Concerns and Strategies in Pre-Writing, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Proofreading,

and Publishing

Concerns and Strategies in Pre-Writing - JOYCE

Pre-Writing is considered as one of the most basic and significant writing

stages. Pre-writing stage is known for its effective use in writing a well-organized essay
regardless of the type of essay questions. The significance of pre-writing is giving
students materials to help them start their essays  and also allowing them time to
explore their ideas which could help them in writing their ideas flow smoothly. 

Based on students’ perception, pre-writing  strategy is helpful for their

confidence in writing. Thus, teachers should ensure that students are engaged in pre-
writing activities which are helpful, fun, not time-consuming, and effective in order to
enhance the writing skills of the students (Yunus, Hashim, Sulaiman, Sulaiman,
Richmond, Jarail, & Royal, 2018). Pre-writing could help the students avoid writer’s
block which is a very common problem of students during their examination and
activity.

In a research conducted by Mogahed (2013), the research proposes a framework in

implementing prewriting activities in teaching writing skills. The framework is called
the Invention and Arrangement. It is divided into two sections which focuses on
getting more ideas and points. 

Strategies may include:  

1. Brainstorming
2. Freewriting
3. Listing
4. Using graphic organizer for concepting ideas
5. Using a Fishbone map for concepting ideas
6. Usine a Series chains for concepting ideas

Concerns and Strategies in Drafting - JOYCE

Few teachers would argue that planning, drafting, and editing are essential
parts of the writing process, but it is now obvious that they are only a part of it. The
scaffolding devices, such as writing frames, are adaptive and provide a way for young
learners to build a sense of category while planning and drafting. Scaffolded
composing tasks (or writing heuristic activities) can thus be invaluable in developing
techniques for planning, drafting, rewriting, editing, and polishing. The following are
some examples of self-contained construction projects:

 Practice a range of pre-writing activities (brainstorming, freewriting, cubing,

etc.)
 Outline and draft a text based on pre-writing activities.
 Rewrite a text for another purpose (i.e., change the genre).
 Revise a draft in response to others’ comments.
  Proofread and edit a draft for grammar and rhetorical structure.
 Read and respond to the ideas/language of another’s draft.
 Research, write, and revise a whole, multi-draft text for a specific audience and
purpose.
 Research, write, and revise a workplace/disciplinary text. 

According the Study of Torrance, Thomas & Robinson (2000) titled, ‘ Individual
differences in undergraduate essay-writing strategies: A longitudinal study - higher
education’, there are four distinct patterns of writing behavior: a minimal-drafting
strategy, an outline-and-develop strategy, a detailed-planning strategy, and a “think-
then-do” strategy.

1. Minimal-drafting strategy - A strategy that involves production of one to two

drafts for one writing.   According to the study of Torrance, Thomas & Robinson
(2000), this strategy produces low results. 

2. Outline-and-develop strategy -  A strategy which entails content development

both prior to and during drafting. However, this strategy is time consuming
making it also produce poor results. (Torrance, Thomas & Robinson, 2000)

3. Detailed-planning strategy - A strategy which involves the use of content-

development methods (such as mind mapping, brainstorming or rough drafting)
in addition to outlining. According to the study of Torrance, Thomas &
Robinson (2000), this strategy produces better results which are high quality
essays. 

4. “Think-then-do” strategy -  A strategy that did not involve the production of a

written outline unlike the other three strategies. According to the study of
Torrance, Thomas & Robinson (2000), this strategy also produces better results
which are high quality essays. 

Concerns and Strategies in Revising - HAZELENE

Revision is a crucial aspect of the writing process, especially since it differs from
editing. Students can learn to distinguish between the requirement to first revise in
terms of concepts and structure and then edit in terms of syntax, spelling, and
proofreading. Grammar and style issues in a student's draft are frequently tied to
misunderstanding about ideas and progress. When difficulties with concepts and
organization are resolved, language and style issues generally fade away on their own.
For the purposes of this discussion, revision is defined as the process by which
students reconsider their ideas and essay structure, as well as work out development
and coherence issues.
 Many students are simply terrified of the writing process, so they spend a
significant amount of time revising as they write instead of simply getting as many
ideas down on paper as possible and dealing with revision later. Some students, rather
than writing as much as possible, avoid waiting to rewrite and instead want to get the
whole experience over with as quickly as feasible. Students must remember, however,
that first manuscripts are not final drafts, and that what they write first can be
changed and fine-tuned later. The majority of skilled writers understand that writing
entails revision.

Writers with and without experience write differently, rewrite differently, and
make distinct assumptions about the writing process. To what has previously been
published about revision strategies elsewhere, here are the following findings from the
work of Collier (1983), titled ‘The word processor and revision strategies’ , which may
assist to explain why unskilled authors don't use more complex, holistic, and mature
approaches:

1. The more complex revisions, especially those applied to bigger domains of a text
(such as the paragraph) or the text as a whole, might put a student's
conceptualizing abilities to the test. These abilities are frequently strained by
challenges in proofreading and word choice, items that a more experienced
writer might fix effortlessly and unconsciously while concentrating on major
revision issues.

2. The demands imposed on short- and long-term memory by revisions that need
more than simple addition, deleting, or replacement are difficult for most
inexperienced writers to juggle successfully.

3. Because students often believe that writing is regulated by the same rules that
govern speaking, they act as if changing a piece of their work erases the
original, making recall practically harder.

4. Revision requires recopying or retyping at some point. Because real rewriting

necessitates large-scale adjustments and consequently multiple drafts,
students frequently make little or insignificant changes to a text in order to
make recopying as simple and quick as possible.

Encouraging pupils to use a word processor to work on their writing, particularly

revision, will likely eliminate most of the issues mentioned above. Because of the
simplicity with which modifications can be conducted, it could, for example,
supplement rather than strain the writer's conceptualization abilities. All of the drafts
and changes could be saved in the computer's extensive memory and retrieved as
needed, allowing recopying the paper or any piece of it in a number of formats very
straightforward. Revising may even become appealing: a word processor's innovative
features may motivate a student writer to explore and experiment with language,
resulting in surprise, originality, and even unexpected learning, all of which are
components of productive heuristics.

In the study of McCutchen, Francis, & Kerr (1997) titled Revising for meaning: Effects
of knowledge and strategy, the two studies looked at how pupils revise for meaning as
they grew older and as individuals

Experiment 1: The authors looked at the effects of topic knowledge and error location
information on revising by middle school and college students. When meaning-level
rewriting was the goal, knowledge of the issue was helpful, but it did not appear to be
necessary when surface-level editing was the goal. More intriguing, while knowledge of
error location aided college students in both editing and rewriting, it favored editing
over revising in middle school children. 

Experiment 2: The authors utilized a dyad-discussion approach in Experiment 2 to

look into further differences in reading methods during revising. As pairs of 7th-grade
students with varying writing abilities (high, moderate, and poor) collaborated on
revisions, the authors listened. Experiment 2 yielded results that were similar to those
of Experiment 1.

Encourage students to write as much as they can for a first "discovery" draft in as
little time as possible, rather than wasting time revising extensively. They can move on
to revision once the first draft is complete, and the ideal place to start is with the
overall picture and then narrow the process. The following are some stages for the
revision process that have been suggested. Encourage pupils to write as much as they
can for a first "discovery" draft with as little time as possible, without spending too
much time revising. They can move on to revision once the first draft is complete, and
the ideal place to begin is with the overall picture and focus the process down from
there. The stages of the revision process are listed below.

STEP ONE: THE BIG PICTURE

Look at the first draft in terms of larger, abstract qualities:
 Is the original purpose of the writing fulfilled?
 Does the writing cover the required material?
 Has the writing addressed the specific audience?
 Does the overall structure seem sensible in terms of your intentions?
 Is your sense of authority over the topic clear?

STEP TWO: FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT

 Does the main idea of the paper have enough supporting material?
 Does the supporting material relate logically to the main idea? 

STEP THREE:  FOCUS ON STRUCTURE

 Is there a controlling idea that can be traced through the writing?
 Does your lead into the paper create interest and focus?
 Do individual paragraphs link to the controlling idea?
 Do individual paragraphs have clear topic sentences?
  Does the ending provide a sense of wrapping up ideas?

STEP FOUR: FOCUS ON SENTENCE STRUCTURE

 Are sentences clear?
 Does the word order in sentences seem logical?
 Are verbs usually in the active voice?
 Does word choice seem sensible for the purpose and audience?

Collaborative Strategies in Revising:

1. Before passing out copies of a draft, students can write the major problem they
have at this point in the process at the top of the first page.

2. Students can read their papers aloud in groups.

3. After each reading, students should have a few minutes of silence to process the
information before responding to the writing.

4. Students can write and then speak about their feelings.

Concerns and Strategies in Editing - CHESTER

Make sure you've thoroughly reviewed and edited your work before moving on
to the last round of proofreading. It's pointless to spend time correcting tiny errors if
you are going to eliminate entire sections or alter paragraphs later. Only proofread
once you have finished the final draft and are satisfied with it.

It's essential to understand how much work your content will require. People
frequently believe that they simply require proofreading when, in fact, the material
would benefit from some editing as well.

If you send a proofreader a document with grammatical errors, ambiguous sentences,

and difficult-to-follow paragraphs, they may decline the task or suggest that you use a
different provider.

Many freelancers and businesses provide both editing and proofreading services,
either independently (at different prices) or as part of a package. Make sure you're
clear on the adjustments that have been made. Will the editor merely address minor
mistakes, or will they also make suggestions for odd phrasings and structural issues?

The four stages of editing and proofreading: 

Step 1: Content editing. Revision of an early draft of a work, which often involves
considerable content changes and the relocation, addition, or elimination of entire
sections (also known as developmental or substantive editing).

Step 2: Line Editing. Revising your language to ensure that your stories, ideas, or
arguments are communicated as effectively as possible. To improve the flow of the
writing, this may entail modifying words, phrases, and sentences, as well as
reorganizing paragraphs.

Step 3: Copy editing. Individual phrases are polished to guarantee precise grammar,
clear syntax, and stylistic consistency, often in accordance with the requirements of a
style guide (such as APA or MLA). Copy editors do not modify the content of a piece,
but they can work with the author to improve ambiguous or awkward sentences or
paragraphs.

Step 4: Proofreading. Checking for any remaining errors, such as misspelled words,
punctuation issues, and stylistic inconsistencies. Proofreaders are also in charge of
checking the formatting of print publications (e.g. page numbers and line spacing).

Concerns and Strategies in Proofreading - JAMES

Proofreading is the process of thoroughly examining a text for errors before it is

published or shared. It is the final stage of the writing process, during which you
correct minor spelling and punctuation errors, typos, formatting problems, and
inconsistencies.

Anyone who writes should have a basic understanding of proofreading. There are
certain ways you may use to proofread efficiently and effectively before sharing your
work, such as company reports, blogs, or college papers.

Any content that will be shared with an audience, whether it's an academic paper, a
job application, an online post, or a print flier, needs proofreading. You can proofread
the text yourself or engage a professional, depending on your talents and budget.

Editing vs. Proofreading

Editing and proofreading are two distinct processes in the revision process.
While editing might involve significant modifications to content, structure, and
language, proofreading focuses solely on tiny inconsistencies and errors.

Here are 10 strategies to make proofreading and editing your legal documents more
effective.

1. Let Your Document Sit.

When you're "in the zone," it's difficult to take a break from your job, but if
you've been working on the same document for hours or days, it'll be more difficult to
spot errors. So, if you have the time, take a break from your work to get some
distance. Taking a break can help you gain a new perspective.
Allowing your paper to sit for 15 minutes will help if you're on a tight deadline.
However, if you have the time, you should leave it overnight. When you return to your
work, you will be able to see it with new eyes and renewed focus.

2.  Look for a Quiet Place to Work

For editing, concentration is crucial. This requires working in a quiet

environment free of distractions. Background noise can make it difficult to
concentrate, especially if you're working from home with children or if you're in the
same room as a partner or colleague who is conversing.

Find a quiet spot away from your phone and without internet connectivity.
Disconnecting helps you resist the urge to check your email and prevents you from
being distracted by notifications.

3. Review Your Draft in Stages

Each proofreading and editing task should be approached separately. Begin

structural editing by evaluating your message's clarity and general flow. At this point,
you can make significant changes to the text by adding, moving, or deleting sections.

The next step is line editing, which involves reviewing each line to ensure that your
thoughts are clearly communicated. Check for spelling, sentence structure, word
choice, punctuation, and other errors as you go. You risk losing focus if you try to
identify and fix too much at once, and your review will be less effective.

After line editing, you can move on to copy editing. This step entails polishing your
sentences to ensure that they are written correctly in terms of grammar and syntax.
The last stage is proofreading, where you carefully check for remaining errors like
misspelled words or misused punctuation.

4. Read Your Text Aloud

A helpful step in the editing process is to read your paper aloud. Reading aloud
pushes you to say each word and listen to how the words sound. It can aid in the
detection of missing words, long sentences, and difficult transitions. Hearing your
material read aloud allows you to detect when something doesn't sound right, even if it
is grammatically correct, so you can make changes. You might try letting Microsoft
Word read your writing out loud to you. (The robotic voice will make your words feel
unfamiliar, which will help you notice mistakes.)
Because you tend to skip over errors, fill in words, or make unconscious repairs when
reading quietly to yourself, reading aloud is more successful than reading silently to
yourself.

5. Take Regular Breaks from Editing

It's difficult to stay focused on detail-oriented tasks for longer than 30 minutes.
Schedule pauses before your focus wanes. Your brain will have a tougher time
detecting problems if you are overly concentrated on your article.

Taking a break from your draft can also help you become more analytical and less
emotionally attached to it. That way, it’s easy to recognize what you can change.

6. Track Your Editing Progress

You can save time and avoid re-evaluating text you’ve already studied by
utilizing a blank sheet of paper to cover any text that you haven’t reviewed before. This
keeps your eyes from wandering and your attention from changing. To keep track of
your progress and avoid mistakenly duplicating work, circle verified punctuation
adjustments or add checkmarks next to passages you have checked. Besides letting
you track progress, engaging with the text helps keep you engaged as you edit.

7. Change Your Text Formatting

It's hard to discover problems while you’re staring at your draft from a bright
computer screen. When you’re looking at the same page, in the same font, at the same
location, in the same context, your mind tends to combine those familiar experiences,
which prevents you from spotting mistakes. A different perspective is required to
perceive the errors. Switch things up a little. If your review is about substance, try
modifying the font size, spacing, color, or style to make it stand out.

8. Review Headings Separately

Instead of reading your paper precisely as it appears on the page, take a

different approach. Separately from the body content, go over the headings and
subheadings. By focusing solely on headlines, you might spot inconsistencies and
problems that you might otherwise overlook. Plus, examining headings and body text
individually ensures you check both types of text. (Some of the most egregious errors
in legal papers can be found in the headings and captions.)

9. Try Backwards Editing

Backwards editing may sound unusual, but it's a good way to observe your
work with fresh eyes. Here's how it works: Go through each paragraph in reverse
order, starting with the bottom one.

When you edit from the end of a document, each section is removed from its context.
When you edit out of order, it's simpler to spot missing transitions or content. It also
forces you to concentrate on individual words and phrases rather than the overall flow
of your manuscript. Because you're editing for clarity rather than substance, you
might catch more errors this way.

10. Find & Replace Repetitive Words

Don't be scared to use CTRL + F to go over your work and look for frequent
mistakes and inconsistencies. When you use the search tool, areas of your text will be
highlighted automatically, allowing you to quickly spot repetitive terms and phrases. It
will also reveal if you've typed words and sentences in an inconsistent manner. With
only a few clicks, you may replace terms to provide variety or replace inconsistent
words and phrases with consistent ones once you notice the highlighting.

Concerns and Strategies in Publishing - JAMES

There are a few basic but effective tactics you may use to increase the chances
that your work will be read. These five tips will help you get the most out of the work
you do. To be effective, you don't have to employ all of them.

1. Optimize your title and abstract

Improve your publication's discoverability by optimizing the title, abstract, and

keywords for both search engines and human readers. The names of publications are
given the highest weight by search engines. While catchy titles can draw attention to
your study when you promote it on social media, you should avoid using them in the
title of your publication because searches in bibliographic databases will struggle to
identify the papers.
  Consider utilizing the same keywords and phrases that your field's
researchers use to search the literature. Avoid using broad or
vague keywords or phrases that will produce a lot of results. If
your research spans numerous areas, make sure you choose
vocabularies that are applicable to all of them.
 Keywords and phrases are repeated multiple times. Repeated
phrases are given more weight by search engines, but make sure it
reads well.

2. Use the correct institutional affiliation

When your paper is published, it will almost certainly be entered into one or
more bibliographic databases. Algorithms are used in databases to curate
bibliographic information, for example, so that an author search returns all papers
linked with that author. Ensure that your name and institutional address/affiliation
norms are consistent across all of your publications to aid this process.

2.1. It is critical that you provide your correct affiliation: name, research group,
department, and address at the University of Birmingham.

2.2 Use ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) to set oneself apart from
other researchers with similar names.

3. Decide where to publish 

Make your work publicly accessible and publish in a title that is listed by key
citation services like Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar to increase your
readership.

3.1. You can find peer-reviewed Open Access books and a list of publishers by
searching the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).

3.2. The Web of Science Core Collection's Book Citation Index allows you to
search for books on a topic and then analyze the results using the 'Analyze Results'
tool to see data on research areas, book series, and publisher. Use FindIt@Bham to
access the Web of Science Core Collection, then pick the Book Citation Index from the
'Editions' drop down box.

3.3 UlrichsWeb, available through FindIt@Bham, can help you gain a sense of a
title's content coverage or search for titles that cover your discipline.

3.4. Metrics could help you plan your journal publishing strategy.
 3.5. It's a good idea to look up your publisher or journal on Think. Check.
Submit. to assure their credibility and trustworthiness.

4. Engage with Stakeholders

Identifying your target audiences will aid in the selection of distribution

channels. A communications plan will assist you in strategically identifying
stakeholders, channel selection, and campaign execution. Are the media,
policymakers, practitioners, or industry your most important stakeholders?

1. The University News Office may be able to assist in the planning of press releases or
other related activities. Make contact with them well ahead of your planned publishing
date.

2. Consider giving a talk at a conference, a seminar, or a workshop, especially at the

time of publication.

3. To reach a large audience, use social media; there are various outlets to select from.

4. Include a link to the underlying study data and resources in your work to make it
more appealing. Other researchers will be able to find and utilize your dataset, expand
on it, and ideally mention your work as a result.

5. Consider utilizing Kudos to assist expand your research's reach and impact.

5. Collaborate

You might be at a point in your research where working with academics from
other institutions is beneficial. You might find possible colleagues in other universities
by searching bibliographic databases.

1. Scopus may be used to do a subject/discipline search and then sort the results by
affiliation. The institution that has published the most articles in that field will be
mentioned first.

2. You might also use Web of Science to find possible partners by filtering results for
'hot' or 'highly cited' studies.