Why is it important to spend the majority of the writing process time on planning?

There are two main approaches to organising and analysing information for academic writing.

• The planning approach: spend a lot of time on different types of planning before you begin writing. Only start writing when you know what you will write in each paragraph.
• The drafting approach: start writing early, while you are still developing your ideas. Write many drafts and gradually re-organise your text until your ideas are clear and your paragraphs are well structured.

Both of these approaches can be successful. However, if your writing needs to be more logical, clear or analytical, focus more on your planning. Creating a good plan is a very positive early step towards writing a good assignment.

Know what’s expected

While some types of written work are the same in many disciplines, such as essays, there are also some kinds that only belong to a particular discipline. Sometimes even in the same discipline area, different lecturers will have different expectations about a particular type of assignment.

It’s therefore important you understand exactly what type of assignment you’re expected to write. For example, it could be an essay, report, case study, reflection or critical review.

You can find out what is expected by looking at key sources of information including:

• written assignment instructions
• grade descriptors, rubrics or marking guides. These list the parts of the assignment, how many marks each part is worth, and/or list the qualities in the assignment that will achieve certain grades.
• advice from your lecturer or tutor
• the unit of study outline
• discussion with other students
• general assignment guidelines prepared by some schools, departments or faculties
• model assignments. Some lecturers, departments or schools keep copies of good assignments done by previous students, as models of the right style and structure
• the resources of the Learning Hub (Academic Language and Learning).

Make a task list

You should identify all the things you need to do to write your paper. This could include:

• a library database search and catalogue search to find relevant journal articles or books
• reading and note-taking
• brainstorming
• analysing data
• planning the structure of your assignment
• drafting
• discussion
• editing and proofreading.

Estimate the time you need for each task and make a realistic plan based on how you work. Some people spend longer reading and analysing before they start writing, while others start writing earlier and write several drafts.

Find out ways to manage your time.

Early planning

Initially capture as many ideas as possible, without worrying about structure. For example:

• carefully read and think about the assignment or task, and its purpose
• brainstorm lists of key words and topics, to give direction to your reading and research
• draw mindmaps, diagrams and flowcharts
• discuss your ideas with someone else
• list all the readings you could use
• read the abstracts for the relevant sources and make notes on how each article could be useful
• for a large task like a thesis or dissertation, use EndNote, or similar software, to save your references and notes.

After this initial planning, you can start working out the structure of your assignment.

Resources

This material was developed by the the Learning Hub (Academic Language and Learning), which offers workshops, face-to-face consultations and resources to support your learning. Find out more about how they can help you develop your communication, research and study skills.

See our Writing skills handouts.

The writing process consists of the strategies and techniques writers use to gather information, transform ideas into written words, and organize and revise their work based on their audience's requirements.

What Writing Is and What It Is Not
Writing is not something mysterious done according to some secret formula. Anyone can learn to write well. It does not proceed in a set or predictable way, with introductions always written first and conclusions last. Instead, writing is a dynamic process, requiring judgement calls and evaluation. Good writing requires a certain amount of effort, but the time it requires costs less than the misunderstandings, lost sales, and confusion bad writing can produce.

The Five Stages of the Writing Process
The writing process can be broken down into five basic stages: researching, planning, drafting, revising, and editing.

Researching
All writers need to do some research before they begin writing, no matter what or for whom they are writing. To communicate the right information in the best way possible, you need to research not only your topic but also your audience. In fact, you should research your audience first-are they experts? trainees? decision makers? customers? This will help you determine what information they need, which in turn will guide your research on your topic. This research might include interviewing people, doing fieldwork, surfing the Net, conducting surveys, reviewing reports, or other activities. It's never a waste of time to research your audience and topic before you begin to write; it usually saves time and effort in the long run. Also, research is not confined to before you begin writing; it continues throughout the writing process.

Planning
At this stage, your goal is simply to get started, to get something-anything-down on paper. For most writers, this is the most difficult part of the process, but once you've got something down on paper, it becomes easier to clarify and organize your thoughts. Three useful strategies for planning are clustering, brainstorming, and outlining. For most writers, outlining is the most familiar strategy. An outline need not be formal or neat to be useful. The point is simply to get moving.

Drafting
When you draft, you take the words or phrases you generated during the planning stage and convert them into sentences and paragraphs. Begin with the easiest part, regardless of where it will end up in the finished work. As you draft, don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or word choice; you will fix these things in the revising and editing stages. Drafting is preliminary work-you won't end up with a polished or complete version after drafting. The purpose is to get your main points down in the most logical order for your readers. As you draft, ask whether you're starting your discussion in the best way possible; whether you're giving your audience the right amount of information; whether all the points you're including are necessary, relevant, and logically ordered; whether you're contradicting or repeating yourself; and whether you're ending your document appropriately. In most cases, you will have to create many drafts before proceeding to the next stage in the process.

Revising
Revising is an essential stage in the writing process. It should be done only after you've produced a draft that conveys the appropriate message for your audience. It's important to leave enough time for revising. Like planning and drafting, revising can't be accomplished effectively in one sitting. Plan to read through your revisions more than once. Revising involves reseeing, rethinking, and reconsidering your material. It means asking again the questions you asked yourself during the planning and drafting stages. The three big issues to be concerned with as you revise are content, organization, and tone; how you approach these depends on your audience's reason for reading your work.

Editing
Editing is the last stage in the writing process. It is done only after you are completely satisfied with your work's content and organization. At this stage, you are concerned with the details of sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and usage. Your goal is to produce a final, polished document for your audience. As you edit, cut needlessly long or complex sentences, and combine choppy sentences. Arrange information logically within sentences. Replace verbs used as nouns with strong, active verbs, and cut excess modifiers. Replace wordy phrases or clauses with concise ones. Finally, be sure to eliminate all sexist language.

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