Chapter 2: The Writing Process 1 — Prewriting

Overview

Like communication in general, good writing comes from following a process. Between an author hatching an idea and the audience reading and understanding that idea, the writing process enables the author to craft messages in a time-efficient manner that ultimately meets the needs of the audience. Without following a four-stage process — (1) preparing, (2) information gathering, (3) drafting and (4) editing) — an author can waste plenty of their own time writing what doesn’t need to be written and wasting the reader’s time by confusing them with a message that doesn’t meet their needs. The next four chapters deal with each of these four writing stages, dividing them into several steps that, when followed as a matter of habit, can save you time by helping you write no more or less than you need to in achieving your professional communication goals.

 

1 Preparing, 2 Researching, 3 Drafting, 4 Editing              1 Preparing, 1.1 Purpose, 1.2 Audience, 1.3 Channel

Figure 2.1: The four-stage writing process and Stage 1 breakdown

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Communication: Fundamentals for the Workplace Copyright © 2021 by Jordan Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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