Learning different writing strategies or, how to write a good formal text

Everyone knows that writing an important text is not very easy. Sometimes you even have to write it a lot of times before the text is finally ready to be send or published. This is because I will give you some steps you need to consider when writing an important and formal text.

 

Steps for writing a formal text
(source: http://teacher.scholastic.com/writeit/essay/)

Plan and organise

Before you start writing, you should make notes about the topic you are going to write about. You need to brainstorm and/or resarch. Consider the following question:

• What do I want to say?
• Who is my audience (fellow students, teacher, job recruiter, scientists)?
• Which arguments do I have (and which examples do I have to emphasis them)?
• What is my goal with this text?

When you finished taking notes, you should organise them. 

Formal texts (reports or letters) usually contain the same structures:

• Introduction – Greeting, Purpose of the text, a small outline of the following text
• Body – Here, you will give your arguments in various paragraphs; you should start with the weakest argument and then finish the body with the strongest argument.
• Conclusion – Summary of your text, complimentary close

         Drafting, Drafting, Drafting

Even if you do not know how to start,
just write something topic related!
(source: http://cplteenvolume.tumblr.com/)

Now that you organised your information, you can start writing. This will usually take some time. If you finished your first draft, leave it a bit, but do not send it yet! This is not your final version (unless you’re a genius and know how to write formal texts perfectly). After a short break, read through the draft and check for mistakes. 

• Do you want to change the order of your arguments?
• Do you find some phrases unnecessary or necessary?
• Does everything make sense?

When you finished correcting your text, reread it again. Do you like it now? If yes, I suggest leaving it again for some time. (I suggest it because you will develop a certain “blindness”. This means, you will read over mistakes or some phrases which you might not like)

When this process is finished you may have to write a second draft. When you write a text on your computer it is of course easier because you do not need to rewrite everything and make the chances in your document directly.

This process should go on until you are satisfied with your text.

Reading

When you finished writing, you have to read your text one last time before you send, submit or publish it. It is also very helpful to give the text to a person, who is a good English speaker. This person might find some mistakes you did not find because of your “blindness”. The person might also be able to detect some error in reasoning or confusion. You can also use this chance to talk about the text with the other person. Let’s just hope, you do not need to rewrite everything.

Last but not least: send, submit or publish

When you feel really sure about your text, check the formatting. Is everything in order? Do I have all necessities (greetings, highlights, requirements, resources)?

Only then, you should send, submit or publish your text. 

Good luck! :)

You can do it!
(source: http://englishteachernet.blogspot.com.es/2011/02/
cartoon-humour-charlie-browns-view-on.html)