This essay seeks to discuss Langans assertion that writing is a process that involves a series of

steps by looking at the five main steps of writing. According to Troyka(2003:23) there are
four main steps involved in writing and these are prewriting which has its own techniques,
drafting, revising and proof reading and editing. Prewriting has its own techniques which are
freewritting, questioning, making a list, diagraming, and preparing a scratch line. The essay
below will explain further on these steps of writing.
Firstly, prewriting as the first step according to Langan (2003:24) is involved with five
techniques which are free writing, questioning, making a list, diagraming and preparing a scratch
outline. The major idea about prewriting is to think about what to write and how to write it. The
only limitation on what to write about is ones personal fancy. Stimulation can be drawn from
various areas of the everyday life, childhood memories or even historical events. Before writing
a writer should come up with a thesis. This is a certain topic that a writer follows and it acts as
the guide line in their essay writing. In any essay the main aim of the writer should be to support
the thesis and to see if there are in line with the thesis.
According to Clouse (2010:32) to free write is to note down everything that comes to thought
despite it being irrelevant or its useless. One should not be worried about any spellings,
punctuation, mistakes in grammar or even order of the ideas since the paper wont be handed in.
The papers main purpose is to make a writer focus more on what they want to write about on a
subject. Prewriting may help shape up and clear ideas making it easy for one to generate new
ideas and impressions once everything is on paper. Free writing is more of jotting down raw
materials making it easy to transform them it into useful information in the next step of writing.
Questioning is another technique of prewriting that comes after free writing. It is a process of
generating ideas by asking yourself questions. A person goes on to ask themselves questions
pertaining to the subject they want to write about and they bring up answers from different
angles thereby bringing new ideas from different perspectives. Such questions as why?, where?,
who?, when?, and how?, are put on the ground to aid in generating facts about a topic. By
answering these questions the writer is then exposed to a great deal of information that they can
used in writing their essay.
Furthermore, brainstorming or listing comes as one major technique of prewriting. According to
Langan(2003:27) in brainstorming you just collect ideas and details that are of relevance to your

subject and jot them one after the other without considering any special order or trying to
separate the major points from the minor ones. After listing one then goes on to revisit the list
crossing out any irrelevant points or the minor points they might not want to include in their
writing. Revisiting the list could help one expand the minor points into major ones and even
generate new points.
According to Clouse (2010:47) mapping can help discover ideas to develop a topic. Mapping
also known as diagraming is helpful to the people who prefer to do their work visually. Boxes
and arrows are used to link points that are related or that complement each other. Major ideas are
circles or boxed in bigger circles and boxes whereas minor ideas are put in smaller ones. This
helps the writer to determine which points to write first or which ones to reconsider.
Scratch lining comes after the other techniques of pre writing and this is the main technique
which determines if one needs to do more prewriting or they should continue writing. Langan
says that one have to think of the point they are writing, the supporting material they have and
the order in which they seek to arrange that material. If one fails to produce concrete points to
the fore mentioned outline then it could be required of them to re do their pre writing. All the
outlined points can now be put into groups that suits them and all the unnecessary information is
then crossed out.
From prewriting the cycle of writing move on to the next stage which is drafting. Writing the
first draft is a very important stage as it gives the writer an opportunity to add more information
they could have left out when doing the pre writing. According to Daiker et al (1994:44) drafting
is the next stage that comes after prewriting. Daiker describes it as selecting and organizing the
generated ideas when writing the first draft one should mainly be concerned with clearly stating
their thesis and to develop the content of their script with more specific information. It is at this
point that one should put more effort of bringing an outline of what they want their work to look
like. According to Langan(2004:31) one should not be worried much about grammar spellings or
even punctuation mistakes as they may even want to remove some of these points they could
have highlighted in their first draft
In addition, according to Troyka (1987:44) drafting means outlining ones ideas on paper in the
form of sentences and paragraphs. It is the first stage of shaping up the whole work and putting
some direction to ones work. For one to produce a final draft they should come out with many

versions (drafts) each of them successively closer to the writers intention on what will
communicate well with their readers.
Moreover, revising according to Daiker is one of the most vital stages of writing that will
determine the value of ones work. In at this stage substituting, adding, deleting and rearranging
of data is expected. According to Langan (2004) one should not focus on changing the draft at
hand but also to be ready to check if all the supporting evidence is relevant and to add more
support at some point. Langann (2004:33) defines revising as rewriting the paper building on
what has already been done to make it stronger. He goes on to point out that revision should be
done three to four times so as make sure that all loop holes are filled. One should be able to ask
themselves if they have a clearly stated thesis and if the paragraph support and back up the
thesis. AFTER revision ones essay should be unified, supported and organized as proposed by
Langan (abid). To ensure the essay is supported the writer should be able to clarify if there are
separate points for the thesis, if there is evidence of the different specific supporting points and if
there is adequate specific evidence for each supporting point. The writer should also be able to
note if their essay is organized by having an interesting introduction, clear method of organizing
their paper and use of connecting words.
Lastly, after going through all these stages according to Langan(2004:34) one is ready to edit and
proofread. The writer should inspect and see if they have any errors in grammar, spellings and
punctuation and this is called proofreading. A writer is even encouraged to read their essay aloud
or give a friend to read for them to see if there are any errors. After proofreading one should then
go on to edit their work to eliminate all the errors noted. At this juncture the sentence skill is of
much importance. A writer should be able to use the different skills of sentencing such as
parallelism, specific words, avoiding slang, clichs and to vary their sentences.
In conclusion, it can be agreed with Langan that writing is a process of discovery that involves a
series of steps. From the above essay there are five main steps of writing that can prove that it is
a process of discovery that involve a series of steps. Prewriting is the first step and it has its own
techniques which are free writing, questioning, listing, diagraming and preparing a scratch list.
The other steps are drafting, revising, editing and proof reading.

BIBLIOGRAPH
Daiker,D ,Kerek,k et al.1994. The writers options. HarperCollins college publishers. New York.
Langan, J.2003.College writing skills, media edition fifth edition. McGraw Hill. New York.
Langan, J.2004.College writing skills, sixth edition. McGraw Hill. New York.
Rise,B and Cooper, C.1986. St Martins guide to writing. St Martins press. New York.
Troyka,L 1987. Simon and Schusters handbook for writers. Prentice hall. London.