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My relationship with writing was not always the best one. For years I felt really
insecure about my writings and I own this fact to the way I was thought how to write a text
during my school years. I have always been told that there is a certain way you have to write
and a certain structure you have to follow in order to produce a considerable good text, and
I did not feel comfortable with that. However, when I got to my freshman year in high school
I had a teacher that finally gave me the freedom of writing by my own rules. I was finally
able to structure a text the way I wanted to and had no more guidelines to follow other than
the assignment prompt, of course. This completely changed my relationship with writing
After giving us this freedom, this teacher, whose class was definitely one of my
favorites, asked me and my peers to analyze how we write step by step, something I had
never paid attention before. That was the moment I realized that I had developed a writing
process that I followed every single time: brainstorming, outlining, taking a break, writing
the first draft, receiving feedback, revising, and writing the final draft, exactly in this order.
Therefore, for this paper, I will be explaining this writing process using as an example the
first paper I wrote for my English Composition class (ENC 1101) called English: From
Brainstorming: The first part of my writing process is brainstorming. In this step, I analyze
the assignment prompt and understand what it wants me to do. Then, I decide what will be
the theme of my paper, and divide the ideas I have for it under different categories. When I
make this division, I am able to organize myself in a more structured and simple way, and
this is very helpful when I follow the next step. Furthermore, I think it is hard to have a lot of
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good thoughts at this point because I am not a very creative person. Because of that, I write it
down everything I think of, even if it is not the best idea but at this step, I believe that
quantity leads to quality. I think that the best way to get a good quality idea is to get a bunch
of ideas.
For a better understanding, lets take a look on how the process of brainstorming for
the paper I am analyzing worked: The prompt of the writing was to talk about a personal
literacy, so I choose to write about my relationship with the English language. After deciding
the main topic that the paper will address, I divided my ideas into four categories that are
better understand what I am talking about, it follows below a graphic example of what my
brainstorm was based on when writing English: From Secondary to Primary, with the
Outlining: When I am brainstorming, I come up with a lot of ideas but not all of them will
be included in the paper. In the next step, outlining, I will decide which of these ideas I want
to keep in the paper and the ones I dont. This is where I start shaping the text as a whole.
Also, I try to organize the ideas paragraphs in a way that the sequence makes sense and that it
achieves my writing purpose in the best way possible. In other words, I take the ideas I had
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and position them in a way I think it would make sense for the readers as they can follow my
logic and understand the thesis/claim, facts, and arguments I used to explain it. However, it
does not mean that I will follow it in this exact way because when writing I am able to see
different possibilities that maybe would work better than the one I was thinking. But it helps
text since I started to learn English until the present days. Therefore, I made each paragraph a
different time of my life which I had a different relationship with the language. Also, I tried
to make an introduction where I talked a little bit about the main topic and why I was talking
about it.
Pause: This step is not a writing-related one but is an essential part of my writing process. I
always take some time for myself before going into writing. I usually like to take a break so I can
start to write the paper with a more relaxed mind, which helps me to make the writing flow when
I sit down to develop it. I like to take a time to think about my paper and how can I develop the
writing. The fact that I dont use this time to write something does not mean that it is not
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important for me because it is. This pause helps me to come to the writing with different
thoughts, which can help me to improve my writing and make it more well-developed. Even
though I am not sitting down writing something, I am still thinking about the text and having
now ideas, and when I think of something new for the paper I write it down on the Notes
This pause can take from 2 hours to 4 days, it depends on what I am writing and how I am
feeling at that moment. In the writing is analyzing for this paper this step took me 2 entire days
and was very productive because I had many other ideas during this time. I have the following
notes written down on my phone that I thought about while in this step:
First Draft: Finally, I start to write. This is the part that takes the most amount of time. At this
step, I start developing sentences, arguments, and paragraphs. Therefore, even though it does not
how can I develop a sentence in order to sound exactly like I want to. When I am writing, I am
constantly looking at my outline, trying to develop the ideas I wrote in there and to follow the
guidelines I made for myself. However, I still have to make some changes to make the text even
better. I am also looking to the notes I took so I can include them in the right place. Sometimes, I
text my friends and family to have, for example, for this paper I talked to my parents and asked
them a few questions to understand why they decided that I should learn English. Furthermore,
the internet is also a resource I always refer to, not only to look for some word synonyms but
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also to find some quotes or information that I can use to strengthen my paper.
Peer-Review % Reflection: After finishing the first draft, I send it to peers so they can review it
and make comments and suggestions on how to make my paper better. On English: From
Secondary to Primary, I had 3 peers reviewing my paper and helping me to make necessary
changes. This step helps me because I get feedback from the readers about what they think that
can do to make to my paper better and my arguments stronger. Also, they help me to identify
parts that I could develop more. I have separated two comments from two different peers that
really stood out and helped me to make changes that made my paper better and helped me to
Going in depth about the opportunities will strengthen the purpose of the paper and why
your parents believed that learning another language would benefit you as an
individual- This gave me directions on how I could make my paper stronger. Also, it
helped me to re-write it in order to achieve my writing purpose in a way that I dont leave
Try to explain more about "how" after this sentence. This is kind of dropped without
enough of a foundation to be supported. This makes me realize that some parts need
Final Draft: After receiving all the feedbacks I make the necessary changes that the readers (or
peers in this case) think will improve my paper. Also, I change what I think would sound better
or what I could include to make it strong in my own opinion. This is good for me making the
writing better because after all of that I am able to see some things that I couldnt see before. On
the paper I am analyzing, I made a lot of changes, going from 1604 to 19993 words, what shows
that I was able to develop my writing a lot after revising it and re-writing for the final draft, the
one I will submit for a grade and present to my readers. In this stage, the text will be very similar
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to the first draft, but there are a few changes that help to improve the texts structure and also
After understanding more about my writing process, I can see that all the stages are
integrated and work together in order to produce a good writing at the end. Dividing the process
into different parts makes it easier to write a good and well-develop text. Although some of these
stages may be similar, the steps are not, each of them contribute to the writing in a different but
necessary way. For me, following this order and going through every step not only helps me to
produce a text but to develop it in a way that I can reach my goal with the writing.