Engl 316Technical Communication

Writing as a Process

Writing is often described as a process, a development moving from ideas to planning to writing to revising. When given a writing assignment, sit down and think about who, what, why, and how:

• Who are you writing to?
• What should you write about?
• Why should you include the information you do?
• How should you structure the information for your readers?

As your textbook notes, instead of just jumping into a writing process, effective writers take time to carefully develop their ideas and plan their approach to the writing project, a process called prewriting. While prewriting, effective writers take time to identify their audience and then analyze what the audience expects and needs. This includes assessing genre, how writers in different disciplines organize and present information. As you work through the assignments in this course, you may not plan on publishing your papers to an audience. But as a professional or future professional in a technical field, you will need to consider how to present your documents to your audience.

After careful prewriting, effective writers draft their documents. After drafting, such writers take time to revise and perfect their writing. No one, no matter how experienced, can create an effective document without detailed revision. As we noted earlier, learning to write well takes time and practice; it isn't something you can expect to learn in one semester. It must be a life-long process and must include ways to incorporate revision from managers, editors, and other co-workers.

Sometimes the writing process can take place simultaneously and quickly (when writing a short memo to your supervisor, for example). However, many times the writing process can take weeks and even months. Complex, effective technical documents take many months to write. Keep this in mind as you work through the writing tasks in this course.