7.2: Tips for drafting
- Page ID
- 25407
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So what are some good things to try to remember when you start drafting a paper?
- Try to be sure that the substance, or main claim or main idea (argument/thesis) with the main reasons and support is there. The rest you can refine later, but the plot, or main focus and evidence, that should all be there.
- Don’t forget that if this is an academic paper, you need to be including the cite information as you go. It’s easier to do it as you go, than to go back and find what you looked at and used as sources.
- Ask yourself about your draft: If I give this to a peer or a teacher, or my boss, to review, can I be sure they’ll have a pretty good idea of the basics of what I’m going about here?
- Don’t sweat extras in drafts. That is, when in doubt, write it, and just be sure that when you revise, you cut, cut, cut. Just remember as you draft though, that you can’t cut later if there is nothing on the paper. So, while drafting, get a lot of good stuff down, then you can cut the least best (worst!) in the revising process.
Drafting means putting all of your work together clearly and in an organized way, and seeing how it looks. Different modes (genres) have different basics that you want to make sure are in your draft.
The next few sections detail the basic structure of a few common modes (or genres) in writing. Some brief examples are also provided.