Guidelines for Effective Writing
Most writers consider writing a routine that comes naturally. However, it is always essential to have a guideline for writing, especially at the initial stage when a person is struggling with a piece or topic. Primarily, the guideline comprises five stages, which include prewriting, writing, revision, editing, and publishing.
Prewriting Stage
Prewriting stage allows a person to identify everything needed to write good content. It involves finding an idea, building on the idea through brainstorming, planning, and developing a structure for the piece. The next stage is a free writing exercise, which involves developing a rough draft of the manuscript.
Writing Stage
After writing the rough draft, it is important to revise the content of the document to remove stray details, grammar errors, and improve on sentence structure. At this stage, the writer can add, rearrange information, delete some details, and replace words to derive the intended message.
Revision Stage
The fourth stage is editing, which involves fine-tuning the script line by line and checking for repetition, clarity, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. It is important to understand that editing is a detailed process and should be performed professionally.
Editing Stage
The final step, which is publishing, involves presenting the written article to the target audience.
Essential Tools for Writers
The three essential tools for writers that will be most helpful throughout this course include novels, notebooks, and software.
Novels
Novels are good materials for writing fiction because they enhance creativity. It is necessary to read as many novels as possible to improve on both writing and communication skills.
Notebooks
Moreover, a writer should carry notebooks to help in journaling everyday events and activities.
Software
Any writer should have access to some of the popular word processors such as Microsoft Word, Pages, and Open Office. These word processes make writing and editing easy, fast, and accurate.
