Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.
The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help
you structure your time when writing any kind of text.
Hi, I’m Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals.
Step 1, prewriting.
First, you have to come up with a topic.
Is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you?
Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can
explore in your writing.
Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question.
For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:
19th-century literature → Novels in the romantic period → The novels of Jane Austen
→ The theme of theater in Mansfield Park
Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information
you need.
This might involve:
Searching for sources Reading relevant texts if you're doing a literary
analysis Collecting data for experiments or surveys
Step 2, planning and outlining
It’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively.
Creating an outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing.
This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize
them.
For example, in the introduction of a literary analysis essay, you plan on first describing
the theatricality of Austen’s work, then outlining the role theatre plays in Mansfield
Park, and introducing the research question.
Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance.
Step 3, writing a first draft Your writing process doesn’t have to be
linear.
For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the
introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.
To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework.
You can start by writing each paragraph in a systematic way.
First, introduce the point of the paragraph with a topic sentence.
If you need help with formulating topic sentences, watch this video!
Second, provide evidence relating to your argument.
Third, explain or interpret the evidence.
Finally, express the conclusion this interpretation leads you to.
The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, then you can move onto improving it.
Step 4, redrafting and revising Now it’s time to look critically at your
first draft and find potential areas for improvement.
It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first
draft to freshen up your perspective.
At this stage, you're looking for larger issues like:
Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.
Last step, editing and proofreading Edit and proofread to make sure your text
is clear, structurally sound and free of mistakes.
When editing, to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct, you’re
looking out for: Grammatical errors.
Ambiguous phrasings.
Redundancy and repetition.
When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text, then check for stylistic consistency.
For example: Whether you use American or British spellings
and punctuation How you capitalize your titles and headings
Don't forget to cite your sources!
You can easily generate accurate references and in-text citations with Scribbr's free
citation generator.
Do you already have a topic?
Let us know in the comment below what are you working on!
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