Let's start writing!

     

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 Writing is one of the important things we should understand in learning English language. As the student of English literature major, I find that there are a lot of things we can get from writing. We can explore our ideas, improve our grammar better, remember many vocabularies or idioms, and many more. We can try to write anything, from the simple thing such as a diary, a short story, an article, and a novel, until the more complex one such as a report or research paper. Those all have the same process generally. So, what should we do to be a good writer? I have read about writing in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and I found some processes of writing there.

First of all, you have to know the purpose of your writing. For example:

• To answer a specific essay, examination, or research question

• To convince others of your point of view

• To communicate your knowledge or understanding to others, such as teacher or an examiner

And then, you have to know the audience or the readers of your writing. For example:

• A teacher or professor.

• Fellow students or colleagues.

• An employer.

• The general public, etc.

 The purpose and the type of audience will help you to choose the appropriate level of formality. They will also help you make decisions about the amount of research required, as well as the kinds of examples and supporting evidence you will use.

There some phases in writing (specifically academic writing).

Pre-Writing Phase

Explore

Brainstorm for ideas using whatever method suits you:

• Mind map

• Lists of interesting concepts, facts, questions, etc.

• Conversation with colleagues

Research

Research your topic and gather information from a variety sources:

• Books and journals

• The media

• Websites

• Interviews or
  questionnaires

• Scientific studies

Organize

After carrying your research, you can draft your main argument, statement, or idea to guide you. Then, using your notes, make a detailed outline of the logical plan of your writing. Giving a structure to your writing before you start to write.

• Decide how many words you will give to each part of your writing

• Collect or prepare any visual aids such as charts or diagrams that you might need.

Writing Phase

In this phase, you will draft and revise several times until you have what you consider to be a final draft

Draft

Write your draft in formal sentences and paragraphs.

Review/Edit

In this step, you read your writing with a critical eye.

Presentation Phase

When you have a final draft of your writing, you will need to read it once more to find and correct surface errors. Try to leave some time between your final draft and proofreading as you will find it easier to see your mistake. Check for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes.

Because personally I'm learning about the academic writing right now beside the literature writing such as short story and novel, I'll show you a video on youtube about how to make a good paragraph especially in academic writing. I hope this clear enough for you. Check this out! ;)

Actually there are a lot of things about writing that I want to write, but just like this... I'm also still learning. That is only a brief information about writing from me, you can read more in the books, articles, blogs, or some other sources. Don't hesitate to start writing~ Just spread out your ideas through writing, of course in the right way.

Source:

• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
• Video from YouTube