There are 5 stages involved in every business writing ;
Stage 1: Pre-Writing
Before you sit down to write something, you need to figure out what you are going to write about.
Ways to generate ideas
- Free writing
- Brainstorming
- Clustering or mapping
- Cubing
- Outlining
- Recursive Process
Ways to plan your writing
- Create a cluster, diagram or web
- Create a storyboard
- Make an outline
- Sort and organize note cards by topic
Stage 2: Drafting
Once you have planned out your ideas, the next step is to start on the first draft. Don’t try to write the first draft and revise it at the same time. Write the draft and then set it aside for a while. Then, examine it from a fresh, critical point of view. Have you said precisely what you intended? Does the draft include enough detail to satisfy the intended receiver? Does the text flow in a clear, logical order?
Stage 3: Revising
During this stage you look at your writing from your audience’s point of view. To revise means literally to ‘re-see’ and ‘re-look’ at your writing.
You may need to change the order of the information, expand certain sections, or cut details in others.
When revising ask yourself these questions:
For the audience
- Is the level of detail appropriate for my audience (not too general or too specific)?
- Are my ideas presented in a logical order that will be evident to the reader?
- Do I use transitions to help the reader follow my train of thought?
- Are my sentences clear and specific?
- Did I say what I mean and mean what I say?
- Is my tone and style appropriate for my audience?
For the purpose
- Is my purpose clearly stated for the reader
- Do I clearly maintain that purpose throughout the document?
- Do I organize my ideas to best fulfill the purpose?
For the Form
- Do I follow established form of the document I am writing?
- Do I separate ideas into paragraphs with clear topic sentences?
- Do I maintain balance among my points, developing each to the same extent?
Stage 4: Editing
Editing focuses on making your documents meet the conventions of standard English. During editing, check for the following:
- Grammar
- Sentence structure
- Word choice
- Punctuation
- Capitalization
- Spelling
- Document format
Stage 5: Publishing
This is the stage when you send the document to your readers.
