you’re just wasting your own time, either because you’re preaching to the choir (the audience already agrees with you), or you’re arguing with people who will never change their minds, no matter what you say.

Tenable means that the various answers can be supported with reasoning and evidence. Some questions are more matters of taste than of logic or reason, and those don’t really work as topics for arguments. For example, nobody is going to convince me that I like shrimp, no matter how much evidence they give me that I should.

Another consideration, especially when you have a lot of choice over your own topics, is what an appropriate scope for your topic is. Many early college students start out by picking topics and questions that are far too broad to adequately address in an essay. A topic that is too broad will force you to skim the surface; your argument will be shallow, vague, and likely fail to actually hit on the main areas of disagreement. On the other hand, a more targeted, specific topic allows you to dive deeper and write a more nuanced, complex analysis or argument.

When the Topic Has Been Selected for You

Often, your instructor will have narrowed the field of topics for you, or even assigned a specific topic. In that case, you will still need to consider just how much room you have to play with that topic and make sure you’re taking a stance on the topic that is arguable, tenable, and an appropriate scope. If the topic the instructor has provided is broad, you may still have some opportunity to narrow it down. No matter what, though, you will still need to figure out what it is you want to say about the topic, so invention will be part of your process.

Tools for Invention

Regardless of how you come to your topic, both you and your reader will have a better time if you actually care about and are interested in the topic. If the topic has been assigned to you, it can be a bit more difficult to drum up that enthusiasm, but finding a way to connect with the subject matter will make the writing process less daunting and likely result in a stronger final product.

The following exercises and tools can be ways to find topics, to figure out how to care about a topic, and to discover what you want to say about a topic.

• Brainstorming – Make a free-flowing list of anything that comes to mind related to the general topic area. Don’t censor yourself. Let random thoughts, personal experiences, strong opinions emerge. Often an engaging angle reveals itself in the process.
• Freewriting – Set a timer and write continuously for 5-10 minutes, avoiding stopping or self-editing. Let your stream of consciousness explore the topic. You may stumble onto an interesting thread to pull.
• Dialectic – Take two contrasting positions and argue both sides out on paper, going back and forth. This exercises critical thinking and may reveal where your true stance lies.
• Conversation – Talk to friends, family, community members with unique perspectives on your topic area. Their real-world views may spark an angle you hadn’t considered.
• Searching Online – I generally recommend against doing the first thing most students do, which is search online for topic ideas. Most of what you find there is (1) overdone, (2) too broad, and/or (3) just plain boring. I have found that AI chatbots can be helpful, but the first ideas they offer usually aren’t great. However, if you respond to the initial suggestions by telling the AI what works and doesn’t work about them, you might get to something useful eventually, though it may take several tries. You will still need to be very clear about the requirements of the assignment, as well; you can’t rely on the AI to understand those, and students have been steered in the wrong direction more than once!

The key is using these strategies to actively develop a topic you find interesting and important, rather than passively accepting the first bland idea that comes to mind. Remember, before you start drafting, to make sure you have an actual topos and a point you want to make as your central idea. That main point may evolve once you start writing, but it will give you some direction when you begin drafting.

Drafting

The next step – where you actually start writing down your ideas – can be intimidating. This stage is where many students get stuck or feel like they have “writer’s block.” Here are few tips that should help:

• Just start writing! Much like freewriting for invention, if you disconnect from any expectations and let your thoughts go, you’ll have some raw material that you might be able to reshape into a structured essay. Sometimes having something on the page is enough to make everything feel less overwhelming.
• Make an outline. Some people and some contexts benefit more from outlining than others, but if you’re stuck, it can’t hurt to try it! That outline might be as simple as jotting down your main point and a few supporting ideas, or you can do a fully detailed, formal outline with a thesis statement, topic sentences, and supporting ideas, or something in between.
• Skip the introduction (for now). The introduction is both one of the more difficult sections to write and one of the last sections you’ll actually be ready to write. Just because something comes first in the essay doesn’t mean you have to write it first! Feel free to jump ahead and write a body paragraph first.
• Don’t pressure yourself to word everything perfectly the first time around. When I have watched students write in class, I have sometimes seen someone spend 30 minutes or more just writing and rewriting the same sentence. If you’re stumped for the right words or not sure how to complete a thought, just write something down as a placeholder and make a note to come back to it later. (I usually highlight the section in the essay to make it more noticeable; otherwise, I might forget to change it later!)
• Don’t be afraid to change your mind. Remember, writing is a cognitive and social process, and you’ll likely find that your initial ideas shift as you’re writing. That’s a good thing; embrace it!
• Don’t force yourself to use the same tools and procedures every time. We grow and change, and our writing contexts and assignments change as well. If something that used to work for you isn’t working this time, try something else.
• Set small, achievable goals. Those goals might be based on how much writing you produce or how long you spend writing; do what works better for you. In either case, aim for something you’re confident you can actually do, even if that’s as small as writing just one sentence or working on the essay for just 15 minutes before you take a break. As you gain confidence, you can increase your targets. And reward yourself when you meet your goals! (I ate one peanut butter M&M for every sentence in this section.)
• Create accountability. Find a partner or small writing group and set up a schedule to work at the same time alongside each other. Doing this is how I survived writing my dissertation! I would meet with two friends on Zoom, we’d briefly share what we were working on that day and how much we hoped to get done, and then we’d all go on mute and work separately for our allotted time. At the end, we’d share how it went, commiserate or celebrate as needed, and then be done.

One thing you might notice about many of these tips is that they are not compatible with procrastination. Good writing needs time. Even if you’re capable of producing a decent essay at speed, your product will be better if you spend more time on it.

Fleshing Out a Too-Short Essay

A common hiccup in the drafting process is when you know a few main points you want to cover, but aren’t sure how to develop those points into complete paragraphs. You may notice that your paragraphs are very short or that you feel like you’re just repeating yourself. This is a sign that you haven’t yet dug deep enough into your topic, so your ideas aren’t yet fully developed. If you find that you are constantly struggling to reach a minimum word count, even a pretty short one, prepare to push yourself harder. You write more by having more to say, and you have more to say by thinking more and thinking more critically. Here are a few questions that might help you flesh out any given paragraph or idea:

• How do I know that what I am saying is true or correct?
• Is there evidence that contradicts my point of view? How do I justify my position in light of that evidence?
• How could someone disagree with me about the point I’m trying to make? How would I respond to them?
• Where is there gray area on this issue, and how does that gray area fit within my perspective?
• How does the point I’m making here fit within the larger scheme of my essay?
• How does my point relate to the larger context of the course’s subject matter?
• Why are my ideas interesting and significant? What do they show my readers that they may not have otherwise considered?

Those questions are just a start; not all of them will necessarily always apply, and you may also think of others that work well for you. Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut or secret trick to developing your ideas. You just have to do the hard work of it, and know that it does get easier with practice!

Revision

I find it helpful to draw a distinction between true revision and the processes of editing and proofreading, which are described in separate sections below. Revision is about the actual content of your work, including the stance you take, the support you provide for it, and how you organize those elements. Thus, revision is really inextricable from all parts of the writing process, from when you start developing an initial idea until you submit the final version for a grade. However, it’s generally wise to plan a dedicated revision phase after completing an initial full draft. At this stage, you can take a holistic look at how effectively your ideas are coming across and make any needed improvements or course corrections.

Tools for Revision

• Peer review – Ask a friend or classmate to provide feedback focused specifically on content and clarity as a reader. Avoid pure grammar/style corrections at this point. Have them summarize your main point, assess your evidence, point out confusing areas, and identify anything important you may have missed.
• Reverse outlining – Work backwards from what you’ve written and outline the main ideas as they’re presented. This exercise can help you identify organizational missteps (like two closely related ideas that appear far apart from each other in the essay) or crucial gaps in your logic.
• Taking a break – If you’ve been working consistently on the draft for a while, you probably need to step away completely for 24 hours or more. Getting away from it for a bit, especially if you get a night’s sleep in the interim, will help you approach your work with fresh eyes.
• Reading out loud – Hearing your draft read aloud can make clarity issues more apparent than reading it silently on the page. Ask a friend to read it to you, or record yourself, and listen critically.

Realistically, you’ll have to find a place to stop revising. As your deadline approaches, you’ll need to allow time to edit and proofread your work, and at that point, you probably don’t want to be completely reworking a main idea. However, prioritizing an in-depth revision process first is key to developing a strong, coherent, and well-supported piece of writing.

Editing

The term “editing” is often used as a catch-all for making any kinds of changes to a written draft, but as with revision, I find it useful to rely on its more specific meaning: Editing is about style. When you edit your work, you are more or less satisfied with the overall content and organizational structure of the essay as a whole and its individual paragraphs, and you are ready to focus on sentence-level stylistic issues. These include:

• Adjusting the style to suit an academic context
• Improving the overall flow and readability
• Adding elements like schemes and tropes to emphasize or illustrate points, as well as to make the text more interesting and engaging for readers

Refer to the chapter on Academic Style for much more about style, including some specific tips that will help you edit your own writing.

Presentation: Proofreading and Formatting

Proofreading

Proofreading should really be held back until the last possible moment because changes you make in revision or editing can create new proofreading needs. Proofreading is about correcting grammatical and mechanical errors. (Sometimes “errors” is really too strong of a word. These “rules” are often far more flexible than you’ve been taught, and it’s common to deviate from them in specific ways, especially in popular writing. However, the general expectation for academic writing is that you will follow the conventional rules of grammar and mechanics like spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.)

The good news: We increasingly have tools that can help you with this step of the process. The bad news: These tools aren’t perfect, and you should be prepared to double-check the advice they provide.

Grammar and mechanics are often intimidating and overwhelming to students, and you may have bad memories of boring worksheets or digital drills that didn’t effectively teach you anything. If that’s how you feel, you are not alone. What we now know about how people learn these rules is that (1) you can absorb them from reading and (2) they’re easier to learn in a real writing context rather than from worksheet exercises. That means if you want to improve, you should read more, especially the kinds of texts you want to imitate, and you should practice correcting your own work, ideally with the guidance of your instructor or a writing tutor.

Formatting

Technically, you can do most of your formatting at just about any stage of the writing process, or whenever it’s most convenient for you. Even if you take a stab at formatting everything according to convention in an earlier draft, however, you’ll probably want to do one last check before you submit your final draft. Refer to the chapter on Academic Conventions for more on formatting.