This qualitative study reports features of drafting, revising and strategies to write an English essay. The study was done in State Islamic Instute (IAIN) Surakarta, Indonesia on January to April 2015, assigning 30 students as the research subject. The study revealed that in drafting and revising process in writing were differently produced by lower, middle and upper groups. Lower group did not write outline and produced first draft without planning. Thesis statement, topic sentence and concluding paragraph did not appear. The middle gruop was able to produce thesis stetament, body paragraphs and conclusion, but they focused less on revising and proofreading. The upper group exhibitted by performing all aspects of an essay in each rhetorical patterns. Drafting and revising were used appropriately. All groups asserted literal translation to develop ideas and overcome problems on diction.Copy Right, IJAR, 2017,. All rights reserved. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-Good writing is essential for success in school and the 21st Century workplace. Writing is a complex combination of skills which is best taught by breaking down the process. The writing process involves a series of steps to follow in producing a finished piece of writing. Focusing on the process of writing, almost everyone learns to write successfully. By breaking down writing step-by-step, the mystery is removed and writer's block is reduced. Most importantly, students discover the benefits of constructive feedback on their writing, and progressively master, and even enjoy, writing (Time4 Writing, 2016).The writing process-prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, rewriting, publishing-mirrors the way proficient writers write. Studies show that students who learn the writing process score better on writing tests than those who receive only specific instruction in the skills assessed on the test. Success in writing greatly depends on a student's attitude, motivation, and engagement. The writing process takes these elements into account by allowing students to plan their writing and create a publishable, final draft of their work of which they can be proud (ILA/NCTA, 2017:1).When teaching expository essay in Indonesian contexts, empirical evidences appear pertaining to quality of rethorical patterns. There is still a debate if process of writing is empasized, attentions in the language revision will decline and improvements on grammar are limited. Conversely, if language corrections take priority, writing process is delayed. For many students, writing can be intimidating, upsetting and mystifying but writing process answers this problem. Every writer follows his or her own writing process (Pouladian, et. al. 2017). Therefore, process writing has been