Few writers complete a major writing project in a single sitting. In fact, most writers spend more time learning about and reflecting on a topic than they do drafting, reviewing, and revising a document. You can avoid frustration and increase your chances of success by understanding the writing processes that experienced writers typically use: finding and listening in on a conversation, developing ideas, preparing a draft, and reviewing and rewriting.

You can also avoid frustration by recognizing that every writer approaches his or her writing situation in a manner that reflects the unique demands of that situation. In fact, writers seldom follow precisely the same process each time they write. As you work on your writing, you will no doubt find yourself moving from one process to another, and then back again. In a given composing session, you might move from reading to collecting sources to drafting to experimenting with a new idea. It’s best, as a result, to think of the composing processes described here as a set of guidelines rather than a fixed sequence of steps.

You can see this process in action in Chapters 5 through 10. The documents in these chapters demonstrate how writers share their reflections, inform their readers, report their analyses of a subject, share their evaluations, define and solve problems, and make arguments. Each chapter follows the writing process of a featured student writer who found, listened in on, reflected on, and made a contribution to a written conversation. You’ll see selections of the work they carried out as they generated and refined their ideas, developed their arguments, and worked with sources. You’ll also see the final drafts of their essays.