Writing Process

Purpose

There is always a purpose for a text. Purpose means that there is something you want to achieve or show with the text. The purpose can be formulated by the person who gives you the writing task or you yourself have a purpose for the text. The purpose of a text answers the question of why the text is being written.

Start by analysing the purpose of the text you are going to write. In a writing task, there are one or more verbs that tell you what you are supposed to do. The purpose of the text, and therefore the verb, can be to report, inform, question, discuss, promote, reflect, analyse and so on.

In order to know how to formulate the text, it is important that you understand what the purpose of the text is before you start writing. Ask yourself what you are going to do. Is the purpose to document and report on a lab experiment you have done? Is the purpose to reflect on your own learning? Is the aim perhaps to demonstrate your expertise in a subject by writing an academic text in which you use credible and relevant sources and reason about a phenomenon?

TIP:

You can without hesitation use the phrase "the aim of this text is to ..." in all the texts you write during your studies.

Target audience

All text is communication and that means there is always an audience, a recipient and a reader for your text. It is important to think about who you are addressing with your text in order to know how detailed you need to be and what style to use. Are you writing to a potential employer? Are you writing for people in your own sector? Are you writing to a client?

When writing, you should always write for an intended reader, an intended audience. Regardless of the target group, you must write clearly so that someone else can read and understand your text. You should also be clear about the context and base your reasoning on the material you use. This means being clear about what you are writing about, what sources you are referring to and what the purpose of the text is.

TIP:

To check that you are writing in a reader-friendly way and for a target audience, cover the title and read the first few paragraphs of your text. Is it clear what the text is about without reading the title?

Collecting material

Start by making yourself an expert! Read up on the subject. What previous research is there on the subject? The Arcada Library is a good place to start. The library has a wide range of books and provides an almost unlimited supply of e-books and articles in various databases. In the Technology and Learning course, all students receive an introduction to information retrieval. The library maintains Libguides for all degree programmes and you can use the library chat for more information and guidance.

Develop a strategy for reading effectively and systematically. Some people write bullet points on paper while reading, while others collect information in a document. It is important to be careful about your sources at this stage. Document for yourself what information you are getting from which source. It is virtually impossible to remember what you have read on which page of which article.

TIP:

To keep track of your material, you can use the reference management system Mendeley.

Plan and outline

Sometimes students find it difficult to put together as many pages as expected, or even to get started at all. Often this is due to the lack of preparatory work. Good planning will help you do well!

Look at the material and knowledge you have gathered during your data collection. What key questions does it raise? As you work on the text, formulate the different main ideas, hypotheses or problems you have about the topic. For each idea, you highlight viable arguments that support the idea in question.

Reflect on the headings and what the text will be about. What are you going to cover in the introduction and conclusion? During the writing process, you may need to modify the structure for various reasons (too little information, newer information, too much information, etc.). The writing and research work must therefore be considered as a dynamic process and as something that changes.

Limitation means clearly framing the specific research question. In other words, you should be able to articulate what it is you are leaving out of the text. Define a clear area to work on - the problem tends to be including too much, rather than not having enough material. Depending on the topic, the limitations can be in terms of time, geographical area, number of questions or number of people interviewed.

Often you have a given deadline, and sometimes you set the timetable for your writing process. When planning your text, it is therefore important to plan a realistic timetable. In order to achieve a good end result, it is important that you give both the collection of material and the writing process enough time. New experiences bring new insights, which can lead to rethinking, redefining and reworking the text.

Start writing

Start writing your text! Write a lot and ignore whether it is good or bad. A bad text can be reworked and built on. If you have no text at all, there is nothing to work on. Once you have a draft, you can start reviewing and editing your text. The writing process includes rewriting, deleting, moving paragraphs and writing more as you go along.

The hallmark of a good writer is that they edit and process their text. Weak writing is often the result of writing in a rush without processing or reading the text.

Feedback and revising

Once you have a draft, you should read the text yourself. Revise the writing based on the review you have done yourself or the feedback you have received from a peer or supervisor. Which parts need to be developed? What can you delete? Where do you need to be more specific and exemplify? Which paragraphs are too vague for the reader? Are there gaps in the reasoning?

Edit the text, write more where needed. Don't be afraid to repeat yourself, each chapter or paragraph needs to be connected to the main theme and context.

TIP!

Read the text aloud, you will notice oddities and errors in the text more easily.

Peer review

Writing in groups and collaborating on texts is common, and texts are also improved by comments. In the academic world, peer reviewing and being an opponent is a natural part of the research community. It is therefore useful to practise giving and receiving feedback on texts. Agree with one or more fellow students that you will give peer feedback to each other.

When commenting on each other's texts, it is important to give constructive feedback. "Quite alright" is an example of feedback that is not constructive. Simply pointing out the errors in a text is also not constructive feedback. Often, peer reviewing of texts is done while the text is still in progress. You should take this into account when you give your opinion on the text: it is not perfect and it can be improved with your help. Always give at least three positive comments, exemplifying what works in your peer's text.

This is how you can work to make your feedback more constructive.

1. Read the text.
2. Do you understand everything the first time you read the text? Mark where you need to reread, where you get stuck, or where there is some wording or choice of words that you don't understand.
3. Does the text correspond to what the headings suggest? Should the headings be revised?
4. Does the text take the reader into account, or is the perspective solely that of the writer? Are there reader's guides, i.e. metatext?
5. Does the text follow the standards for academic texts? Is it relevant in terms of style and content?
6. Are the references to the sources correctly made? Can the reporting verbs be varied or the referencing technique improved?
7. Can you find core sentences? How are the paragraphs structured?
8. Once you have made up your mind about the text using the questions above, it is time to formulate your response:

• With regard to the questions above, in which points is the text good and in which points could the text be improved?
• What is the overall positive assessment you can give?

Use general concepts and choose the most important points. For example, instead of pointing out every careless error, you could say it seems that the writer was in a hurry and perhaps didn't have the spellchecker on.

Proofreading

Once you have worked on your text, it is time for the final proofreading before submitting or publishing your text. Please let the text rest so that you can read with fresh eyes. Read it out loud! Have someone else read your text, maybe a family member. Do not forget to use the spell checker and look up words when you are unsure.