13 Writing Process
Arley Cruthers
Activity Guidelines
Suggested Course Level
Lower level undergraduate course
Activity Purpose
- Students will become familiar with their own writing process and will recognize stumbling blocks in their own writing process.
- By examining the writing process of famous writers, students will see that writing processes are unique, varied and complex.
Materials Required
- Handout
- Quotes from famous writers
- Paper
- Markers
Activity Instructions
- Find quotes from 4-5 famous writers about their writing process. This website contains many of them: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-daily-routines-of-12_b_8510996 .
- Add the quotes into the attached handout.
- Ask students to read the quotes and identify the different parts of the writing process, then estimate how much time was spent on each.
- Then, ask students to use this information to create a map of the writer’s process. Students can use different marker colours to represent different parts of the writing process.
- Put the completed maps up on the wall, then have students observe the differences.
- Ask each group to briefly discuss their author’s writing process.
- For the next stage, ask students to think of the last major writing project they created, then draw a map of their writing process.
- Ask students to label major events, including how they felt (a sample image is attached).
Debrief Questions / Activities
- What surprised you about the author’s writing process?
- What did your author spend the majority of their time on?
- What conditions did the author need to write successfully?
- What can you apply from your author’s writing process to your own writing process?
- What did you learn from drawing your writing process?
- Is the writing process you drew typical, or do you vary it?
- If you identified a barrier or a negative emotion, what part of the writing process was it in?
- How do you think you can remove that stumbling block?
- Is there anything you would like to try to change about your writing process?
Activity Variations
- Just do the first part of the activity or just have students draw their writing process.
- If you have time, ask students to “edit” their writing process or write a new writing process that they’d like to try.
Additional Resources / Supplementary Resources
- Cruthers,Arley WritingProcessActivity Handout PDF
- Cruthers,Arley WritingProcessActivity Handout WORD
Tags: writing process, individual, small group, creating a product or document, self-reflection
