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The Process of Writing:
Drafting
"Drafting" a paper means to write
the first version of it. An experienced writer never expects
a finished product from a single draft. Instead, the
experienced writer expects to put a document through at
least two or three drafts, and sometimes even more, before
being satisfied.
There are several different
approaches to completing the first draft:
- Some writers prefer to begin
with a very, very "loose"
draft, perhaps not
working from an outline at all. If this is your style,
then essentially, you are combining the stages of
drafting and brainstorming. If this works well for you,
no problem. Just remember that with this sort of draft,
at the very least you should expect some fairly extensive
work in reorganizing what you have begun with, and will
probably end up not using nearly all of what you first
write. That's the disadvantage of this style of drafting.
The advantage is that for some personality types, this
style of drafting encourages free, more imaginative
thinking and improves the richness and depth of thought
in the final product.
- At the other end of the drafting
spectrum, some writers prefer to work with a
sequential
draft which moves item by
item through a formal outline. In this style, first you
write the various parts of the introduction, then do the
supporting reasons one by one within the main body, and
finally end with the concluding section. (If you wish,
see Basic
Format for a complete
discussion of these parts of an essay.) The advantage of
this style is that it is precise, well-organized almost
from the beginning, and wastes little of what you write.
The disadvantage, for some writers, is that these very
qualities of precision and organization can dry up the
well of ideas that makes for rich, interesting
composition.
- A style of drafting which falls
in between these two might be called nonsequential block
drafting, though it goes
by other names too. In this style, the writer does follow
an outline to a great extent. But unlike sequential
drafting, the writer feels no great need to move straight
through the outline from the first part to the last.
Instead, the writer feels free to "strike while the
iron's hot," as the old saying goes, and work on
whichever section or "block" of writing seems clearest at
the time. Such a writer might begin with a main body
paragraph, then back up and write the introduction, and
so forth. For some writers, this method combines the best
of both worlds, keeping the crisp organization of the
sequential method but allowing freedom to take advantage
of sudden breakthroughs of understanding.
Whichever method of drafting suits
you best, the "roadmap" you need to use at some point is
your outline. This point may arrive later in loose drafting
and earlier in the other styles, but it is crucial that at
some point, you begin to organize your writing.
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