The writing process is a method used to complete a well-organized, creative, and publishable paper. There are adaptations for certain genres and forms, and five basic steps that should be taken in order to complete a well-rounded paper. Writers should feel empowered to move around within the steps in order to follow their inspiration.

Rule #1: The Five Steps, each step was explained in detail.

Rule #2: Live Dangerously, follow your genius.

Rule #3: Get feedback throughout the writing process.

 

Writing Process Rule #3: Getting Help

According to the Gestalt theory, our brain tries to organize and structure what we pick up with our senses. We create a whole image from the pieces that we experience and see. This theory that the whole is greater than its individual parts is seen in writing. Humans assimilate data and try to express it to others in ways that are interesting, creative, and organized. The problem with this is that we believe that our perspective is the reality that other people should follow. This is the fundamental error of perspective.

Perspective is based on a person’s level of self-awareness, judgment, and experience. This idea of perspective explains why when we are writing, we tend to only think about our angle, our main character’s perspective, our pressures to finish the essay before the due date. If we can become more aware of our limited perspective, we can gain academic benefits by changing the way we approach the text.

When you edit your essay, report, or paper, use this theory to your advantage. Realize that you cannot find all of your mistakes. Your brain will naturally gloss over mistakes to create a meaningful whole. This leaves you with two options. The first option is to approach your paper from a different perspective. The second option is to get someone else to proofread and revise it.

Help Yourself: Change Perspectives

After coming to an understanding of your need to change the way your brain is looking at the text, you have a few options. Use a number of these to counteract your brain’s holistic, yet narrow perspective:

• Place the paper “on the shelf” for at least a week. You will be amazed at how foreign it will look after coming back to it with new life experiences.
• Proofread backwards. When looking for COPS (capitalization, organization, punctuation, and spelling errors), start at the last sentence and proofread it. Then move to the next to the last sentence, and so on. You will be forcing your brain to look at the paper differently and you will be focusing your brain’s power on analyzing at the word level, instead of continually creating meaning from the sentence level.
• Use a list of common proofreading errors instead of relying on your own proofreading routine. Many times writers develop routines that help them become successful. But these routines that you have in your head (think brain) may narrow your focus and reinforce your perspective, so use other people’s routines (lists from books).
• When revising, you are looking at sentence and paragraph level meanings. This is the hardest element of your writing to change because it is holistic to begin with. Try reading your text out loud. Many times you can actively hear errors or mistakes that you cannot see because there is a time lapse between the moment you see the paragraph, say the paragraph, and then comprehend the paragraph.
• Analyze each “part” of the paper by itself, separate from the entire paper. For example, let’s say you have a 12 paragraph paper with four main points to support your thesis. Spend five minutes analyzing the two examples that support the third point of your paper. Later, move on to the first point, etc.

 

Get Help: Ask Others

One of the hardest things to do, if you’re a good writer, is to ask others for help. Yet, it’s one of the smartest things that you can do to improve your writing because any person besides you has a completely different perspective. Here are some tips to help you.

• Be choosy. Don’t ask your best friend or brother first. Ask a colleague. A fellow writer will enjoy the experience much more and provide more useful feedback.
• Ask a number of people to look at it. Asking at least three other people to look at the draft will be invaluable and lend multiple perspectives to the proofreading and editing process.
• Depending on the person who edits, ask that they look for specific errors. A professional writer will give you a thorough analysis, but not so with a non-writer. Don’t overwhelm them. Be very specific and tell them exactly what to look for and how to show it. For instance, ask them to write their comments on the paper and look for all spelling problems. Don’t give them a list with seventeen different items on it. If you know a person is very good with phrases in conversation, ask them to look at dialog or sentences to see how well they fit together or how naturally they flow. The best method is to outsource your proofreading and editing needs to the people who have demonstrated abilities in those areas.

It goes without saying that a paper of any type will be finished when it is finished. This may include one, several, or dozens of drafts. Don’t let time requirements pressure you into turning in a product that is poorly proofread and revised. As Shakespeare said, “The play’s the thing,” not the misspelled word or poorly written phrase.

Look at the original article: Writing Process Rule #3: Getting Help.