Part 4: Drafting

Now that you have completed the prewriting process, the next step is to begin drafting.

Many instructors recommend a practice that is referred to as fast drafting, in which the student writes under the pressure of a time limit, much like freewriting. This allows students to create without their inner critic undermining their momentum. It empowers the “creator hand” to work with agency, while silencing the “editor hand.”

To do fast drafting, students first need to set up the conditions that will help in their success and are appropriate to their abilities to focus. The following are easy steps writers follow:

• Create a block of time in which there are no interruptions. This means the writer has quiet, concentrated time, so it is important to turn off phones and social media, let the dog outside, and ensure that it’s time for children to be asleep, etc.
• The time block should be a realistic length, given a writer’s ability to focus, from 10 minutes at a time to 75 minutes or longer.
• Decide on the goal: Write a paragraph in 10 minutes, 2 pages in 1 hour, or a complete essay in 1 hour and 15 minutes.

For some students, 75 minutes is a good length, but others find that after 30 minutes they can no longer concentrate. If that is the case, they should plan on several shorter sessions of distraction-free time.

It’s also important to let go of any worries about good and bad ideas. There will be time to rethink, rephrase, and rework during the revision process.

Watch the video “Drafting” by Audra Kahne to learn more about the drafting process.

Complete the Drafting Process for the “This I Believe” Essay

To begin drafting, look over the prewriting ideas you have developed for the “This I Believe” essay. Use your timeline to help you develop sentences. Group related sentences into paragraphs. Each paragraph should focus on a topic.

Use the drafting process to complete the following:

• Develop an introduction that grabs your reader’s attention and introduces your main idea.
• Create body paragraphs that describe your main points. Each time you introduce a new topic, place, person, or event, begin a new paragraph so that each of your body paragraphs focuses on one topic.
• Finally, create a conclusion in which you summarize your main points and your main idea while providing a sense of conclusion. Consider the questions: So what? Why does this matter?

Once you have a complete draft, move ahead to proofread and revise your work.

Licenses and Attribution

• Content on this page was adapted from Developmental Writing authored by Elisabeth Ellington and Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer, provided by: Chadron State College. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative, license: CC BY: Attribution

Video Content (linked)

• “Drafting” authored by Audra Kahne. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License