Without judging the contents of these classificatory concepts in advance, contents that are always specific and possibly missing in certain cases, they enable us to determine, at the level of the abstract model proposed by this typology, a series of seven major stages constituting the avant-texte as a chain of “partial processes.” The avant-texte can be interpreted in its overall specificity by assessing to what extent each one of these processes makes its presence felt, and by examining their nature, content, relative intensity, and the way they link up together. It is these processes that are ultimately interpreted by the study of a text’s genetics.
--_Provisional_ avant-texte _stage_: before any verifiable appearance of the compositional project, this process transforms the collection of sources at the [author](author.html)'s disposal in his or her own [manuscripts](manuscript.html) and [work](work.html) notes, into a pending structure potentially oriented toward this project.
--_Exploratory_ avant-texte _stage_: before any verifiable decision made to undertake the compositional project, this process constitutes, for the [writer](writer.html), an informal exploration of possible ideas, during the course of which a compositional preproject takes shape.
--_Preparatory_ avant-texte _stage_: the initial process by which the project proper takes shape, a decision-making process, but also one of conception and in certain cases, of planning.
--_Structuring at_ avant-texte _stage_: the processes by which the conception and initial planning of the project are reworked in a compositional framework, in terms of overarching and partial structuring.
--_Research at_ avant-texte _stage_: the processes by which the writer, in certain cases, finds it necessary to equip him- or herself with further documentation, in greater or lesser quantities, to sift and transform it for integration into the composition.
--_Composition at_ avant-texte _stage_: the processes by which the composition proper is performed, through the succession of rough [drafts](draft.html) to the [definitive manuscript](manuscriptFinal.html).
--_Postcompositional_ avant-texte _stage_: the process of definitive rewriting and checking performed, after the composition proper, on a [fair copy](fairCopy.html) of the definitive manuscript, then on the [proofs](proofs.html) that will be used in publishing the text. The final handwritten changes are recorded on the set of typed-up proofs bearing the writer's signature under the pronouncement "[bon a tirer](bonÀTirer.html)"