Prewriting is the first step when you generate ideas about your topic or story.  In this step, you will also organize your thoughts into a structure like an outline, graphic organizer, or plot map.

Drafting is the second step when you look at your organized ideas from prewriting and write them down for the first time in sentences that are grouped in to paragraphs.  When you draft, you do your best to use well chosen words, sophisticated sentences, and a strong voice, but it is more important to complete your draft than to get hung up on the details.

Revising is when you return to your first draft and rearrange sentences or paragraphs, replace some of your words with better ones, rewrite some of your sentences to give them different beginnings and structures, add transition words and phases, and let your own voice speak out.

Editing is the 4th step in the writing process.  This is when you worry about conventions.  I like to tell students that this is where we need to remember that "Panicked Cats Give Ugly Scratches!"  In this order, we review our work 5 consecutive times to check for Punctuation, Capitalization, Grammar and Usage, and Spelling.

Finally, we are ready to Publish our writing, making sure that we follow the conventions of the method of presentation that we choose.  For readers to fully enjoy and understand our piece, we make sure that it looks good and is easy to read.