Drafting and Revising: BBS 1st Year Patterns for College Wtiting

 

Drafting and Revising

Drafting and Revising (https://youtu.be/ZEqkkhP0k0A ): After deciding on a thesis statement and an arrangement of the ideas, it is the time of doing a draft and revising the essay.

Writing Your First Draft

 The purpose of the first draft (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU-l9V8VYoo ): is to get the ideas down on paper. The first draft is a work in progress that is to be revised. It is the step of writing for crossing out and rearranging new ideas.

How to Compose First Draft

Begin with the body paragraphs. Because your essay will probably be revised, don’t take time at this stage to write an introduction or conclusion. We let your thesis statement guide your writing. After finishing writing, we can write an introduction and conclusion parts. We get your ideas down quickly but do not worry about grammar or word choice, and try not to interrupt the flow of your writing with concerns about style. We have to take regular breaks as we write and do not write until we are so exhausted. We can’t think straight. After writing one or two paragraphs, we take a short break and we write with revision. We leave enough space between lines so that we will have room to make changes by hand on hard copy. We also leave ourselves time to revise. We remember that our first draft is a rough draft. All writing benefits from revision, so we allow enough time to write two or more details.

Sample of First Draft (page 66)

Topic: "Write about a time when you, like Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s father, could have spoken out but chose not to. Would you make the same decision today?"

1

When I was in high school, I had an experience like the one Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about in his essay. It was then that I saw a close friend cheat in chemistry class. As I look back at the cheating I witnessed, I wonder why I kept silent and what would have happened if I had acted.

2

The incident I am going to describe took place during the final exam for my advanced placement chemistry class. I had studied hard for it, but even so, I found the test difficult. As I struggled to balance a particularly difficult equation, I noticed that my friend Jeff, who was sitting across from me, was acting strangely. I noticed that he was copying material from a paper. After watching him for a while, I dismissed the incident and got back to my test.

3

After the test was over, I began to think about what I had seen. The more I thought about it the angrier I got. It seemed unfair that I had studied for weeks to memorize formulas and equations while all Jeff had done was copy them onto a cheat sheet. For a moment I considered going to the teacher, but I quickly rejected this idea. After all, cheating was something everybody did. Besides, I was afraid if I told Jeff, my friends would stop talking to me.

4

Now that I am in college I see the situation differently. I find it hard to believe that I could ever have been so calm about cheating. Cheating is certainly something that students should not take for granted. It undercuts the education process and is unfair to teachers and to the majority of students who spend their time studying.

5

If I could go back to high school and relive the experience, I now know that I would have gone to the teacher. Naturally, Jeff would have been angry at me, but at least I would have known I dared to do the right thing.

Revising Your Essay (https://youtu.be/JzoK4FoVyuY )

Revising Your Essay

Revision is not a work processed after finishing writing but it is a continuous process that provides logic and clarity to the ideas in wiring. It is not the work of proofreading, correcting errors or substituting words but it involves re-seeing and rethinking what is written. During revising, we may add or delete extensively, and reorder whole sentences or paragraphs of writing. Revision is time-consuming so don't be discouraged. It can be three times or four times before finalising the writing.

Advice to revise your essay

Give yourself a cooling period. Put your first draft aside for several hours or even a day so that you can read it to find the things that are missed the first time. Revise on hard copy. Because a printed one shows all the pages of the paper. It enables you to see your handwritten edits. Read your draft aloud. Before you revise, read the draft aloud to help you spot choppy sentences and missing words that do not sound right. Take advantage of opportunities to get feedback. The Instructor may organize peer editing groups. Make use of as many of these opportunities for feedback as you can because each offers a different way of gaining information. Try not to get overwhelmed. Don’t automatically make all the changes people suggest; consider the validity of each change. Ask yourself if the comments suggest larger issues. Don’t let your ego get in the way. Receiving negative criticisms is never pleasant. Therefore, learn to see criticisms – whether from an Instructor or peers. Revise in stages. Deal with large elements such as paragraph structure before moving on to the smaller elements like sentence structure or word choices.

Revising with a Checklist: Thesis statement: Is your thesis statement clear and specific? Is it consistent with the body of the essay? Does it indicate the direction your essay is taking? Body paragraphs: Are body paragraphs unified? Coherent(clear)? Well developed?  Does each body paragraph follow a particular pattern of development? Do the points you make in paragraphs support your thesis? Introduction and Conclusion: Are the introduction and conclusion appropriate for materials, audience or purposes? Are they interesting? Do they reinforce the thesis? Sentences: Are your sentences effective? Interesting? Varied in length and structure? Words: Do the words accurately express the targeted ideas? Should they be changed?

Revising with an Outline: A review outline is followed in the lack of time. An outline can show if your essay follows a certain pattern of development. An outline can clarify the relationship between the thesis statement and body paragraphs.

Revising in a Peer Editing Group (https://youtu.be/nXWTSPExYoc ): Another important strategy for revising an essay is to get feedback from students. An instructor may require students to exchange papers for evaluating their peers’ works based on certain standards i.e. a peer editing worksheet. If a friend is unfamiliar with the topic, he can advise you on how to communicate effectively. Getting feedback from others mirrors how people in the real world writing. Your classmates can provide suggestions that can guide your writing through the revision process. Guidelines for Peer Critiques (https://youtu.be/ZzGQVpUeDmo)

•      Be positive: Remember that your purpose is to help others.

•      Be tactful: Mention one or two things the writer has done well you offer your suggestions.

•      Be specific: Offer concrete suggestions about what the writer could do better.

•      Be involved: Ask questions, listen to the response and explain your comments.

•      Look at the big picture: The clarity of the thesis statement, the effectiveness of support and the organization of the writer’s ideas are more important to be viewed.

•      Be thorough:  If possible, write down and explain the comments either on a form your instructor provides or in the margins of the draft you are reviewing.

Revising with Your Instructor’s Comments (https://youtu.be/E6y2pkwAL1w ): Instructor’s written comments on a draft of the essay can also help to revise the essay by changing contents, arrangement or style. These comments may be about your logic, thesis statement, used transitions, recommendations for relocating paragraphs, or support required for writing. The instructor’s Oral Comments also help to revise the essay. If your instructor encourages you to schedule a conference, prepare well your writing. We read all the drafts carefully and bring a recent copy of the draft and ask the instructor to clarify marginal comments or to help us revise a particular section of your essay that is giving us trouble. We remember that the more prepared for a conference you are, the more you will get out of it.

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