4.4 Drafting

Making the Writing Process Work for You

What makes the writing process so beneficial to writers is that it encourages alternatives to standard practices while motivating you to develop your best ideas. For instance, the following approaches, done alone or in combination with others, may improve your writing and help you move forward in the writing process:

• Start with the body paragraphs. For some, they cannot effectively introduce something you do not yet know. For instance, you can’t effectively introduce body paragraphs that you haven’t drafted yet. So consider drafting several body paragraphs before going back and creating an introduction that discusses them.
• Begin writing with the part you know the most about. There is no correct order to start an essay. You can start with the third paragraph in your outline if ideas come easily to mind. You can start with the second paragraph or the first paragraph, too.
• Find a balance with paragraph length. Although paragraphs may vary in length, keep in mind that short paragraphs may contain insufficient support. Readers may also think the writing is abrupt. Long paragraphs may be wordy and may lose your reader’s interest. As a guideline, try to write paragraphs longer than one sentence but shorter than the length of an entire double-spaced page.
• Write one paragraph at a time and then stop. As long as you complete the assignment on time, you may choose how many paragraphs you complete in one sitting. Pace yourself. On the other hand, try not to procrastinate. Writers should always meet their deadlines.
• Take short breaks to refresh your mind. This tip might be most useful if you are writing a multi-page report or essay. Still, if you are antsy or cannot concentrate, take a break to let your mind rest. But do not let breaks extend too long. If you spend too much time away from your essay, you may have trouble starting again. You may forget key points or lose momentum. Try setting an alarm to limit your break, and when the time is up, return to your desk to write.
• Be reasonable with your goals. If you decide to take ten-minute breaks, try to stick to that goal. If you tell yourself that you need more facts, then commit to finding them. Holding yourself to your own goals will create successful writing assignments.
• Keep your audience and purpose in mind as you write. These aspects of writing are just as important when you are writing a single paragraph for your essay as when you are considering the direction of the entire essay. Your purpose will guide your mind as you compose your sentences. Your audience will guide word choice. Are you writing for experts, for a general audience, for other college students, or for people who know very little about your topic? Keep asking yourself what your readers, with their background and experience, need to be told to understand your ideas.

The Basic Elements of a First Draft

If you have been using the information in this chapter step by step to help you develop an assignment, you already have both a formal topic outline and a formal sentence outline to direct your writing. Knowing what a first draft looks like will help you make the creative leap from the outline to the first draft. A first draft should include the following elements:

• An introduction that identifies the subject, the thesis, and the main ideas to come (in the order that they will appear).
• A thesis statement that presents the main claim of the entire piece of writing.
• A topic sentence in each paragraph that states the main point of the paragraph and implies how that main point connects to the thesis statement.
• Supporting sentences in each paragraph that develop or explain the topic sentence. These can be reasons, specific examples, explanations, comparisons, facts, or other strategies that help support the main points and the thesis.
• A conclusion that emphasizes the most important ideas and interpretations.

Other chapters explain these parts of the writing process in more depth.