Tag Archives: Process

Clean Up Your Writing In A Single SWEEP

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SweepIn preparing to help a young friend with some looming writing tasks, I decided to refresh my memory on the process of writing itself.

I was surprised to see that during the (mumble unintelligibly) years since high school, the key words of the process haven’t been changed to create an easily remembered acronym. Ah well, you know what they say, if you want a job done right, you’ve got to do it yourself!

S         Start the creative juices flowing.

    • Pick a topic.
    • Who will your audience be?
    • Brainstorm ideas.
    • Perform any necessary research.
    • Create a rough outline to help your ideas flow smoothly.

 W        Write.

    • Turn your outline into sentences and paragraphs in your own words.
    • Read what you wrote. Does it say what you intended?
    • Show it to others and ask for feedback.

 E         Evaluate your writing to make it better.

    • Reread what you wrote.
    • Consider the feedback you got from others.
    • Rearrange words, sentences or paragraphs so that ideas flow smoothly.
    • Take out any parts that don’t serve a purpose to your ideas.
    • Add more content where it is needed to improve clarity.
    • Replace any overused words.
    • Read what you wrote aloud. Does it sound right?

 E         Edit for grammar, spelling and style.

    • Be sure all sentences are complete.
    • Correct any spelling or grammar mistakes. (Computer spell/grammar checkers are great tools. Use them!)
    • Run it past another set of eyes. It’s easy to read past your own mistakes.

 P         Put it out there for others.

    • Post your writing on an online blog, forum or social media site.
    • Create a book of your own.
    • Send a copy to a friend or relative.
    • Collaborate with an artistic friend to illustrate your creation or put it to music.

Write OnKeep this process in mind every time you face a writing task, no matter how small. By the time this process becomes a habit, you will have turned into an effective writer.

Stay tuned, budding writers. I’ll be digging deeper in future posts.

What Is Process, And Why Is It A Big Deal?

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Merriam-Webster defines process as a series of actions or operations leading to an end. Whether we are aware of it or not, process is there for us every day helping us to be successful in each task we undertake.

To get a better feel for how widespread processes are in our lives I googled the phrase “Why is process necessary?” WOW! There were more than a dozen different areas Processrepresented in just the first few pages of search returns, ranging from things as complex as environmental assessment and medical research to things as seemingly simple as haircuts.

If you stop and think about it, we even use process when getting dressed in the morning. Let’s face it, you don’t ever put your slacks on before your underpants, right? It’s a process, you know!

But is process necessary? We could bumble our way through life by trial and error. Eventually we’d get our underpants on before our slacks. But wait! Isn’t trial an error a process in itself? And to what does trial and error lead? It leads to the process of elimination whereby we eliminate the impractical in favor of the more practical. ANOTHER PROCESS!!

Processes are part of our natural existence. They are sets of unifying principles operating in all systems. Most importantly, processes are tools at our disposal. They make life simpler.

Stay tuned for my next post, which will explain why I was thinking about process in the first place!