Mastering the Writing Process: Drafting, Reviewing, and Editing

Editorial and Review of Written Language Production

The production of written language needs to take into account the reader, requiring clear ideas that we want to convey. These ideas must be organized coherently and explained using understandable language adjusted to the standard linguistic norms. The writer builds the text with dedication, a requirement for any complex activity.

3.1 The Wording Phase (Textualization)

Wording is the phase in which the writer organizes linguistic ideas into a planned sequence developed during the earlier period. This involves choosing the appropriate words to refer to objects and concepts in the field of reality, building and arranging different linguistic units linearly, highlighting the connections between these units, and transcribing the resulting sequence as written prose.

The process of creating a text is called textualization. It includes three essential operations:

• Referencing: Selecting appropriate words and concepts.
• Linearizing: Arranging linguistic units sequentially.
• Transcribing: Writing the resulting sequence as prose.

Defining the Paragraph Structure

The paragraph is a group of clauses that develops a particular aspect of the overall theme of the written language, constituting a significant unit. The paragraph is a visual unit, distinguished graphically: each paragraph starts with a capital letter and ends with a period.

The paragraph has an external function, used for displaying content based on formal organization. Moreover, the paragraph has an internal structure where the sentences that are part of the syntactic subject maintain a closer relationship with each other than with sentences in other paragraphs. Crucially, the paragraph consists of a central idea, which is typically expressed in a topic sentence.

The extension of a paragraph depends on the textual genre. Generally, a paragraph should be formed by at least three or four sentences. It is important that the page layout and paragraph structure create a good visual impression to facilitate reading and comprehension.

Experts recommend striving for brevity and clarity when ordering words linearly and turning them into sentences.

3.2 The Review Phase

The review is a global operation intended to improve the text; importantly, it is not the final stage of text production. Reviewing involves evaluating the content and structure of the first draft. This is the stage where you compare the first draft against your initial goals to ensure it aligns with what you intended from the beginning. It is the time to make a diagnosis of the first draft.

3.3 The Correction Phase (Final Editing)

Correction is the operation that corresponds to the final stage of text production. Correcting written language means adjusting it strictly to the rules of the language, including:

• Spelling
• Morphology
• Grammar
• Vocabulary

During correction, we also focus on aspects related to the elaboration of the prose style. Once the second draft is corrected, the written language is ready to be finalized and prepared for the final copy.