By Dr Augustine Tirivangana

ACCORDING to Nunan, “Competent writers do not produce final texts at their first attempt but writing is a long and often painful process, in which the final text emerges through successive drafts.”
Lyons and Willards define writing as ‘a task of organising ideas and feelings into words and putting the words on paper in a way that truly communicates something reflecting one’s state of mind’.
Put simply, writing is a process of meaning-making; it is a means of generating, formulating and refining ideas.
The writing process has received great attention since the early 1970s when researchers started examining the writing strategies of experienced writers.
It has since been established that writing is not a linear process easily fitting into a neat and rigid format, but a discursive process during which an essayist forms and clarifies their ideas.
It is a process involving stages of rehearsing, drafting and revising interacting together repeatedly in order to discover meaning.
This is what we mean by ‘iteration’, a process by which the continuity in the writing process is preserved by continuous conversation between steps.
It is a process where the previous step feeds into the next while they keep consulting the previous one so that the planned trajectory is sustained until the end.
Having said this, let me hasten to stress that literature writing is a much more complex activity than that.
It involves interaction between you (the candidate) and the writers of the texts you read.
It involves interaction between your views and the views expressed in those texts.
When we talk of writing ‘as a process’ we are basically implying that it follows a series of well calculated steps and these include the following basic details: interpretation, outline mapping, extraction of relevant detail from the text involved (textual reference), writing the first draft, editing the first draft, writing the second draft, editing the second draft and writing the final copy.
Take note that here I am talking about the practice of writing essays in preparation for the examinations which practice gives you skills for the actual practice. Remember always that practice makes perfect.
Interpretation is the central key to any good response.
It is at this stage of writing as a process that a target is either missed or achieved.
It is the process of analysing the question in terms of the demands of the question.
A good candidate focuses on the following three main elements of the question: the ‘instruction word(s)’, the ‘content words’ and ‘the special conditions’ accompanying the question.
Instruction words include words such as ‘discuss’, ‘compare’ and ‘contrast’, ‘examine’, ‘describe’ etc (in our coming edition I will give you a list of such instruction words and their meanings).
Content words capture the substance of the answer.
They guide you as to what content of the text to concentrate on, e.g. characterisation as opposed to plot structure.
On the other hand special conditions include such requirements as the stipulated length of the answer or using material from a particular section of the text.
Activity 1: If you have understood the above characterisation of analysing a question, identify the three elements involved in interpretation in the following question.
Discuss the portrayal of gender in Writing Still. Refer to at least three short stories from the anthology, each by a different author.
The next stage after interpretation is outline mapping.
It is all about planning the format or structure of your essay.
Good answers have the following basic elements: ‘introduction’, ‘discussion’ and ‘conclusion’.
Planning is as important as interpretation.
At this stage you should be aware of what material goes where and in what quantity, guided by the three elements of interpretation.
This is the essence of iteration, the back and forth conversation between steps in the writing process which we discussed above.
Mapping is a visual way of generating and connecting ideas.
This involves organising data into sub-headings or codes.
It is from such sub-headings that good writers deploy textual material into the outline of their answers.
Mapping refers to a situation where the writer writes everything that comes to mind about a central idea.
Then comes note-making and writing the first draft.
Again the extraction of the relevant notes and textual detail is guided by the essay outline.
Drafting is not a one-off event; it is also associated with a series of drafts, three at most that have to be made before the final draft is made.
This point is made respective of coursework essays, not exam answers, remember.
Drafting occurs when you put your ideas into sentences and paragraphs.
You begin by writing the essay parts for which you already have some specific materials.
Regardless of how much thinking and planning you do, the process of putting your ideas in words changes them; often the very words you select evoke additional ideas or implications.
Don’t pay attention to such things as spelling at this stage.
Revision is an important aspect of editing.
Here you think more deeply about your readers’ needs and expectations.
The essay becomes reader-centered.
How much support will each idea need to convince your readers?
Which terms should be defined for these particular readers?
At this stage you also refine your prose, making each sentence as concise and accurate as possible.
Make connections between ideas explicit and clear.
You also need to go back to primary text to check on the authenticity of content and quotations.
It also involves checking for spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors.
Editing the first draft is where you go through your essay and focus on your introduction, the body of the essay and the conclusion in turn.
Also this is where you check for such things as grammar, mechanics, and orthography (spelling, punctuation, spacing etc).
Editing also focuses on adherence to the special conditions of the question including some of the minutest demands such as font size.
Even after editing, you still need to proofread your final draft to make sure no errors remain before submitting your final draft for assessment.
At this point you can see why some candidates have viewed writing as a very difficult and complex task.
If you follow these steps religiously, you will certainly not go wrong in any essay production whether in History, Literature or Divinity.