Creative Writing

The main steps in creating a good essay or story are:

pre-writing; first draft; revision; editing; and publishing.  Essays and stories should have vivid words, stay focused on the topic and create a strong introduction and conclusion.

I like to tell my students to create a movie behind my eyelids.  They should include sensory details and descriptive, vivid language that helps me to "see" what they see and experience the story as if I were there.  This is what teachers mean when they tell students to "show" me, don't "tell" me what happened.

To further expound upon what number one said, each step should include three "subheads" to best guide students along the path to effective writing practice:

I. Prewriting

A. Think about the topic

B. Brainstorm

C. Organize your thoughts visually

II. Drafting

A. Write it down

B. Get your thoughts on paper

C. Produce a rough draft

III. Revising

A. Make changes

B. Improve

C. Clarify

IV. Proofreading

A. Edit it

B. Correct it

C. Fix errors

V. Publishing

A. Final Copy production

B. Make it neat, clean

C. Share with others 

This approach may seem extensive or even exhaustive, but in the end, students are left with a more positive impression of what each step involves. It is usually best to break the steps down over a week or so.

I would like to ad "rewiriting" after the publishing step.

My students often see rewriting a paper as merely fixing the grammar and spelling mistakes. I have to walk them through actually rewriting the paper, as they will in college, to readdress any ideas that weren't entirely sound.