“Global” Issues Come First in the Writing Process

“Higher "Order Concerns” are the big issues—about ideas, thesis statements, organization, and developing paragraphs. These issues are best considered early on when you are writing, long before you begin proofreading or editing. What it is you want to say—and could it be said differently, more accurately, with a different organizational structure?

Most writers find it helpful—even liberating—to work on HOCs such as ideas, content, and organization first. Then, when it’s time to work on sentence-level editing and proofreading (LOCs), they feel confident that their work is ready for more detailed scrutiny. As researcher George Hillocks has said, “In real world writing, careful editing of insipid ideas will be of little use.”