Drafting, Revising, Editing Work from Big to small/detailed for a successful essay Drafting, Revising, Editing

It is your first try at writing out ideas for your essay It is your first try at writing out ideas for your essay. Sometimes we refer to this as your tentative draft, meaning ‘still changing.’ This can stem from a shorter Free-writing or it could be fleshing out ideas from a Brainstorming list or Clustering (Prewriting Skills). Drafting: What Is It?

This is when you have most of your draft, but you need to know where ideas will go. Big Parts First: Paragraph Organization. Which parts follow my thesis statement? What should go in the Introduction or Conclusion? Where should the examples go in the body paragraphs? Revising: First Look

Revising: Second Look Paragraph Structure Focus in on one paragraph. Ask yourself: Does it have a basic topic sentence (first thesis idea)? Examples and Supporting Details? This is a good time to make notes in the margin about if this paragraph needs more detail/ more examples-think Order and Amount of examples. Transitions: Does one idea lead to the other smoothly? Would some transitions help in that process? You can fix this now, or create a note to do it later. Revising: Second Look

Revising: Third Look Sentence Level Revision: Read sentences out loud. Do they make sense? Look for fragments, comma splices, run-ons, verb tense, word choice errors. Keep an eye open for your most common mistakes. Revising: Third Look

This is the time for spell checking, looking for typos, punctuation errors. Double check for formatting errors as well. Editing: Final Look