The Writing Process:
Most of us go through the various stages of the process when we write. Read the various stages of writing:
Stage 1: Prewriting or Forming Intentions
This is the 'warm up' time before you begin to do anything organised on paper. It might involve:
jotting down words on possible topics; reading; talking to a friend; remembering; going for a walk; 
doodling; daydreaming; writing fragments of sentences; looking at photographs; 
researching.
Stage 2: Composing and Drafting
This is where the hard thought-work begins! Sentence fragments start to come together and ideas that have been half-formed in your head start to take on shape. You will probably do lots of crossing out and reworking at this stage. There are three main things that will help you to compose the first draft of your writing well and these are:
knowing the genre you are meant to be writing in; 
knowing who the audience of your writing is likely to be; 
being told exactly what your teacher requires.
Stage 3: Revising and Correcting
Revising your first draft is a way of 'seeing it again' . . re-vision.
Revising is not rewriting your work more neatly, It is:
listening to the sound of the writing; 
juggling the meaning until it is just right; 
trying it out on someone else and asking them specific questions; 
leaving it and coming back an hour later to read it over again.
During this stage, you are working on the meaning or 'deep features' of your writing
Stage 4: Editing and Proofreading
This is the stage closest to publications; the stage before your finished product is given to an 'audience' — perhaps your teacher, your writing group or the rest of the class. It is important at this stage to examine the 'surface features' of your writing. This means making alterations to the spelling, punctuation and usage. Making sure that the language conventions of your piece are correct means that your intentions as a writer are communicated clearly.
Stage 5: Publishing
Publishing is a vital part of the writing process. There are many ways in which you can publish your work:
giving the finished product to a friend to read; recording it on a cassette tape; putting it in the school magazine; entering it in a competition; handing it in to your teacher; pinning it on the classroom wall; 
reading it aloud to the class.
