Becky Lyons
Envision In Depth
Drafting pg. 157



The strategies listed for drafting in the textbook are good examples of how to start a paper and begin the writing process. It goes through how you should begin with an introduction and go from there, in sequence. As you move through the paper you should also be moving through your argument and establishing the different points that you want to make to support your thesis. Of the ideas listed for drafting, I think the most helpful one (and the one I follow most frequently) is “fleshing the outline.” This means that you gradually expand upon your outline and pick out the keywords that you want to include in your paper. By doing this, you are able to make sure everything is included and you are not forgetting an imperative piece of information for your argument. Also, I use the idea of freewriting very often when I am beginning a paper. This process allows you to write down whatever you want and you can later incorporate that into an essay or a writing assignment. This practice takes some stress off the creative process when you are initially trying to think of an idea and information to back it up with. Freewriting makes it possible to take many different beginnings of ideas and intertwine them into a network of supporting facts that can be very useful.