2-ch 4 Drafting

CH 4 Drafting

This chapter outlines how to write a rough draft of your essay. Like the previous chapter, you again learn how to re-look at your topic, think about your audience, purpose and your subject. When you are writing your first draft you will probably find that you don't have all of the material you need for a finished essay. For example, you may know that you need examples of several of your points. If you have them, fine. If you're stumped, just put a note in brackets: "[need example of classroom exercise for team building]." Then move on to the next point. Likewise with evidence that you haven't found yet. Put a note in brackets to remind yourself what you need, but don't stop to look for it as you write your draft. It is important that you make notes to yourself as to what you need to find and develop before you have a finished essay. Doing so will save you a great deal of time because you will have a "shopping list" to bring to class or to the library that will help define what you need to finish the essay. This will make your further research much easier. But it is equally important that you try to get down on paper what you want the whole essay to say. This is the only way to test and develop your trial thesis statement. The whole should determine the parts, not the parts the whole. You may find that your thesis needs major revision and that you really want to take a different approach than you had originally planned. That will help to clarify what details are important enough to pursue and what can be omitted.