This section adapts Bratcher's (1997) approach to writing process. Obviously, when you start writing a bachelor or diploma thesis, you should engage in the following steps:

• Thinking, Reading, Talking

✔ Choosing a good topic can be hard. We recommend choosing something that you are interested in and something that your academic advisor/mentor approves and is interested in. We also recommend doing early active readings (highlight ideas, write questions on your texts, include summary sentences, etc.) and discussions about your topic with your advisor or peers to identify a specific angle that you want to focus your work on. This reading-thinking-talking stage in the process can be messy and time-consuming, but it is probably the most important stage! If you are not clear on what you want to say, how can you write a good paper or thesis?

• Prewriting

✔ What can help you think through your topic are various prewriting strategies. For example, once you have your topic and you know who your audience is (typically your professors), it is good to write down your exact purpose and your key references as per this example:

Identifying Key Rhetorical Information Strategy

Topic: Interpretation of Literary Texts as a Reading Stimulus

Audience: Students studying English, English teachers, poets, prose writers, literary theorists, translators

Purpose: To interpret the aesthetic function of tropes and point out their impact on the reading experience

Reference sources: (try to use only credible sources written by experts who have been dealing with the topic for a long time, such as literary theorists, linguists and so on). For more information about how to ensure that you are choosing credible sources, please scroll lower on this page.

Outlining and Organizing Ideas Strategy

After you have thought about your topic, credible articles, and have complete clarity on your audience, expectations, and purpose, it is a good idea to outline your ideas and/or create a table or visual organizer to help you keep track of information from your sources. Notice how the writer in the outline below, included the sources from which to draw information!

Example:

1. Introduction to the topic: literary communication between author and reader

2. typology of interpretation (Draw on Smith, 2021, Mihalkova, 2018)

3. reading methods and strategies (Mihalkova, 2018, Petterson, 2015)

4. thematic and linguistic characteristic of literary texts from a phonological (Petterson, 2015, Holk, 2012), morphological, lexicological, syntactic (Smith, 2021) and stylistic aspect (Mihalkova, 2018)

5. analysis of concrete literary texts

6. summary

• Drafting

✔ Once you are clear on what you want to say and how you want to organize your ideas you can start drafting. At this stage, focus on getting your ideas out and not getting stuck. Be sure you make it clear which ideas are yours and which ones are from your sources. Ask your advisor or mentor to read a few pages from your early draft and give you feedback so that you know if you are on the right track! Example:

I. Nosková (2014) defines literary communication (from lat. communicatio - transmission) as the transmission of a message through graphic signals, and it is a complex process. Graphic symbols, as we could see in Nosková's definition, will be presented as tropes in our work like metaphors, personifications, synecdoches or poetic questions.

Important note: If you are struggling with how to integrate your own voice with the selected citations, consider the information at the bottom of this page: Response Strategies for Citations.

• Revision

✔ During the revision process, you have to be willing to make bigger changes. Oftentimes these will be a result of your advisor's feedback or conversation. You may be asked to add information, improve your argument, find more sources. Don't get discouraged! Revising is a big part of the writing process! You may also be asked to clarify your source as per this feedback from a professor: "Who is Ingrid Nosková?"

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REVISED PARAGRAPH:

I. Nosková (2014), a teacher, expert in didactics and a worker at methodological and pedagogical center, defines literary communication (from lat. communicatio - transmission) as the transmission of a message through graphic signals, and it is a complex process. Graphic symbols, as we could see in Nosková's definition, will be presented as tropes in our work like metaphors, personifications, synecdoches or poetic questions.

• Editing

✔ Editing is the final adjustment of the text before publishing and sharing, it includes a final control of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, citation or paragraphing, adding new words and sentences if necessary.

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• Publishing

✔ Publishing may involve binding an academic work (e.g. bachelor thesis, diploma thesis) although increasingly, electronic copies are preferred by many institutions.