RED Model of Critical Thinking
Oshima and Hogue propose the four steps in the writing process comprising creating ideas, organizing ideas, writing a rough draft, and polishing
the rough draft by editing and making any revisions needed.
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In line with Oshima and Hogue ’s view above, Ploeger reveals that the
writing skill covers five processes as follows: a. Planning
To think and contemplate about what to write by determining a topic, and gathering some information related to the purpose, audience, topic, and main
idea of the writing; b. Drafting
The process in which a writer pours hisher outline or idea into a text; c. Simmering
This is the incubation time on which the writer takes a break or keeps away from the writing activity for a few moments. In case there is any ideas come
into the writer’s mind, the ideas will be saved into a folder to be used later; d. Revising
To reconsider and focus on different aspects of the composition, for instance the organization of the ideas and the sentence structure;
e. Editing To have any correction of the shortcoming or errors of the writing found, such
as punctuation, spelling, and so on.
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Moreover, Ruetten and Pavlik state that there are four steps of the writing process as follows:
a. Prewriting The step which is commonly conducted in the initial process of writing before
the writer writes hisher thought onto a piece of paper. It comprises the activity of considering audience or the readers, getting ideas, narrowing the
topic through brainstorming, deciding a controlling idea, choosing support of the idea, and organizing the idea logically;
22
Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Introduction to Academic Writing, New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007, 3rd Edition, p. 15.
23
Katherine M. Ploeger, op. cit., pp. 6 —10.
b. Drafting The step in which a writer writes any ideas that come into hisher mind into a
paragraph; c. Revising
The step in which a writer makes any warranted changes of hisher work and makes sure that the ideas will be understandable and able to be followed by
the reader; d. Editing
The steps in which a writer rechecks hisher composition, particularly in terms of its grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
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To sum up, based on the explanations above, the writing process respectively comprises:
a. Making a preparation, planning and creating the ideas about what to write; b. Transferring the thoughtideas into a text;
c. Making sure whether or not the ideas are developed well; d. Rechecking the writing again if there are still some errors on its punctuation,
spelling, grammar and so on. Nevertheless, Harmer argues that to get a real final version of writing, a
writer frequently needs to repeat some stagessteps as described in Figure 2.2:
Figure 2.2
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The Writing Process Wheel
24
Mary K. Ruetten and Cheryl Pavlik, Developing Composition Skills: Academic Writing and Grammar
, Boston: Heinle Cengage Learning, 2012, 3rd Edition, pp. 20 —25.
25
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach Writing, op. cit., p. 6.
Planning
Drafting
Editing
Final Version? Final Version
Figure 2.2 above reveals that the writing processes which lead to the last real final version of writing are a recursive process. A writer needs to do some
stages, processes, or steps to finish his final draft. Although it seems that the writer has attained hisher final draft version, heshe should recheck his writing
through re-planning, re-drafting, and re-editing to get hisher real final draft version. In addition, Figure 2.2 above also indicates that among one stage and
other stages might be overlapping during the writing process. For instance, as a writer is in the planning process, heshe can do the editing process while heshe is
also trying to do a drafting process, and vice versa. In conclusion, the writing process which consists of some stagessteps
depends upon the writer’s views whether heshe has already obtained the goal of hisher writing. It is feasible for himher to do some recursive stagessteps until
heshe feels that the real final version of hisher writing has been obtained.