Planning:
Planning is the process of gathering ideas and thinking about the focus of your writing. Write what you know is quoted world wide in writer's circle because it is the absolute truth! A reader can tell when you know what you're talking about or you are simply stating lists of facts copied from an authority. Focus your talents to become an expert or authority in your chosen field of study. Focus you ideas on the topic you have chosen. The purpose you are writing and the audience that will read your material.
Shaping:
Each writer has specific ways that their thought process works, but it must appear in a logical order that your reader can understand. Climactic Order starts at the least important and builds up to the most important. Chronological Order flows according to time sequence and Spatial Order according to physical location. Determine the role you will play in your article and then organize your materials in an effective yet original style that speaks to the reader of your interests and talents.
Drafting:
After you have gathered your ideas, shaped your style of presentation, then you must draft your sentences into paragraph form. There is nothing quite as exciting as writing the perfect sentence; a sentence that passes information to the reader in original-thought form. Shakespeare was a master at this having developed many words that we still use today. The purpose of drafting is to move forward. Don't stare at a blank page, write freestyle and get the juices flowing. The first draft isn't supposed to be perfect, that is why they call it the first draft. Let go of spelling and grammar for the first few drafts and let the words come.
Revising:
Go back and evaluate your draft. Re-write it by adding, cutting, replacing, and moving your material around for clarity. To revise effectively you must evaluate what you have written. Decide where you need to add more information or insert needed words. Find where you have chased down a rabbit hole with no purpose in mind. Keep to your topic! Replace old words with new words, especially when you find yourself repeating the same word over and over again. Move material around or change the sequence of paragraphs if the material is not presented in logical order. Writing is largely revising!
Editing:
This is the key step that most writers miss. They are pretty happy with the last step of revising, so they don't take the extra time to edit their work for technical correctness of mechanics. Editing focuses on presentation of writing rather than meaning. If you edit too soon you may miss the fact that your message is not being delivered effectively. To really edit your work effectively step away from it for a few hours and then come back to it. You will be surprised at how many mistakes your eyes will have missed the first time around.
Editing checks for:
Grammar, Spelling, hyphens, commas, semicolons, punctuations, capital letters, italics, numbers and abbreviations
Proofreading:
The final step is the proofreading of your final copy. You are making sure that your final version is an accurate and clean transcription of your final draft. This is a different process than editing as it only involves typing errors that your mind tricks you into skipping over. Most word documents have spell check, but double check that you are using the correct word. Like "Know" for "No" or "Here" for "Hear"!
Starting at the end of the piece instead of at the beginning will help you to avoid being distracted by the content of the paper.