Chapter 2: Helping Writers Through All Stages of the Writing Process

The Four Stages of the Writing Process

Written by Francesca King, Director, University of Wyoming Writing Center

Clients will come to the Writing Center looking for help at all stages of the writing process. But what exactly are these stages? How do we define them? And what are some things we need to know upfront to differentiate the stages from each other?

Generally, we can break the writing process into four stages: brainstorming, drafting, revising, and editing. Brainstorming is the very first thing we start with to generate ideas, and editing should be the last thing we do, to tidy up existing writing. Barbara B., a professional consultant at the University of Wyoming Writing Center, likes to use the analogy of a house being built from scratch to describe the writing process. If editing is the final step in the writing process—its purpose being to elevate existing prose at a line level—then think of it as adding the finishing touches to a house which has gone through all the stages of creation: from working with an architect, to approving the designs, to laying the foundations, to building the walls.

In this way, WC consulting is also like building a house. We don’t want to start with the final touches—the pretty paint or the decorative door knobs—before we’ve built a strong foundation. The piece of work you’re helping a student writer improve should be treated in a similar way; higher-order concerns such as structure, argument, and compelling topic sentences should be addressed before pointing out lower-order concerns such as word choice, or smaller grammatical errors.

This chapter will help you think about writing existing in these different stages, and offer some early language to help define the different stages. This is foundational framing is necessary to know in order to interact with the practical, applicable consulting activities later in this textbook.

Brainstorming

Definition 1 (dictionary.com): A technique for generating ideas and solving problems using uncensored and nonlinear thinking.

Definition 2 (oxfordreference.com): A group discussion where no idea is rejected, no matter how irrelevant it appears.

There’s not much written on brainstorming strategies in Writing Center literature. My theory for this dearth of research is that brainstorming is often seen as an informal, flexible process, exemplified in the language of the first definition: ‘uncensored and nonlinear thinking.’ This goes against a lot of WC scholarship which frequently emphasizes structured approaches to consultations. Another theory is that a common WC misconception is that students are expected to have finished papers—or, at least, a functional working draft—when they come for a consultation. But without brainstorming, where would we be? Ideas need space and time to develop, otherwise a piece of writing will have no content—or, at least, will lack nuanced or complicated content. It’s a crucial stage.

Based on the underrepresentation of brainstorming in WC theory, it appears as though brainstorming is often treated as an ad hoc stage of the writing process that doesn’t necessarily demand the same level of documentation or formalized strategies as other writing stages. Perhaps this has led to a gap in training: consultants often become skilled at guiding structured revision but they might not feel as equipped to facilitate an open-ended brainstorming session. Lacking formal research in this area, we’re limiting the ways in which Writing Centers empower students to generate ideas, frame topics, and navigate ambiguity.

How can Writing Centers create more structured brainstorming strategies that respect the inherent flexibility of the process but still provide students with support and guidance?

Leigh Ryan and Lisa Zimmerelli in The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors (sixth ed., pg. 31) make the point that brainstorming, or, as they call it, prewriting, should consider the audience we are addressing and the purpose for addressing them—the rhetorical context. Asking the questions ‘To whom am I writing?’ (the audience) and ‘Why?’ (the purpose) helps us determine what information to include and how to present it. These questions should be posed by the consultant before any kind of brainstorming or prewriting.

Strategies for brainstorming: 

• Freewriting asks writers to put their fingers to the keyboard and write for a certain amount of time without stopping. It’s a popular method of communication in expressivist pedagogy where the focus is on discovering meaning through the act of writing itself rather than aiming for polished or perfectly structured prose. The goal of freewriting is to bypass the inner critic—those nagging thoughts that can inhibit creativity or stall forward momentum—and instead generate raw, authentic material that can later be revised and shaped. In novel writing, many authors advocate for the exploratory draft, or, ‘draft zero’ in order to generate ideas. An exploratory draft shares the same roots as freewriting, albeit in a longer, more sustained capacity (my exploratory drafts generally run from 55,000 to 70,000 words). They simply exist to generate ideas.

• After asking a student to complete a freewrite, the consultant can help the writer identify one part of the freewrite that is the most interesting or robust (just one small part of an overwhelming project). “Pair, think, pair” is a model which inverts the typical “think, pair, share” model which was initially developed by Frank Lyman in 1981 and remains popular in classrooms. This model allows consultants to have a discussion with the client, before giving them time to work alone to clarify or further explore the ideas that were generated in this discussion. Consultant and client can then come back together to discuss and create a collaborative idea map.

• At an administration scale, Writing Centers could create “brainstorming appointments” to be booked in the scheduling system or be specific with our language regarding the kinds of help we offer writers. Josh Schultz, a Writing Center tutor at Texas A&M University, presented at NCPTW in 2023 and said: “At Texas A&M, 66.7% of students who have never been to the Writing Center didn’t know that the WC can help with brainstorming. Also, up to 83% of Texas A&M students said they would want to attend a brainstorming appointment.” At the University of Wyoming Writing Center, 12% of appointments conducted between 2021 and 2024 were marked as ‘brainstorming’ in the client report form, though brainstorming often happens as an inevitable byproduct of most consultations.

Before drafting begins, the writer should have a clear understanding of the rhetorical context: the audience, their goal or purpose in relation to that audience, and what they hope to accomplish in the paper. It’s often tempting for writers to skimp on their preparations at this stage, hoping to discover the answers to these (sometimes challenging) questions through the act of drafting. However, this leads to shaky papers which are often thin on the ground in terms of connections and ideas. How many of you have written a paper where you feel like you’re hopelessly rehashing the same arguments because you didn’t allow enough time to fully explore your topic? The Writing Center consultant’s job is to ask writers questions about rhetorical context, and to prompt well-developed answers before encouraging the writer to embark on the drafting stage.

Drafting

In the drafting stage, writers will take the ideas they generated in the brainstorming stage and organize them on the page in an initial draft. Some writers believe that writing is a solitary activity, but Writing Center consultants offer great help at all stages of the writing process—drafting is no different!

Strategies for drafting:

• Review the purpose of the assignment by asking the writer to share the assignment description or prompt. This is a good time to review the rhetorical context for the assignment—consultants should encourage the writer to identify the purpose of the work and the audience it aims to engage—and to gain clarity on the instructor’s goals and grading criteria through the rubric, if available.

• Guide writers through outlining their draft to check that each main idea logically flows. Consider using visuals, like a reverse outline (link to the reverse outline WC handout) or a simple bullet point breakdown, to help writers see whether each section aligns with the overall argument or narrative arc.

• Work with writers to articulate concise, clear topic sentences for each paragraph, possibly using the Topic Sentence, Evidence, Analysis (TEA) structure as a guide (read this blog post by UW professor Bethann Garramon Merkle on TEA). Topic sentences are critical in the drafting stage to organize each paragraph’s main idea. After this, help writers to integrate relevant evidence or examples that support each topic sentence. This could involve returning to the source and choosing a more illuminating quote. Discuss with the writer whether the piece of evidence directly supports the main point or if it could be saved for a later revision. Lastly, encourage writers to expand on the significance of each piece of evidence. By drafting even a rough analysis at this stage, writers can avoid quote-dumping and start developing their critical voice.

• Model to writers how transitional phrases or repeated thematic language can help connect ideas between paragraphs. Consultants can situate themselves as expert readers over expert writers and say things like: “I’m not quite following your train of thought here. Could we work together to develop a transitional phrase to help me better follow your argument or narrative?”

• Breaking the drafting process into sections or focusing on just one element at a time (such as completing all topic sentences first) can make the process feel more manageable and productive.

Returning to Stephen North’s The Idea of a Writing Center, consultants should remember that we are not a ‘fix-it shop.’ Writing Centers exist to develop better writers, not just better drafts, and the “perfection” of a piece of writing should rarely, if ever, be the focus of a consultation. However, in a product-driven society, this goal can be challenging to convey to writers who may expect immediate, tangible results (i.e., they want that ‘A’).

From schools to workplaces, there is a pervasive emphasis on end products—visible achievements that can be quantified and rewarded. From a young age, we are trained to prioritize the final outcome over the iterative process that makes up creative and intellectual work. This mindset can make it difficult for writers at the college level to appreciate the value of the messy draft and the messy process behind it. Writers may feel pressure to leave each consultation with a polished, “A-worthy” draft, viewing revisions or loose ends as an indication of their failure rather than stepping stones in the writing process.

As Writing Center consultants, our job is to counter this product-focused mentality by helping writers develop a mindset that values drafting as an essential part of growth. Remind writers that drafts are meant to be imperfect and that each iteration is a necessary phase in developing not only their current project but also their overall skills as writers. Encourage them to write freely and unapologetically, leaving placeholders where they feel stuck, rather than getting bogged down with perfect wording. This strategy not only helps overcome writer’s block but also reinforces the idea that drafting is still exploratory (though, clearly, a bit more scaffolded than in the brainstorming stage). By moving beyond the obsession with perfection, writers will begin to see each draft as a foundation on which they can build and improve, rather than as a product that must immediately meet the instructor’s standard.

Revising

Many novice writers reach a draft that appears to cover the basics of their assignment and assume the work is complete. This is understandable because many students haven’t been introduced to the tools and techniques necessary to engage in deep revision—a necessary process that reshapes and refines a piece of writing to better fit the rhetorical context and purpose.

In this stage, a writer’s focus should shift to “global concerns”—the big-picture elements that shape the entire piece. This means considering the clarity of the thesis, the strength of your argument, the flow of topic sentences, and the overall organization of ideas. Revision is about stepping back to see the text as a whole and asking, “Does this really say what I want it to? Does it reach my audience in the way I intended?”

Unfortunately, many students come to the Writing Center with a limited understanding of what revision entails. In high school, and maybe even into college, revision has often meant only tweaking small things like moving commas, fixing typos, or adding missing words. While these changes are important, they belong to the final editing stage, which is all about polishing a finished draft. Real revision means stripping everything back to the writing’s skeletal outline, reworking sections, or even rethinking the thesis in order to make the writing more powerful and effective.

As a Writing Center consultant, your role is to help writers understand this deeper approach to revision, and that the first draft that they bring to the Writing Center is not their last draft. With practice, clients find that true revision can transform their work, turning an “okay” draft into something compelling. By focusing on these larger elements, you’ll guide them toward creating writing that’s both intentional and aligned with its goals.

Leigh Ryan and Lisa Zimmerelli in The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors suggest asking these accessible questions during the revision stage:

• ‘Will my audience be able to follow and understand what I’ve written?’
• ‘How do I come across to my audience?’
• ‘Have I included enough information?’

In answering these questions, we often realize that a piece of writing might need major changes in terms of organization, tone, and the inclusion and clear explanation of sources or other evidence.

Strategies for revising:

• Start by asking questions. Begin by talking with the writer about the paper’s audience, content, topic, and structure, referring to an assignment prompt if necessary. This conversation helps the writer highlight any areas they feel are problematic.

• As you read through the paper together, take on the role of an expert reader. This allows you to focus less on being a subject expert and more on helping the writer understand what’s actually on the page. Use phrases like, “What I’m hearing is that…” to clarify and reflect back your understanding without being too dictatorial! While Ryan and Zimmerelli suggest Writing Center consultants adopt a “naive reader” role—where you might ask questions like, “You write that watching the university’s production of Hamlet was exciting; what do you mean by ‘exciting’?”—I continue to recommend framing yourself as the “expert reader” . When consultants pretend to be naive, questions can sometimes come across as patronizing or indirect. Acting as an expert reader respects the writer’s goals and their specific language choices.

• Try not to get caught up in smaller issues like typos or sentence-level fixes. Addressing these too early can distract the writer from the larger goals of development and organization, or overwhelm them with too many minor fixes.

• At the end of each paragraph, pause to summarize what you understood. If a paragraph’s main idea doesn’t seem to align with the paper’s objective, discuss with the writer possible ways to revise, cut, or expand to improve the focus.

Editing

The editing stage of the writing process focuses on lower-level concerns, such as grammar, punctuation, and word choice, with the goal of polishing a draft for clarity and a seamless, enjoyable reading experience. Unlike revision, which centers on big-picture changes, editing hones in on refining each sentence and phrase. At the University of Wyoming Writing Center, we make the distinction between revising and editing to help consultants and writers focus on one thing at a time: either global-level concerns or lower-level concerns, but be aware that some people use the term interchangeably and/or consider editing as part of the revision stage of the writing process.

Encouraging writers to take charge of their own editing skills helps avoid the perception of the Writing Center as a “fix-it shop” (North) and instead empowers writers to become independent editors of their own work.

Strategies for editing:

• Suggest that writers read their draft out loud, slowly and carefully. Reading aloud can help a writer notice awkward phrasing, missing words, and mistakes they might overlook when reading silently. It also helps them assess the rhythm and clarity of their sentences. However, if the writer is too familiar with their writing, this strategy might not work. Instead, with their permission, read aloud the work. The writer can stop you when things sound weird. You could also verbally stress areas that are missing words or sound awkward to further draw attention to the problem without entering the mire of explaining difficult grammar conventions, especially if the writer is not too familiar with this set of vocabulary.

• Help writers identify any recurring errors in their work—such as comma usage, subject-verb agreement, or tense consistency. Rather than addressing each mistake individually, point out patterns and teach a mini-lesson on the convention so the writer can self-edit more effectively. It can often be more effective to use examples than explain complicated grammar conventions.

• If writers are blindly clicking on every underlined word and accepting the first suggestion given to them by Grammerly or spell checker, encourage them to use these tools thoughtfully. Writers should review each suggestion instead of automatically accepting it, to ensure the change aligns with their intentions.

• Show writers how to combine short, choppy sentences for better flow or break up overly long sentences to improve readability. This approach also encourages them to vary their sentence structures, creating a more dynamic and engaging style.

• Lastly, suggest that writers create a personalized checklist of common issues they know they struggle with (e.g., confusing “their” vs. “there,” or overusing passive voice). This list can become a helpful resource, making their editing process more intentional and thorough. It also means writers can go through their paper searching for one common error at a time. This breaks down the editing process into manageable tasks and means it’s less likely for writers to overlook an error because they’re overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task ahead.