Reflective Essay: The Writing Process

In simple terms, the writing process is a process generally consisting of four distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing in order to construct an essay or paper. Despite whether one is an experienced English professor or simply a student in high school, the way in which a writer may arrive at the final product is unique to everyone.  In spite of these four generic steps being commonly taught to students throughout their years of schooling, personally, I believe that there is not one single approach to producing a successful final writing, rather hundreds of different strategies developed through a writer’s experience. Oftentimes, simply starting an essay or paper while lacking proper preparation or planning can result in a frustrating and tedious writing process; therefore, through trial and error writers must examine their methods and dictate effective habits in order to complete their writing in a timely manner. 

Personally speaking, the writing process has always been a frustrating one for me considering how my determination for perfection constantly seems to interfere with my time management skills. While completing a typical writing assignment, I primarily tend to stick to the generic four step writing process and put extra emphasis on my research and preparation. However, even after spending time constructing a thorough plan for my writing, once my hands touch my keyboard I immediately start crossing out sentences and rethinking my whole approach to a topic. Despite always ending up with a finished paper in the end, I often find myself spending tons of extra time second guessing and revising my work. Additionally, once I get a solid start on my paragraphs, my mind flows endlessly with multiple different ideas on ways to approach my topic. Despite having an abundance of ideas that can be beneficial to writing, my mind generates different ideas much faster than my hands are able to type them out; therefore, I often find myself overwhelmed with all of my ideas. Thus, I prefer to complete my writing in a quiet setting without extra distractions such as music and making sure to take breaks often in order to push past these challenges. Once I have finished my initial draft, I thoroughly check each of my paragraphs in order to be sure that I am expressing the information in an accurate and concise manner. All things considered, I feel that it is not my writing process that is flawed, but rather my determination to make every sentence flow perfectly with one another.

On the whole, after examining my writing process more closely, I am able to pinpoint my flaws and better understand how to push past them in order to become more confident in my writing abilities. In many ways, the simple four step writing process that I follow is the foundation for me to further develop my writing skills and stop second guessing every sentence I type. Thus, by utilizing my current writing strategies alongside with a newfound confidence in my writing skills, I feel that I can become a stronger writer.